Motley - Volume XIV - Issue #2 - The Housing Crisis

Volume 14 Issue 2 October 2020

How Does Covid Affect Your Housing Situation?

Redefining the College Housing Experience Interview with the Break It Down Podcast 5 Sustainable Beauty Swaps To Change Up Your Routine

THE

HOUSING

CRISIS

Masthead

Editorial Staff MOLLY KAVANAGH Deputy Editor-in-Chief Molly is a recent UCC English graduate who is now doing an MSc in Government and Politics. She's also our former Deputy Current Affairs Editor, and is overseeing Motley's brand new Wellness Section!

TIM CARUSO Designer

Tim is a recent Film & Screen Media graduate from Westchester, New York. Having plenty of experience in design, photography and filmmaking, Tim is dedicated to making the visually pleasing pages you’ve grown to love. Tim was previously nominated for an SPA and Smedia Award for Magazine Design for his contributions to Motley.

ALANA DALY MULLIGAN

NIAMH BROWNE

JACK COLEMAN

GRACE CLARO

Current Affairs

Features & Opinions

Entertainment

Fashion

Alana Daly Mulligan is an awardwinning spokenword “artivist” & filmmaker of Déise extraction. With work tackling social issues by playing with heartstrings, she hopes to apply her artistic formula to her role as Motley current affairs editor.

Prolific writer and notorious flirt, Niamh Browne is currently completing a BA in art history and philosophy and is this year's features and opinion editor for Motley Magazine. Winner of the HotPress outstanding achievement award in 2018, she has since been staff writer for Motley.

Jack Coleman is a third-year Government student, who got his start in student media in second year as Gaming Editor for the Express. Making the not-so-controversial controversial decision to join Motley, Jack looks to produce people-focused content that appeals to all students.

Grace Claro has been a fashion photographer with Motley since 2018.

She is taking the MA in History this year.

Working with the magazine all began with a zealous email to the editor. This is something which she encourages everyone to do, as Motley is a wonderful platform to amplify student voices and creativity.

DEPUTY EDITORS Current Affairs Features & Opinions Entertainment Fashion

Stephen Moynihan Emer Walsh Rebeckah McCarthy Kaia Purcell

STAFF WRITERS Head Staff Writer Current Affairs Staff Writer Fashion Staff Writer Contributing Staff Writer

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Kane Geary O Keeffe Brendan O'Grady Emma Treacy John Hunter

Carly Fitzgerlad Rebecca Dineen Diego Leon

CONTRIBUTORS Emily Duffy Phillip Brennan Mike Ryan

ONLINE TEAM Online Editor Social Media

Grace Byers Erica Shelly

This publication is made from 100% recycled paper. Motley welcomes letters from readers, emailed to editor@motley.ie. Motley is published by Motley Magazine, The Hub, UCC, Western Road, Cork.

Printed by City Print Limited, Victoria Cross, Cork. Copyright 2020 Motley Magazine. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. All efforts have been made to ensure that details and pricing are correct at time of print. Motley magazine does not take responsibility for any errors incurred. This magazine can be recycled either in your green bin kerbside collection or at a local recycling point. Images provided by Unsplash.com Vectors provided by Vecteezy.com and Freepik.com

2 | OCTOBER 2020

Dr. Miranda Corcoran Cian McDonnell Gary Mulcahy

from the

Editor's Desk GIVEN THE SEASON, MY MENTAL PROJECTION OF THE READER RIGHT NOW IS MOST LIKELY AN ACCURATE ONE, - I PICTURE YOU SITTING IN FRONT OF YOUR LAPTOP OR PHONE, SOMEWHERE COMFORTABLE WITH A HOT CUP OF TEA OR COFFEE, SOOTHING A MIND FRAYED BY ASSIGNMENTS, PRE-RECORDED LECTURES AND THE CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS*

M

oving away from the asterisked nihilism, however, the picture in my mind is a comforting one, and a reality for most of us, what the Danish like to refer to as hygge. That image, though it may be soothing, presupposes a social commodity not afforded to too many of our citizens for far too long and for no good reason; adequate housing.

As I write this the latest figures from the Department of Housing report 1,120 homeless families and 6,082 homeless adults. Reducing these lives to numbers is the blunt, obstinate and stark instrument of statistics. I ask you instead to picture the empty cups sat out in front of the men and women on our streets, the old man piling up newspapers to stave off winter, the children feeling abject shame in their school today about the state of the uniform they hadn’t the facilities to wash last night.

These are real stories, evolving outside our cognitive bubbles on a daily basis. Perhaps these pages can go a long way to destroying our marriage of convenience to idealism. For sure they will speak about solutions to our housing crisis; legislative, social, and practical in nature.

There’s absolutely no use in highlighting the questions as we collectively see them without returning the pragmatic rebuke of implementable answers.

Matthew Moynihan

Editor In-Chief It is without a doubt that successive Irish governments, in their unquenchable lust for the “markets role” in fixing supply, have failed our most vulnerable citizens. They’ve utterly abdicated their responsibility to our middle income earners, with no prospect of home ownership in urban areas and a failure to address extortionate rents - and what of you, the student who paid a deposit, only to be stranded at home, or the student living on a couch after their landlord broke the law and cut short their lease? These are not anecdotal experiences, these are the sobering housing realities facing a generation to come.

You can call me biased if you want, but I believe adequate housing is a right and not a luxury, a necessity and not a desire, and as such I can’t write an editorial here without setting out those facts bluntly. To do so would be an act of cognitive dissonance, and journalistic irresponsibility.

These, however, are arguments that I’ll leave for our contributors and editorial staff to expand upon. Arguments they have mastered, with creative diversity and cogency. Issue #2, The Housing Crisis, presents a layered discourse, from the drive for co-operative based student housing to the potential for a referendum on housing in the life of this Government. It also features inspiring stories of those who have successfully exited Cork’s homeless services, as well as poetry and of course our by-now infamous horoscopes section. We appreciate, as ever, your support and readership. You give us the drive to keep writing.

You’re only lending us the space though. This is your student magazine. This is digs for your thoughts, so to speak. We want your ideas. I reiterate what I said in my first editorial, back yourself and come write for us.At this point, after wrangling through various edits, I know that when you read each piece, the author briefly becomes a tenant of your mind. It begs the question then: If these words and ideas have a place to call their home, then why shouldn’t all of us?

*CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS trump, brexit, election, pandemic, climate change, lockdowns, a thoroughly f*cked economy and whatever else this Orwellian novel we seem to be existing through throws at us. See also: the world.

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ISSUE No2 - OCTOBER 2020 MOTLEY.IE

CURRENT AFFAIRS

FEATURES

ENTERTAINMENT

FASHION

We ask UCC students how their housing situations have been impacted by the pandemic

Molly Kavanagh shares her housing experiences and why the standards of living need to change

Holly and Hillary of Break It Down discuss the nitty gritty details of their pop-culture-based podcast

Emma Price captures the aesthetic potential of life in student housing

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P. 30

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UCC Wellness

MOLLY KAVANAGH, SHARES SOME OF THE WAYS IN WHICH SHE INTENDS ON MINDING HER MENTAL HEALTH IN IRELAND’S CURRENT LEVEL 5 COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS.

When I enter into a depressive episode, the only thing I want to do is turn off my phone, close my blinds, get into bed, and sleep the entire day away. When college life is operating as normal, that lifestyle isn’t sustainable - I have lectures to attend, friends who want to see me, and responsibilities that need to be fulfilled. Basically, I have things to do and places to be, and if I’m not there, then it inconveniences and worries other people. But in lockdown, I have absolutely nowhere to be, which means that falling back into the habits of unhealthy coping mechanisms such as oversleeping or isolating myself from my friends, becomes a lot easier. Additionally, lots of people, myself included, use copious amounts of partying or social interaction to distract themselves from their emotional troubles. Their social life is their lifeline, their escape, and now COVID-19 has taken that away from them with no specified return date. But there are ways in which you can mind your mental health even when your support network feels out of reach and your routine is disrupted- here’s how.

1 IT HAS LITERALLY NEVER

BEEN EASIER TO CONNECT WITH PEOPLE- TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THAT:

Listen, I hear you - the thought of participating in yet another Zoom quiz is absolutely soul-crushing, I agree. I feel like Zoom quizzes are grim because I never attended pub quizzes pre-COVID out of a passion for trivia- I went to them because it was an excuse to go out with my friends and drink. But what is less soulcrushing is say, calling a friend on the phone to catch up for an hour while you’re doing work around the house, or video-chatting a friend while you both eat dinner together. You can make a routine of it, and call your best friend on the same day every week for Zoom dinner or Zoom tea, to give yourself something to look forward to in a time where it feels like there’s nothing to look forward to anymore.

Social media can sometimes leave us feeling overly cynical because our entire feed is just a series of people complaining about the current state of affairs, and one person complaining about Zoom followed by a second person complaining about Zoom followed by a third person complaining about Zoom builds up to the point where you’re forgetting that it has literally never been this easy to connect with people who we can’t physically see. For example, a lot of counseling centers and mental health organizations have adapted to provide therapy online or over the phone, which means that it’s becoming more accessible. So yes, it absolutely sucks that we can’t hang out in person anymore, and you’re allowed to be saddened by that- but try to focus on the positives. I know it sounds silly and a bit easier said than done, but maintaining a positive mindset and counting your blessings is vital to minding your mental health when you’re isolated.

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2 3 FOCUS ON THE ACTIVITIES OR MAINTAIN A NORMAL ROUTINE: HOBBIES THAT NECESSITATE ALONE TIME: I suffer from genuinely crippling FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). PreCOVID, I was so terrified of missing out on something or wasting my time in college, that it actually began to have a seriously detrimental impact on my mental and emotional health.

It was exhausting. So I try to view lockdown as a long-awaited break from feeling as if I’m obligated to go out every night, or party every weekend. I’m using it as an opportunity to focus more on college, read more books, watch some movies, and relish in my alone time. I initially thought that lockdown would wreak absolute havoc on my mental health because I’m a person who really doesn’t enjoy sitting at home or being left alone with her thoughts for more than an hour at a time- but that’s not very sustainable, or healthy, so I’m hoping lockdown will give me some more time to work on that part of myself. I’m just trying to make lockdown a little more exciting so I’m not tempted to spend the whole day in bed. As I said, it’s all about spinning lockdown into something positive, which is very rich coming from a person who is very depressed.

I cannot stress how important this is.

When I had to self-isolate alone for two weeks last month, maintaining a regular daily routine kept me sane.

I would shower, do my hair, put on makeup, and get dressed every day at the same time (even though I wasn’t even leaving the house). I also ate three meals at consistent times each day, and tried to strike a healthy balance between work and leisure. Going to sleep at the same time every evening was also important because I usually take my antidepressants right before bedtime, so when my sleep schedule is disrupted, I sometimes forget to take my medication, which will then throw me off for days at a time.

Lockdown is hard because it requires self-discipline, but I try to frame it less as a responsibility, and more as an opportunity “to take care of myself and be productive today,” and rather as a luxury, where I “deserve to take care of myself today because it will make me feel happy and good about myself.” That’s how I keep myself motivated when I’m taking care of myself while I’m alone, solely for my own benefit, and not for the benefit of other people.

Mature Student Office: The Struggle to Find Accommodation

BY MIKE RYAN AND GARY MULCAHY

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inding somewhere to live for any student on a limited budget can be challenging.

Mature students face a number of extra hurdles as they commit to studying full-time and supporting themselves independent of any family support. Many mature students are parents and have dependents to support.

A high number of mature students are dependent on Social Welfare or SUSI to finance their education and they can have extra demands such as juggling family responsibilities, rent/ mortgage, childcare, caring for elderly parents, health issues as well as all of the everyday responsibilities of living. With high rents nationwide, and a lack of

clarity around resources and options available to people in full-time education, the past few years has seen a massive increase in incidents of homelessness among students. It has become more frequent in recent years for the Mature Student Office to have to advise mature students on the brink of being homeless.

Some mature students might be in the fortunate situation to qualify for HAP, the Housing Assistance Payment. The current rate of HAP is €550 for a single person renting a single occupancy house, or €300 if they are sharing with others, which would significantly ease the fiscal burden placed on them. However, as most student lets are only short term (within the academic year), the real challenge is

finding a landlord willing to provide a longer rental period at the right price.

Homelessness can happen to anyone, at any time and for a variety of reasons. Here are some examples that mature students have brought to the attention of the Mature Student Office over the years 1 - Landlord decides to sell the house that the mature student is renting, and they find it difficult to find affordable alternative accommodation to move into.

2 - Cases of mature students having to sleep in their car due to lack of money to pay for the diesel for a return journey to attend lectures or get short-term accommodation

3 - Relationship breakdown where the student had to leave the family home Loss of part-time job that funded their ability to attend University In UCC, the Office of Accommodation and Community Life has been providing a wealth of information to students for years now, and as the average rent has skyrocketed nationwide (€1,304 per month for house rental as of 2019), they’ve been at the coal face of the issue, helping to advise and accommodate students across the entire university. Many of those coming for help are mature students.

CURRENT AFFAIRS | 7

Current Affairs

Flames, Floods and MISERY

The Human Catastrophe at the Moria Refugee Camp JOHN HUNTER DISCUSSES THE EUROPEAN INACTION IN RELATION TO THE ON-GOING CRISIS AT THE MORIA REFUGEE CAMP IN LESBOS, GREECE.

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uring the evening of the 8th September, a fire began at the Moria Registration and Identification Centre (commonly known as the Moria Refugee Camp), a former military-base located on the Greek island of Lesbos, which destroyed the vast majority of the camp.

The following night, another fire began, destroying the last section of the camp that the previous night’s blaze left untouched. While the fires did not cause fatalities, it left over 12,000 refugees, most of whom fled from Afghanistan and Syria, displaced on the roadside of the now infamous camp.

It’s still unclear how the fires began, though there’s speculation that they may have been started within the camp as a protest of the COVID-19 lockdown, while others have suggested that far-right Greeks are culpable. The week following the fires, four unnamed Afghan-men were charged with arson, while two others - both minors - alleged to have been involved in starting the fire, were being held by Greek police.

The fires may have alerted the general public

8 | OCTOBER 2020

to the Moria Refugee Camp, but internationally, the camp has been on the radar of NGOs for several years. The camp, founded in 2015, was notorious for overcrowding, with over 12,000 residents (at the time of the fire) in a camp designed to house under 3,000 people. The sheer volume of people meant that the camp began to spill over into local olive groves. In February 2020, the UNHCR, the Refugee Agency, called for “Greece to intensify efforts to address alarming overcrowding and precarious conditions for asylum seekers and migrants staying on the five Greek Aegean islands”. Along with this, Human Rights Watch described the camp as “an open-air prison” in November 2018 and said that “Women and girls face relentless insecurity in Greece’s overcrowded Moria “hotspot” for asylum seekers and migrants” in December 2019.

As well as these serious issues within the camp, beyond its boundaries tensions were rising. On the 22nd January, 9,000+ locals took part in a demonstration in Mytilene, the capital of Lesbos, expressing local anger over the perceived

burden refugee camps placed on Lesbos and other Greek islands. A large placard was hung over the town hall with the slogan “We want our lives back. We want our islands back”.

Following the fires, nearly 8,000 Moria refugees were moved to temporary accommodation (dubbed by some as ‘Moria 2’) built along the coastline by the Kara Tepe Refugee Camp.

But barely four weeks later the refugees were dealt another blow. Heavy rainfall caused flooding in the camp, destroying tents and personal belongings, and leaving many without shelter for the second time in only a few weeks. As well as this and the difficulties caused by COVID-19, the camp’s seaside placement leaves it exposed to the ever-worsening elements, which spells trouble for the ill-prepared camp as winter approaches.

The fires and the subsequent humanitarian crisis have caused many to criticise the European Union, linking the devastating failure at Moria to the EU’s inadequate policy decisions that fail to address the ongoing refugee crisis. Many

have also called on European governments to step up its efforts to take in refugees.

Shortly after the fires, an Irish campaign group called ‘400 Welcomes’ called on the government to take in at least 400 people from the Moria Refugee Camp. On 1st October, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee announced in a video on Twitter that 50 men, women and children “within family units” would be brought from Greece to Ireland.

European societies have long prided themselves on being open, welcoming and charitable, but these attitudes seem at odds with the grim realities of the largely forgotten refugee camps, which only make headlines when something catastrophic happens – ironic considering the ongoing crisis that produced the camps can only be described as a human catastrophe. With resources stretched, winter approaching, and the COVID-19 crisis worsening, the most vulnerable communities will be hardest hit, so we, the European community, need to act to prevent further suffering and properly address this crisis.

Co-operating Ireland The Road to Student Run Accomodation YES, YOU DID READ THAT TITLE CORRECTLY. STEPHEN MOYNIHAN TALKS TO UCC COOPERATIVE SOCIETY’S TADHG MAC CIONNAITH ABOUT THE SOCIETY’S AMBITIOUS LONG-TERM PLAN FOR STUDENT-OWNED AND RUN COOPERATIVE HOUSING IN CORK AND NATIONALLY.

“Community, Activism & the Co-op”:

T

hese are the three things which Chairperson of UCC Cooperative Society, Tadhg Mac Cionnaith aims to develop through the recently formed society.

Operating under the unofficial motto of “by students, for students”, UCC Cooperative society hopes to provide students with a greater say in how their community is run.

Owing its origins in the early socialist movements, the cooperative movement allows for a model of direct democracy where stakeholders have a say in the functioning of an organisation. It’s from this that Tadhg’s interest in the cooperative movement began.

“There’s practical business reasons why people get into co-ops, but personally I got into it from [a] political angle.

I’m very into ideas of direct democracy and stuff like that - basically the idea that democracy is this ideal way of running things. Even in wider society it is put out there that democracy is the way to do things...But we live in a world where democracy isn’t really seen outside of national politics; it is entirely possible to run businesses or ventures or projects

democratically, it’s just that people don’t and we haven’t historically. Cooperatives go about changing that idea.

That’s what cooperatives go out to do, and to some degree that’s what Cooperative Society goes out to do”, he tells Motley.

One of the society’s goals is the creation of a student accommodation cooperative where students would have control over their rent, greater autonomy in terms of what they can do with their living space, and a greater sense of community.

In fact, it is cooperative housing which Tadhg points out as “the big one” for the society.

“You’d have control over the rent, you’d have a stake in the maintaining and running of the property as you’d still be living in the thing as opposed to a landlord who might not be.

There’s arguments for mental health in terms of it being a less stressful environment in terms of rent pressures, and with everybody being in the same boat it’s kind of a community. So you’d be living with these people, making friends and engaging with them.”

“Then there’s the simple things, like being able to decorate your own room how you want, which is not

a luxury that every student currently has, especially if they’re in digs.”, he says.

Beyond these issues, Tadhg argues that cooperative housing can provide students with a chance to have their voice heard regarding the running of their residence, and can also alleviate the sense of powerlessness which many students experience within today’s landlord-system.

“There’s a number of small quality-of-life things that we really think add up and make a difference, as well as the big changes in terms of the material impact of being able to decide your own rent, or just having your say. Having input and control, feeling like you have the ability to make a difference; the impact that can have on somebody can’t be understated. If you’re just left there, relatively powerless compared to the power that your landlord might exercise over you, the power imbalance might get to you. Without even realising, you might feel helpless”, he says.

Tadhg emphasises that a cooperative-housingmodel in UCC is a long-term project. For now, the society aims to educate the studentbody about the cooperative movement, harness the skills needed to run a successful

cooperative organisation, and to lay the groundwork for this project in the future.

On Tadhg’s part, however, this is clearly more out of a sense of realism than a lack of ambition - “Ideally we would cooperativise the world.”, he stated during our interview.

With financial assistance from a credit union forbidden due to Societies Guild rules, Tadhg points to fundraising projects, drives for engagement, and investment from international cooperative associations as some methods that UCC Cooperative Society are entertaining in order to get their housing project off the ground.

“Getting a co-op going will be the measure of our success, I think; building it up over time and eventually getting studentrun housing into Cork and, from there, the rest of the country”, he concluded.

A Eulogy for Fungie the Dingle Dolphin

BY GRACE CLARO

10 | OCTOBER 2020

WELL, HERE WE ALL ARE IN OCTOBER, WOEBEGOTTEN, EXASPERATED, STRESSED, AND FED UP WITH WHAT HAS BEEN A MOST UNPRECEDENTED YEAR. SOMEHOW IT FELT AS THOUGH THINGS JUST COULD NOT GET ANY WORSE IN 2020. WHAT ELSE COULD THIS CRUEL EXISTENCE SEND OUR WAY?

T

hen it was as though the sky fell in and cast a desperate gloom over the country, especially in Kerry, for, not only do we have to mourn the loss of our latent freedom under the government’s Level 5 restrictions, we must now process our grief over the disappearance of the nation's most beloved dolphin. Dingle’s foremost marine celebrity, Fungie, decided to take sick leave, sabbatical, hiatus, whatever comforts you to fathom the situation, this month. It has struck the nation like a harpoon through the heart.

This fun-guy (I know, I had to do it) has been entertaining droves of international and domestic tourists over the four decades of his residency in the bay. Arriving mysteriously in 1983 it was lighthouse keeper Paddy Ferriter who first spotted the solitary dolphin. It was stated that during his time in the bay, Fungie had never been out of sight for more than a few hours. The fact that he has been missing for more than a week now is disconcerting. Perhaps we are duping ourselves in believing that he has simply been tempted to explore further shores? It was suggested early on in the saga that poor Fungie was caught up with a hooligan pod of visiting dolphins which were stopping by Dingle on their tour of the Wild Atlantic Way. News reporters like the fervent Seán Mac an tSíthigh directed the blame at this group of dolphins, as though they presented a polluting influence on our dear aquatic hero.

Search parties were sent out during the week on small fishing and tourist boats, scanning the waves in search of that famous dorsal. Calling out over the starboard in the hope beckoning him back, locals say it is as though ‘a light has gone out’ in the community with the loss of their fun loving and loyal companion. Marine biologist Dr Kevin Flannery, Director of Dingle Oceanworld Aquarium told Sky News the bitter truth that due to his age, geriatric Fungie most likely was no longer able to catch his own fish and likely died of starvation.

I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Fungie on a boat trip around Dingle Bay in 2010 during a school tour. It was in late May and the weather was sunny with clear skies. Calm waters made it easy for our skipper to quickly identify Fungie as he approached the boat. The excitement was palpable.

Pupils and teachers all rushed to one side of the boat, leaning over the starboard in the hopes of catching a glimpse. I managed to snap a few photos on my Kodak disposable camera as he surfaced alongside us. Looking at them now, in their faded glory, I am so glad to have a visual memento of this experience. It really did feel quite special.

A heart-rending interview resurfaced from the RTÉ archives as a response to the news. Lighthouse keeper Paddy Ferriter muses on the dolphin’s mysterious arrival in Dingle.

“No one knows more about that dolphin than I,” he says while sitting by the hearth of a traditional Irish cottage. Ferriter claimed he could tell when Fungie was nearby, “I’ll know he’s just under the surface.” Perhaps we will never know what happened to this majestic creature. His disappearance at the end of a difficult year for all of us is untimely, but maybe it is symbolic of change and the end of an era? The prospect of this mystery will only add to the legend of Fungie.

CURRENT AFFAIRS | 11

IN OVER OUR HEADS

A Recent History of Ireland’s Response to Homelessness & Our Future with COVID-19 QUERCUS ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP SCHOLAR, HOMELESSNESS ACTIVIST AND FOUNDER OF THE DUFFILY BAG, EMILY DUFFY, GIVES MOTLEY A RUN-DOWN ON IRELAND’S PROBLEMATIC TREATMENT-FIRST APPROACH TO HOMELESSNESS AND HOW THIS IS CAUSE FOR CONCERN AS THE PANDEMIC LOOMS ON.

As of August 2020, a report by Focus Ireland stated that there are 8,702 homeless adults and children, excluding those sleeping rough, in the Republic of Ireland. This is an increase from 2,808 in 2013.

Ireland’s History with Homelessness

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raditionally, Ireland has taken a treatment-first approach to homelessness.

This means that they offer treatment first and foremost to those who are homeless.

However, in the book Ending Homelessness?, the authors share strong evidence that a housing-led model, which focuses on housing and support, can be more effective in the long run. In countries like Finland where housing is given to all those who are homeless without conditions or requirements, they were able to decrease the levels of homelessness.

Using this approach, countries are able to make homelessness rare, shortlived, and non-recurrent.

In 2008, and later in 2013, the Irish Government published strategic plans for solving or decreasing homelessness in Ireland. In the 2008 strategy though not stated, was clearly housing-led.This document was highly ambitious and aimed to end homelessness by 2013. In 2012 the first Housing First demonstration

12 | OCTOBER 2020

project was established in Dublin.

It was clear that the goals for the 2008 strategy had failed and the document was revised. The revised strategy was published in 2013 titled Homeless Policy Statement.

This document aimed to end long-term homelessness by 2016. However, it was during this period that the number of homeless adults and children entering homelessness was increasing. In 2016, Rebuilding Ireland, an action plan for housing and homelessness, was published. Unlike the strategic plans of 2008 and 2013, this action plan does not contain a commitment to ending homelessness.

Despite the emphasis of the government’s strategies on the Housing-First approach, which is evidently proven to decrease homelessness, homelessness in Ireland has increased significantly.

This was largely due to the 2008 recession and the collapse of the housing market. In recent years, the increase of homelessness in Ireland can be attributed to housing with the shortage of properties to rent, increases

of rent prices, and landlords taking properties off the rental market to sell. It’s very difficult to implement a housing-first approach to ending homelessness when there are no houses available to rent. Paradoxically, there are many unoccupied homes in Ireland, in what are known as ghost estates, which could be renovated for this program but yet are still being left to squalor.

With the government’s underutilisation of these houses coupled with the insufficient development of new houses it is clear housing is one of the major failings of the Irish Government when it comes to homelessness.

COVID-19 and Homelessness

One thing to note from the August 2020 homeless figures is that there has been a decrease of approximately 1,600 since this time last year. That’s 1,600 people who have been alleviated or postponed from homelessness.

How did this happen? At the start of the pandemic in Ireland, the

Government implemented a rent freeze and a ban on evictions. These short-term measures helped to reduce the number of people who were becoming homeless.

The emphasis here is on short-term. These measures were stopped in August and as a result, there has been a re-emergence of people presenting to homeless charities in Ireland due to eviction notices. This trend is worrying especially given the resurgence in COVID-19 cases and winter just around the corner. These factors together will act as an increased amount of pressure on those affected by homelessness. A €3.3 billion investment from the government in housing and homelessness services was made in Budget 2021, and while this sum sounds impressive, it is far less ambitious in reality than you’d think.

The government needs to commit to the proven success stories of housing-first initiatives in Scandinavia both for the sake of individuals affected but also to help end the stigmatisation of homlessness in Irish society.

RELAYING THE BRICKS OF OUR NATION: A Right to a Home Bill STEPHEN MOYNIHAN INVESTIGATES THE POSSIBILITY OF ADDING “ THE RIGHT TO A HOME” TO AN BUNREACHT NA HÉIREANN, THE IRISH CONSTITUTION.

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hen Sinn Féin Spokesperson on Housing Eoin Ó Broin introduced his Thirty-ninth Amendment of the Constitution (Right to a Home) Bill on 6th October, it represented just the latest step in the long fight for an explicit right to housing in Bunreacht na Éireann.

The Bill proposes the insertion of Article 43A to read that “The State recognises the right to appropriate and affordable housing, essential for an adequate standard of living, for every person and family. The State accordingly, shall take appropriate steps to ensure the realisation of this right.”, and that “The State shall take reasonable steps to prevent and reduce homelessness, with a view to its gradual elimination.”

In introducing this legislation, Minister Ó Broin stated that “this is not a silver bullet. It does not guarantee every person in the State an automatic right to a free home.

It does, however, place an obligation on the Government to realise the right to housing and to eliminate homelessness progressively.”

Should the Bill be passed by both the Dáil and the Seanad the amendment will go to a referendum, as do all amendments to the Constitution, although the proposal’s nature as a Private Members’ Bill, i.e. raised by the opposition, means it is unlikely to reach this stage.

Despite this, the appetite for the insertion of a similar clause has undeniably been gaining steam in recent years across party lines. The Programme for Government, signed in June by the three governing parties of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and the Green Party in order to outline the aims of their time in government, commits to holding a “referendum on housing” in the next five years. This provision, which was not present in Fine Gael’s 2016 Programme for Government, provides evidence that the need for constitutional changes with regard to housing is at the forefront of the current political zeitgeist, although its vague wording leaves the form of these potential changes ambiguous.

However, to say that the campaign for the Right to Housing has been led by politicians would be misleading.

Several Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and charities have continually been seeking a constitutional

Right to Housing, including Threshold, Focus Ireland, Respond and the Simon Community. In order to achieve this, these four organisations are part of a coalition which operates under the name of Home For Good, which aims to provide constitutional change regarding housing which they believe would constitute “an essential underpinning for any successful programme to tackle our housing and homelessness crisis”.

Home for Good argues that the Constitution, instead of ensuring its citizens to suitable housing, provides a barrier. They maintain that Article 43, which provides protection for a citizens’ possession of private property, is mainly to blame for this, citing a 2019 Oireachtas Research Paper which states that on twelve different occasions in recent years legislation has failed to progress due to the presence of this article in the Constitution.

Despite Article 43’s provision that the State can limit private property protections “with a view reconciling their exercise with the exigencies of the common good”, Home for Good argues that this is insufficient. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including […] housing.”

A Constitutional Right to Housing would provide all Irish citizens with an assurance of this.

“WE PROPOSE THAT THE CONSTITUTION BE AMENDED TO MAKE IT CLEAR THAT ACCESS TO ADEQUATE, SECURE AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THE COMMON GOOD. ANY AMENDMENT CAN PRESERVE THE RIGHT TO PRIVATE PROPERTY, WHILE ALSO OFFERING THE COUNTERBALANCE OF A RIGHT TO HOUSING. IT WILL UNLOCK THE BARRIER TO ESSENTIAL REFORMING LEGISLATION AND BE A VITAL PART OF ENDING THE CURRENT HOUSING CRISIS." There is a mandate to legislate for this right and there is a mechanism to make this change to the Constitution. The Irish people should get the chance to have their say in the next five years – if not, it will be a failure by the government, one that won’t be easily forgotten by those affected by Ireland’s housing crisis.

CURRENT AFFAIRS | 13

ASYL

The Direct Provision Report Explained STEPHEN MOYNIHAN CHATS WITH MEMBERS OF UCC FÁILTE REFUGEES SOCIETY AND LOOKS AT A REPORT THAT SETS OUT TO CHANGE THE WAY IRELAND SUPPORTS REFUGEES AND ASYLUM SEEKERS. BUT IS IT OFFERING REAL SOLUTIONS OR IS IT JUST JUST AN EXERCISE IN BOX-TICKING FOR THIS GOVERNMENT?

T

hese are the first fifteen words of the general recommendations outlined in the Report of the Advisory Group on the Provision of Support including Accommodation to Persons in the International Protection Process, published on 21st October. The report calls for the implementation of a new, permanent system which would allow for the processing of 3,500 asylum applications annually, with a view for this transition to this system, and thus an end to Direct Provision, by mid-2023. The government says they will consider all aspects of this Report, with a view to releasing a White Paper before the end of the

14 | OCTOBER 2020

year which will outline their policy framework for dealing with these matters.

The Report states that this new system should take no more than six months to process asylum applications, and this six-month deadline should also apply to appeals.

It also suggests the hiring of more full-time staff in order to facilitate this. It also calls for an “alternative dispute resolution system” to be introduced in order to deal with issues such as accommodation and reception conditions experienced by applicants.

It is also suggested that after three months of residing within the State applicants should be allowed access to “own

door” accommodation, at which point they would also be given the right to work within the State. The report also recommends that applicants should be given a housing allowance and access to the same welfare payments afforded to those of Irish citizens, such as Child Benefit and Supplementary Welfare Allowance. The ability to apply for a driving licence and tests should also be afforded to asylum seekers from the moment their asylum application is lodged.

Applicants who fail in their application and who have exhausted all avenues of appeal should be afforded a grace period of up to six months in order to organise their departure.

The Advisory Group also suggests that victims of trafficking and sexual or gender-based violence should be provided with appropriate accommodation and additional support and services.Should the recommendations in this Report be adopted, asylum applicants will have the right to access higher education, such as UCC, on the same basis and at the same level of fees as Irish citizens, if they meet the qualifying criteria.

Motley took the opportunity to speak to Fáilte Refugees: UCC’s student society focused on opening up the dialogue surrounding Direct Provision. When asked for comment on the issue, they provided this answer:

LUM? “Fáilte Refugees welcomes the Catherine Day report on direct provision and eagerly awaits its implementation. While it is positive to see the report published, we do have a number of concerns surrounding it.

While it looks to shorten wait times to a 6 months deadline for processing asylum claims, there is no information of what will happen if there is failure to meet this deadline. The current waiting time is hugely varying with many spending much longer than 6 months waiting for a result. We would like to know how the State will ensure it is within the 6 month timeframe, there needs to be clear information on the consequences if it fails.

Like MASI, we are also concerned about a separate HAP-like scheme, we also feel this could encourage further segregation, and feel an integrated system would be more beneficial. “Own door accommodation” needs to be elaborated on, as many waiting on asylum live in accommodation like this and it is entirely inadequate.

We feel that there needs to be more detail and work in relation to the interview process, it is currently a process that forces people to relive trauma and expects retelling of deeply personal issues with very little support and that needs to change, people deserve to be treated like human beings, not animals.

To summarise, while we are glad that this report has been published and that there are some improvements planned, we want to emphasise that the fight to end Direct Provision does not end here, there have been reports in the past that have been half-done at most. We need to continue pushing for reform, holding the Government accountable, ensure that they live up to their promises and see an end to direct provision and refugees and asylum seekers treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve.”

BELOW: A DIRECT PROVISION CENTRE IN ATHLONE

Credit: Vukasin Nedeljkovic

CURRENT AFFAIRS | 15

Living With It:

STUDENTS, ACCOMODATIO ALANA DALY MULLIGAN TALKS WITH UCC STUDENTS ABOUT THE STATE OF STUDENT ACCOMMODATION AMIDST THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC.

16 | OCTOBER 2020

first year arts student Katie Halpin-Hill tells Motley.

With a later start date than normal, an increase in the number of places allocated

€10K annually.

But on the other hand, there’s the potentially nightmarish avenue of renting. You’re confronted with the reality of dodgy landlords with

ON & COVID-19 to incoming students, and of course, the pandemic, the pressure’s been on students to find a place to call home in Cork.

Student accommodation has become a booming industry often operating on opposing ends of the spectrum. On one end, you have the luxury complexes. With everything from island cookers, to flat screen tvs, to quirky labels beside your ensuite telling you not to flush your goldfish or ex’s jumper down the toilet (shout-out to the evil capitalist marketing team at Amnis House for giving me a giggle as I took a shit in my friend’s loo on a night out last year when that was a thing one could do).

But this couture-university experience comes with a hefty price tag that in UCCowned accommodation flies just below the €6K mark, but in private accommodation can skyrocket upwards of

insecure lease agreements and squalid living conditions aspirational of Ireland’s tenement crisis at the turn of the 20th century, inadequate heating and lighting, drainage issues, we’ve all heard these horror stories.

This year has been particularly hard on first year students coming to UCC. Katie Halpin-Hill has already had a brush with the risks of COVID-19: “My flatmate was a close contact and she had to isolate in her room for a couple of days while she waited for a test, and again while waiting for results...We had to give her meals outside her door, and she said for her, it was very lonely and she was scared...We almost began feeling symptoms ourselves because we were such hypochondriacs and the psychological impact on us was just scary.”

Situations like this have become common for students and was one of the

main concerns flagged in our survey. One student has been in their apartment alone without roommates since UCC’s two-week plan was announced on 25th September. “If I have to restrict myself to my apartment, I may very well find myself running out of food quickly as I wouldn’t be able to shop and it would make it very awkward to collect deliveries as there’s contact”.

But is accommodation worth coughing up upwards of €4K a year, particularly in the age of COVID-19? It seems our respondents are divided. Second year Applied Psychology student Maeve O’Keeffe is one of many students on the fence about this issue: “On one level I think I'd go mad if I was living at home, with poor WiFi, more distractions, and being away from my friends. At the same time, I sometimes feel guilty because I could technically be doing this from home with everything online”.

Other students are more certain: “Absolutely not, there is no point in paying extra rent just to sit in a tiny room by myself ”, says one second year Arts International student.

However, with the Students’ Union having secured an agreement with UCC Accommodation to refund all students who choose to go home, there is at least some peace of mind for students living in university-

owned accommodation.

For students like one anonymous first year World Languages Student, this has been a fortunate turn of events: “Because of the rising cases and the inevitable lockdown impending, I decided to move back home after having spent only three weeks in my student accommodation… there was no reason for me to be paying for housing when I may as well continue my studies from the comfort of my own home. I think the fear of being separated from loved ones at home during a lockdown for an uncertain amount of time is a big factor in why students would want to move home as well.”

Despite this, the fight with privatelyowned complexes is just beginning says Beth O’Reilly, the Students’ Union’s Commercial & Fundraising Officer: “We’re hopeful that private accommodation companies will be lenient with their leases at this time, but ultimately we’re campaigning for government legislation that prevents student renters from being forced to stay in accommodation during this period of online learning.

If a student feels unsafe or uncomfortable in their environment and wishes to move back home, this shouldn’t be an issue and they absolutely should be given a refund of rent.”

O’Reilly has also been essential in the dissemination of information regarding the Union and University’s joined effort in the My COVID Plan: “My COVID Plan started out because we were meeting with representatives from the HSE and began

CURRENT AFFAIRS | 17

to question whether the messaging targeted towards students had been effective in outlining what to do ​if​ you become a close-contact or symptomatic,” O’Reilly explains, “Obviously, with a virus as infectious as this one, it’s so important that for the safety of students and the community at large that everyone is equipped with the knowledge on how to safely self isolate and restrict movements.” O’Reilly tells Motley that everyone’s COVID Plan will look a little different but that it’s an essential conversation to be having, despite the challenges particularly facing students who may not know their housemates as well.

“We wanted to open the floor to students to share how they are preparing to deal with the virus, and give other students ideas that might work for their situation.”

Of course, the accommodation situation has largely been escalated by the lackadaisical level of communication from the University; “I think the cost of student accommodation is extortionate and the fact that there was little to no clarification for students on whether it was needed or not this year was incredibly disingenuous,” says final year Arts student Rían BrowneO’Neill. With that being said, students have been quick to point out what the university has done right: “The way they incorporated safety and COVID-19 regulations and how they used that in Canvas this year, to ensure that everyone realised how serious the virus can be was really good”, Halpin-Hill says in our phone conversation.

18 | OCTOBER 2020

Despite this, there’s a conversation to be had about tenant rights for those living in their privately rented accomodation, mental health supports being put in place to help students through this challenging time where isolation continues to divide us, and for those who can’t go home because of challenging home environments, what of them? “Students are scattered; we need to stand together for fair treatment”, says a final year Arts student.

With a lockdown on the horizon as the second wave of the virus rolls in, the question is will students come together and demand change not only for these times, but those ahead, or shall we just continue to live with it?

TELL US ABOUT YOUR LANDLORD EXPERIENCES “I had to break the rental contract as my course changed to being online. My landlord tried to convince me that I needed to keep paying the rent for the full year anyway and that I legally couldn't leave a rental contract. When I insisted that wasn't the case, she told me that she would "chase" me, insulted me and threatened to report me to the LTB. She then gave my number to her daughter without my permission. Her daughter is a solicitor and she rang me trying to harass me, insisting again that I couldn't break a contract. I told her not to call me, only to email me and she refused.

I hung up and broke the contract in writing, losing my deposit. I do realise that the loss of the deposit is legal though.”

- Anon, 1st Year Higher Diploma French

WHAT'S SECURITY LIKE IN YOUR ACCOMMODATION? “They’re good at enforcing the restrictions.”

“I've been told by my housemates the watchman came to the apartment when they thought they were having a party (I was at home for the weekend at the time) but other than that I haven't noticed any sort of rule enforcement, even though I've seen and heard large gatherings of students around. We were threatened with a €200 fine for breaking restrictions but I don't know anyone who has received this fine.”

- Fia Daly, 1st Year Early Years & Childhood Studies, Castlewhite

- Anon, second year Zoology, Deans Hall Crosses Green “Some are nice, some aren't.

They ask to show my key although one asked my roommate to produce his student ID over the key which seemed ridiculous as every student has one.”

- Anon, Final Year Arts, Victoria Lodge “No guests allowed. I was stopped at the gates one night when I was going to let a friend in to use the loo. They check your name and ID.”

- Maeve O’Keeffe, 2nd Year Applied Psychology, University Hall

WHAT’S YOUR EXPERIENCE BEEN LIKE SO FAR? “The place was dirty as if it was left since lockdown dust everywhere and what I thought were my roommates food in the fridge was actually left from someone either over summer or pre-lockdown perishables old utensils and open biscuits etc.”

- Anon, Final Year Arts, Victoria Lodge “Hygiene was satisfactory on arrival, the apartment seemed clean and staff were very helpful. I was expecting some sort of sanitised safety seal on the door, but it didn't bother me. The provided hand sanitizer dispenser at the door of my building was empty for the first few days. There are a few minor problems with my apartment but nothing major, and I had the opportunity to address these issues with an inventory form we had to fill out. Overall, I'm satisfied, but annoyed at fellow students who don't follow the rules

- Fia Daly, first year Early Years & Childhood Studies, Castlewhite

“I have found it very isolating being unable to even have a friend over for coffee (I'd feel much safer doing that than going to a coffee shop). Of course I appreciate why the rules are put in place but it's very much felt something that's been imposed upon students in a defensive manner rather than a collaborative approach with residents - that's what irks me most. At the end of the day, this is my home for the year, I'm twenty-three years of age and I guess not being given the due respect that many of us are competent adults able to conduct ourselves responsibly feels like an insult to my own intelligence as a young-adult trying to get by like everyone else is at present!”

- Anon, Final Year Arts, Victoria Lodge “Hygiene was poor. Have tried to get a refund as I am immunocompromised and don’t feel safe in the accommodation and Brookfield have denied it.”

- Anon, 1st Year Med & Health Science, Brookfield

IS RENTING IN CORK VALUE FOR MONEY, ESPECIALLY DURING THE PANDEMIC? “It depends - for a lot of people, being in Cork and being able to meet up with friends is of huge benefit to their mental health.

For others, the exorbitant rent prices are totally unjustified, especially considering that the city's amenities are either unavailable or severely reduced.”

“Not sure. I thought so at the start, but as time goes on more restrictions make it less and less so. We’re a scapegoat for spikes yet, we haven’t even gotten a chance to see what would happen.”

- Anon, Final Year Arts “For me, I live with my friends and other friends are living in Cork too so it gives me a chance to see them whereas I wouldn’t if I lived at home. For the sake of my mental health alone, that nearly justifies the cost. My accommodation is not the most expensive so that made the decision a bit easier.”

- Anon, 3rd Year Law & Business

- Anon, Final Year Computer Science “No. I am paying to stay down in Cork in accommodation when all my classes are online.

I wanted to stay at home but decided the commute from [where I live] just wasn’t doable.

Was only told my lectures were going online the weekend before we were all due to start. Feel misled and cheated.

My parents can’t afford this waste of money and the guilt I feel is terrible.”

- Anon, 1st Year Law “I’m not sure, I just wanted to move away from home and try to have some sort of college experience.”

- Anon

WILL YOU LIVE IN STUDENT ACCOMMODATION IF LEVEL 5 BREAKS OUT? “I can't decide if I'm honest, but realistically I think I'd move home, purely because I'd imagine most of my friends would be doing the same.”

- Maeve O'Keeffe, 2nd Year Applied Psychology “I do as it may be isolating, everyone from my family has moved home and is working from home so I simply cannot be productive in my home environment.”

- Anon, Masters in Strategic Marketing and Practice

“I’m currently trying to make my mind up on that - for now, I’m thinking yes but not for any more than three weeks.

If level 5 lasts for 6 weeks like NPHET recommended then I’ll probably do three weeks here then three weeks at home.”

- Anon, 3rd Year Law & Business “I will want to go home if there's a lockdown.”

- Lucy Scully, 3rd Year Chemistry

EDITOR’S NOTE:

HOW WILL COVID-19 AFFECT YOUR LIVING SITUATION? “I may leave Cork, depending on what the restrictions will allow me to do in the city. If virtually all businesses and services are unavailable, and I'm unable to even meet up with a friend in an open outdoor space, there is no reason to pay rent.”

-Anon, Final Year Computer Science “Because my housemates and I live in a house with just the four of us, I think we're kind of lucky in the sense that if one of us gets COVID, we can all just self isolate in the house together without having to worry about infecting other people in the building. I can imagine that would be an issue for people living in Victoria Mills or Castlewhite or any accommodation complexes with lots of people living in them. But because we have no security or anything, nobody can really enforce any of the restrictions. Some of my housemates have had parties and are still bringing people over despite the no guest rule and I feel like there's not much I can do about it.”

“I usually travel between Cork and Kerry and worry I will be trapped in one county or another if restrictions become escalated. Currently due to Covid when I am in Cork I don't interact with anyone for up to 2 weeks at a time, I imagine 6 weeks like that could be detrimental to my mental wellbeing.”

- Anon, Masters in Strategic Marketing and Practice “It has reduced how often I can go home to see my parents in another county, which I also work in so this has put quite a strain and worry on me day to day.”

- Anon, 2nd Year, Arts International

- Molly Kavanagh, MSc Government and Politics

ANY OTHER ISSUES? “The intimidating emails UCC Student Accommodation have sent out have really made me anxious, threatening to fine us or expel us if we have guests in our homes all year.

I understand not doing so when government restrictions require us to stop home visits, but when this is not the case it results in UCC Students having less tenant rights than anyone in Cork, potentially breaching our tenant rights to private enjoyment of our rented property.”

“People don’t see us as anything more than hassle and waves of destruction but they’re all more than happy to take our money and use us when they get desperate be that in hospitals and frontline businesses which kept the country going or other means.”

- Anon, Final Year Arts

- Anon, Masters in Strategic Marketing and Practice

Interviews were correlated through a combination of phone-calls and student submissions through a Google Forms system. The responses varied from somewhat normal complaints about residents playing loud music, to the more dire, like unsanitary living spaces, threatening landlords, “menacing” security guards, among other issues. For the safety of our contributors, some testimonials will be anonymous. The views and opinions expressed by individuals in this article are not necessarily the views of Motley Magazine or its affiliates.

CURRENT AFFAIRS | 19

Features & Opinions

Motley's Monthly

HOROSCOPE MYSTIC MC’S MAGICAL PREDICTIONS ARE BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER, SO LET’S SEE WHAT HIGHS, (BUT MOSTLY LOWS) ARE IN STORE FOR MOTLEY’S READERS THIS MONTH.

@

Aries:

@

Taurus:

This month, you are in the sphere of influence of Uranus as it passes through your constellation.

Uranus controls your life. You must bend to its every whim and desire. As it’s a gas giant, any little “puff ” of gas could be a sign of disaster. Think about that next time you consider getting a spicy burrito.

@

Cancer:

With the changing climate, Cork is predicted to become more prone to flooding. This month you’ll get caught up in a small flood. Though it’ll be a terrible experience for you, nobody will believe you when you tell them, since you make up all your stories. You should have paid more attention to “The Boy Who Cried Wolf ”.

20 | OCTOBER 2020

@

Sagittarius:

@

Aquarius:

@

Pisces:

@

Leo:

This month, Pluto is neatly sandwiched between Saturn and Jupiter in your constellation.

As such, you will be spooning, the middle spoon between two others. Not that they want you there – you just have to get in the way. Time to stop third-wheeling.

LIBRA

Gemini:

Born under the sign of twins, Geminis always come into the world in pairs. This month you will find out you have an identical twin that was separated from you at birth. Despite being identical, they are somehow much better looking than you – not to mention nicer, happier and more successful! Have fun hating your new family.

Scorpio:

Someone you trust will stab you in the back. Like the scorpion for which your sign was named, you often don’t notice toxic friends until it’s too late. The only way to protect yourself from being hurt is to stay inside all day, but nobody has ever done that for a long period of time. Oh, wait...

Your constellation has many star clusters in it. This month, you’ll find a nice little cluster of verrucas growing on your foot. However you try to get rid of them, they always seem to come back, like that one ex you broke up with last year. At least you have the option of killing the verrucas.

@

@

Although you are in the Sun’s sphere of influence this month, winter is fast approaching. Most people begin to feel a bit down now, as the weather gets colder. Since you’re a cold person yourself, though, you’ll probably be fine.

Enjoy the grey sunless days!

@

Virgo:

Someone will steal the drugs you have stashed in your car. After a lot of tears and disbelief at being robbed, you’ll report the crime to the Gardaí. You will then realize your mistake. Happens to the best of us! But most mistakes don’t end in court appearances.

@

Capricorn:

You will question the accuracy of the predictions given in this column. But careful – if you do question it, then my prediction for Capricorn becomes true, and astrology works! For one of the star signs, at least.

You’re very welcome.

You will turn up to an in-person lecture hungover. You might think you’re being sneaky, but it’s painfully obvious when you fall asleep at the back of the hall.

Maybe bring a pair of shades next time. But do they just make it more obvious? There’s no escape!

After months of a dry spell, you’ll get a match on Tinder – and they’re Pisces too! Like the name of your sign, you have finally found another fish in the sea. As you’ll see, though, not all fish are good. Especially catfish.

A lecturer will give out to you for being late to an online lecture.

You’ll want to argue or explain yourself, but the whole thing feels so pointless that you won’t bother in the end. Now shut up and take your notes.

When I was in my first year of college, I lived in a student accommodation complex managed

by UCC. Less than a week after I moved in, a male maintenance worker let himself into my bedroom, completely unannounced, at nine o’clock in the morning while I was getting dressed...

WE NEED TO REIMAGINE THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE

MOLLY KAVANAGH QUESTIONS WHETHER OR NOT THE NARRATIVE OF THE “ TYPICAL COLLEGE EXPERIENCE” IS HEALTHY IN RELATION TO OUR EXPECTATIONS FOR HOUSING.

A

nd since he didn’t knock, and reception didn’t email me beforehand to let me know that he’d be there, a complete stranger walked in on me while I had my tits out. So needless to say, my relationship with living in student accommodation was not off to a great start.

I didn’t accidentally flash any maintenance men in my second-year apartment, which was a grubby little privately-owned complex in the city centre. I actually really

FEATURES & OPINIONS | 21

enjoyed living in this apartment, because there was virtually no on-site security and our smoke alarms didn’t work, which meant myself and my roommates could indulge in our very sesh oriented lifestyles for the entire year without any repercussions.

I wasn’t even aware that the smoke alarms were broken until the end of the first semester; I just thought we were really, really lucky that no alarms went off when somebody decided to smoke a rollie at one of our prinks. When we finally did realize and reported it to the landlord, it was months before the faulty alarm was replaced.

My only complaint, apart from the glaring safety concerns, was the fact that there was an eighty euro call out fee for if you accidentally locked yourself out of the apartment and needed to be let back in - and honestly, I don’t think this should be allowed, because it’s a safety concern in of itself. I left my keys on my bedside table one weekend night when none of my housemates were home, and since I’m one of the many students who doesn’t always have a spare eighty-euro on hand in case of an emergency, I had to sit in the twenty-four-hour internet cafe on Winthrop Street until my housemate returned in the morning to let me in.

One summer, I stayed in an apartment owned by a landlord who threatened to evict on a single day’s notice if I was ever caught with an overnight guest in my bedroom. In hindsight, I question the legality of this (One day’s notice for an

22 | OCTOBER 2020

eviction? Really?) But as a result, my boyfriend once had to clamber into my wardrobe to hide from the landlord when he paid a very early surprise morning visit to my bedroom door to discuss my rent. This is the same landlord that squeezed a double bed into a single bedroom, called it a double bedroom, and decided to charge 150 euro a week for it.

But sure look- it could be a lot worse, right?

I could be homeless, so I’m one of the lucky ones.

Any time I complain to my family about the absolute “shtate” of the Cork housing market, and the gall of some landlords to make students pay upwards of 600 euro a month for the absolute bare minimum, I’m told that it’s our fault. It’s our fault, because we’re legitimizing those high prices and poor living conditions by agreeing to pay the rent and live there, and maybe if us students just banded together in protest and just refused to book accommodation some year, landlords would be forced to lower their rent and take better care of the houses.

This sentiment is antistudent- and I understand that sounds a bit ridiculous since university students aren’t an oppressed minority, but I don’t think it’s an over-exaggeration to say that students in higher education are sometimes treated as nuisances by their communities. Sometimes it feels as if our needs are continuously ignored, not even aforethought in the minds of our colleges or government representativesas if our youth makes us impervious to the emotional toll that poor or unstable living conditions can have

on people, and how that emotional toll is amplified by the fact that many students are now trapped in those poor living conditions due to lockdown and online classes.

We’ve grown accustomed to being told that our student years will be financially and emotionally difficult- we’ll live off 10 cent Lidl ramen noodles while being under the most intense academic pressure of our lives, all within the confines of a shoebox bedroom the size of a walk-in closet- except this closet costs 600 euro a month. Oh, and you’re sharing the house with seven total strangers as well, who are also paying 600 euro a month, for the measly total of 4800 euro a month.

But if you try to move out, your landlord (who owns four other houses) will cry: “But how will I pay my mortgage?” making you feel so guilty that you eventually relent and decide to stay. If you forget your keys, you essentially have to pay almost an extra week’s worth of rent to be allowed back in. You’ll be tempted to sleep outside instead. There was mold in the bathroom when you moved in and you’re pretty sure you saw a mouse run across the kitchen floor. The alternatives to living here are commuting four hours roundtrip in a country where it is notoriously difficult to get a driver’s license, or not attending college at all. Have fun!

I don’t think that

this should be normalized.

I know that some students don’t actually care and would rather just relish in the experience- that’s what I did throughout college, but in hindsight, I was just making an attempt to romanticize my living conditions because I was unhappy and wanted to convince myself that no, this is a good thing, this is the real college experience.

But even then, I eventually

became quite stressed out and really longed for the days of consistent hot water for showers and a bedroom I could actually walk around in and a ceiling that wasn’t leaking and a smoke detector that actually kept me safe and a house that wasn’t full of strangers or maintenance men who didn’t know how to knock on doors. I wanted a safe, clean, quiet environment to do work in

that didn’t put me in debt and leave me unable to afford food or leisure activities- is that really too much to ask for? Why are we teaching young people that it is?

This can’t be ignored when you’re engaging in discourse pertaining to the mental health of young people in Ireland. College students, particularly lonely first-year college students, are so emotionally vulnerable- the least we can do for them is ensure that they have a nice, reasonably priced home to relax in after a hard day of lectures. And maybe my mother was on to something - maybe something does need to be done to stop parasitic landlords from draining students of every penny they’re worth. But I think that responsibility should lie with the government since they care so much about mental health all of a sudden, and totally aren’t just weaponizing it in their opposition of enhanced lockdown restrictions.

By perpetuating a narrative in which all of this is a part of the typical “student experience,” we’re making it so young people feel as if they’re missing out on something because they’re not suffering and being exploited. And I think students, and anybody looking for affordable living spaces in Cork, deserve a little more dignity than that.

THIS IS NOTHING NEW: PROTESTERS CAMPING ON THE QUAD EARLIER IN 2020

FEATURES & OPINIONS | 23

It’s Not Just You, Your Student Accommodation is Making You Miserable NIAMH BROWNE SPEAKS TO WILLIE CAREY AND HENRIK WOLTERSTORFF - OF O’ DONNELL + TUOMEY ARCHITECTS - NO STRANGERS TO UCC, DESIGNING CAVANAGH BRIDGE, THE HUB, AND THE GLUCKSMAN. THE FIRM IS CURRENTLY WORKING ON MA JOR PROJECTS SUCH AS THE V AND A MUSEUM IN LONDON. CAREY AND WOLTERSTORFF TALK ABOUT WELLBEING IN YOUR HOUSE AND WHY STUDENT ACCOMMODATION JUST DOESN’T SPARK JOY.

W

e spend more time inside the four walls of our home than anywhere else in the world; more than ever now in a post-Covid world. Yet we seem to give very little thought to what makes us happy in housing.

What do we need to be mindful of when we are constructing housing, what’s the difference between a cell and a home?

“You’re asking a lot of questions about well-being in your home,” says Willie “and it’s all interlinked, it’s a difficult combination. Yes, it’s social, it’s economical and it’s governmental policymaking.”

Carey continues, “Two of the most amazing sites in Cork City - by Peace Park and Fitzgerald’s Park - have become student housing.

Those students will hopefully become integrated into city

24 | OCTOBER 2020

life, but they may not. It’s also about profit, so it’s more profitable to make fifty single bed units then it is to make ten 3 bed family homes.” Of course, the other advantage with short term student lets is that they can be used as accommodation for tourists.

This is also short term and lucrative, but does little to contribute to the soul of a place. As Willie says, “It doesn’t build community because it’s a transient community”.

With coronavirus, we now have to rethink our spaces more than ever - they are not only our homes but our offices, study rooms, our college libraries, and wet pubs. “Definitely, everyone is talking about how Covid has pushed us towards working from home as the new normal,” (this interview was conducted over Zoom for example). Maybe hous-

ing should be seen as an exercise in how to provide a human right in the most beautiful and comfortable way possible, rather than a mere financial investment?

“One interesting thing about that,” Willie begins, “is that there is a whole set of rules, according to the government if you follow certain criteria and fulfil certain dimensions, de facto, you’ve taken care of a person’s minimal needs for a healthy home.” He pauses and continues: “But I think it’s what we all suspect are the important things like spaces that are light and airy, that are adaptable, robust.”

He illustrates his point further:

“We are working on a housing development in Dublin at the moment, it’s a high building. One of the innovative things we are proposing is that we would bring natural daylight into the central circulation areas. So you know when you go into an apartment building and you walk into a dark corridor and the lights turn on? We were proposing that all those spaces become lit by bringing daylight right into the centre of the building and into the circulation

areas. We need to challenge these norms for minimal requirements which create a minimally suitable world.”

The difference of waking up every day and walking to do your laundry through lit corridors, or going to work and seeing some light before the injurious loudness of the city centre, would surely impact the human spirit? Dual aspect apartments (where windows would allow light in from two sides of the room), are also notoriously difficult to convince developers to build.

Finally, should we prepare for the fiery hellish inferno of awfulness that the pandemic has brought on? Should we just start building bedroom units from a perspective of disease control, do a Stockholm on it, where as many of us as possible live alone in studios? The pair guffaw.

“I hope not,” says Willie decidedly. Henrik adds “Building and construction, all these things take a long time. Covid is a blink of a second- hopefully, even if it takes a few years.” Thanks, lads. I needed to hear that.

Jamies Story

BY EMER WALSH

J

amie moved to Blarney from the city when he was eleven years old. He moved in next door to his cousin, who he called his best friend. He also lived close to his grandparents’ house but at the time he lived with his mother and his mother’s partner. His mother’s partner did not get on well with Jamie, often being violent towards him, which resulted in Jamie spending a lot of his time with his grandmother, who he was so fond of.

Jamie’s grandfather passed away the year before Jamie turned eighteen. Shortly after Jamie turned eighteen, his grandmother passed away the following February.

Two weeks before Christmas that year, Jamie’s mother brought a barring order against Jamie on behalf of her partner, forcing him out of the house that he lived in from the age of eleven. “I didn’t know what to do, it was my first time being homeless. Before I lived with my nan, I lived with my boxing trainer, but I was on my own this time.” Jamie packed up his belongings and left home with just three items; his boxing shorts, a skipping rope, and a box of protein.

“Don’t tell me why I thought it would be a good idea to bring a box of protein with me,” he said jokingly. Jamie rang the Simon Community who helped him when he first became homeless. Upon arrival, he found himself surrounded by people who were dealing with heavy substance abuse issues, which led to quite hostile conditions. “It did not matter if you were a man or a woman, young or old, you would have a confrontation with someone every day.” The stress brought on by such an environment, along with these unavoidable clashes with other service users, led to Jamie developing post-traumatic stress disorder.

Jamie left the Simon Community shortly after developing PTSD and arrived at St. Vincent de Paul’s. He spent six months there, and was able to resume his boxing training and practiced every day. But an environment free from alcohol and illicit substances was hard to avoid, and it followed Jamie to his St. Vincent’s residence. “I was so hurt from what my mother had done to me, and when I say I was on my own, I mean it; I was on my own. The only ‘friends’ I had were drug friends, and they were only around as long as the drugs were around.”

During the six months he spent in St. Vincent de Paul, curiosity had finally gotten the better of Jamie.

From the age of seventeen, Jamie had developed a dependence on benzodiazepine, commonly known as ‘benzos;’ a class of drugs used to treat anxiety and stress. But while in St. Vincents, Jamie tried heroin for the first time. Things quickly went downhill for Jamie from then on.

During the height of his addiction, Jamie was living rough on the streets and did so for eight months. During this time, he slept in emergency accommodation offered by the Simon Community. One night, Jamie witnessed another man place forty euro into the back cover of his phone. He left it to charge unattended but before he returned, Jamie and a friend of his took the money from the phone and left.

“This was the height of my addiction. I didn’t even think of the phone, I left it there. I only wanted the money. I took the cash and ran.” Jamie could afford two bags of heroin with the forty euro he had now acquired. Quickly after consuming them, Jamie overdosed.

He woke up afterward in the Mercy Hospital. The experience of it all, in addition to his feelings of loneliness, had a

harsh impact on Jamie’s mental wellbeing. He was brought to CUH’s mental health unit, known by patients as GF due to its location on the ground floor, where Jamie stayed for a month.

At this point, Jamie had stopped boxing training, and his weight had dropped dramatically to only eight stone. “I was a shadow of myself. Nobody in my family was talking to me. No one wanted anything to do with me. I was back sleeping in doorways and cubbyholes. One night I was so out of it that I woke up the next morning and my shoes had been stolen. That was one thing I had to learn on the streets; you had to use your shoes as pillows to keep them safe.” While sleeping rough, Jamie had been stepped on, stamped on, stolen from, and urinated on. “I didn’t want to live anymore. I couldn’t see anything getting better for me in any way so I bought a bag, and I bought another bag, and I overdosed straight away. This time it was intentional, but I woke up the next morning to the sound of a nurse telling me to leave the hospital.”

And he did. Jamie left the hospital and returned to living on the streets. Sleeping rough took its toll on Jamie. It wasn’t the cold at night that was the worst part, but the hardness of the concrete floor.

He would frequently wake up with fresh bruises, constantly black and blue from the surface, but his body soon became conditioned to it as did Jamie himself, who began to consider these conditions normal living for eight whole months.

His living conditions were disrupted, however, when Jamie ended up going to jail. Jamie went from sleeping on hard concrete to living in a heated cell, with access to a gym, television, and warm meals on a daily basis. He developed a

routine and attended school every day while there. “I was more afraid of leaving jail knowing what I was coming back to than I was at the idea of originally going to jail in the first place.”

The day before leaving jail, he was told that there was a bed waiting for him with the Simon Community. Once Jamie had left jail, he relapsed almost instantly. But from this experience, Jamie realised that going to jail once was enough for him to try and make a positive change- and that he did.

“I got my act together and I finally got clean.”

Jamie was living in a shelter for three months, and even in an environment that led him towards drugs in the first place, he was able to stay clean despite the people and the activity surrounding him. Jamie was told that if he stayed clean, he would be offered an interview for Gateway, a high-support house part of the Simon Community’s addiction support services.

He was accepted into Gateway three years ago and currently lives there today. He has been clean from heroin for two years and three months. He is surrounded by an incredible support network that has enabled him to stay clean and progress in his life. In his free time, Jamie likes to hang out with his girlfriend who he says has been so wonderful to him throughout everything. He also gets great usage out of the PlayStation in his room, nicknamed “the penthouse” by the other residents.

Jamie goes to college Monday to Friday to study sports and recreation. He hopes that doing this will allow him to study social care in the future.“If I’m able to change just one young fella’s life, then I would be happy with the remainder of mine.”

Donate to Cork Simon at corksimon.ie

Jamie’s story is an important one, but unfortunately, it is one of many.

There are approximately 8,700 people presently experiencing homelessness in Ireland. That is 8,700 individual stories that you will never hear.

FEATURES & OPINIONS | 25

UCC

CONFESSION Death, Taxes & Opportunistic Landlords

T

here are three things certain in life: death, taxes, and opportunistic landlords. From the perspective of a college student, one of the only dampeners on my college experience has been the absolutely dire situation which is college accommodation. As a college student in Cork city, it is as if you have only two options when searching for in-term housing. You (more likely your parents or the SUSI grant) pay for your extremely plush, contemporary, and trendy student accommodation, which seems to be popping up out of every dilapidated, unused building in the city. Your second, cheaper option is to rent from a private landlord.

Your landlord may be the father of one of your friends who has bought a house in the college area for his kids to reside in while going to university, a friend of your parents, or more often than not, a complete stranger. This complete stranger will give you the honour to rent out a small, damp, dingy room for three times what it would be worth in mainland Europe.

It is a known fact that investing your earnings in property is one of the best ways to ensure retention of capital levels, and you're almost certain to get a return on investment. With college landlords in and around Cork city, however, this has gone beyond a joke. It is as if God himself has descended from the skies and imparted rights on these men and women, enabling them to behave badly, and think and act with complete and utter lunacy.

There are thousands of horror stories from students all over UCC on their nightmare landlords during a normal semester, but renting over the summer of Covid brought burdens of its own. The rent (€60 a week), was well over half of what the previous tenants would have been paying (€140 a week) just a few days before we entered the house in May. If you're a career landlord, you’d think you'd trust 6 adults to live their lives in their own home. However, no. There were weekly house calls, texts almost daily, and spying neighbours to add to the mix. Landlords make students’ lives just that bit harder. Is this because students are an easy target, or is it the manifestation of the superiority complex that comes with just being a landlord?

26 | OCTOBER 2020

While the summer months passed with the regular interactions with our landlord, the last week of our tenancy was like the launch of an attack on our personal characters.

We were evicted, given twelve hours notice, and told that our bags would be on the street if we didn't move out by then.

There were spurious reasons given for this eviction. Allegedly, it was due to ‘’consistent reports’’ of noise to the landlord throughout the summer, culminating in a large blow out party which has supposedly happened the night before.

At this point, I alert you of the location of the house, the densely populated Bandon Road. With nosey neighbours and the landlord texting constantly like a jealous husband, it would be almost impossible to throw the raging house parties the landlord accused us of having. Better yet, if they were happening and she was alerted of them, why was the issue not raised beforehand? It was clear that the landlord wanted us out so she could maximise profits by having two groups of renters (current and incoming) pay rent for the same week of living in the house. It shows that for many landlords, profit trumps moral compass.

I think my personal experience is a drop in the ocean when it comes to negative stories about landlords.

There seems to be a wider problem as to just one “bad apple” landlord, like in my story. There is an absence of affordable housing throughout the nation due to landlords hoarding properties for short-term leasings, which are often extortionately priced and have hay-wire rules and regulations.

Once again the government shows their ineptitude in solving social issues. This problem has fallen into the hands of grassroots campaigns and will be a hill this government will soon die on if they do not act soon.

DISCLAIMER Motley Magazine as an entity, through its contributors, and through its editorial staff takes no official position on drug policy. Motley does not condone nor condemn drug use and takes no responsibility for the individual, private and adult choices made by students at UCC, by our larger readership and by private citizens. Motley asserts its right to journalistic privilege as it pertains to this article and its source.

POETRY PHILLIP BRENNAN

My Head In my darkest hour, I put pen to paper.

Nothing writes.

The pages are compacted with empty and meaningless lines.

This emptiness, sadness and disillusionment bites and this is where my head and mind confines.

Rain trickles down the window and its cold shadow frond innuendo.

The untenanted voices cry but yet sing me a candied lullaby.

Who am I calling out for?

For what is this pleasure I do not deserve.

My head is simply a prisoner of my war.

This feeling is an invaluable reserve.

Something in which I intended not to preserve.

It will not be my final encore.

One will come subject to change.

A new season will indulge our epoch.

We will experience unique violence and rage.

We will be part of the new season's wash.

I put pen to paper Words flow as a summers watch.

I am not in need of an eraser.

Nothing can meet my match.

FEATURES & OPINIONS | 27

Entertaiment

WHEN CAN WE MAKE PLANS AGAIN?

BY JACK COLEMAN

2

020 has been a year of cancelled plans. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has derailed the vast majority of scheduled events and has kept everyone firmly isolated in their homes. Though Ireland had a brief easing of restrictions starting in May, we now find ourselves back in a full level five lockdown for six weeks. So-called “wet pubs” were scarcely open for a few weeks before once again being forced to close their doors. As for the entertainment industry, it never even had a chance to restart.

On March 24th, the government made the necessary choice to ban mass gatherings of over 5000 people for the foreseeable future. This immediately sank any hopes of a large-scale concert or festival in Ireland until at least Autumn. Popular annual festivals such as Longitude, Body and Soul, Electric Picnic and Sea Sessions were all forced to cancel. Individual gigs were also terminated, as artists could no longer safely perform and international acts were forced to cancel their tour dates.

Even local acts who perform small venues have struggled to find their footing as restrictions surrounding pubs and gatherings have fluctuated and changed on both a regional and national level. With the instability that COVID brings, how can any artist reliably plan their gigs? It’s a very tough time for those who ply their trade in the arts. A small comfort is that these unprecedented circumstances may spark a wave of creativity as people are stuck in isolation.

We’ve already seen a rise in people trying their hand in the “bedroom pop” scene.

We are now past “Autumn” and there is no light at the end of the tunnel for the arts and entertainment sector.

As we head back into a second lockdown, we aren’t even able to see our loved ones, nevermind being able to cram into a room or field with strangers accompanied by copious amounts of alcohol.

Curious to know if any country was allowing festivals, I did some searching online for comparative purposes. Predictably, the majority of festivals have been cancelled or postponed until 2021. There are still a couple of optimistic organisers clinging onto December 2020 timelines but these are being cancelled slowly one by one, Lollapalooza 2020 Brasil being a recent casualty. It looks like we’re all in the same boat globally.

28 | OCTOBER 2020

While far from the preferred experience of sweating it up in a venue, online concerts are an admirable attempt to fill the void. “Asia Rising Forever” was a four-hour online concert in May hosted by American music collective 88rising to showcase Asian artists around the world. Featuring artists like NIKI, Beabadoobee, mxmtoon and Rich Brian, watching the event was an enjoyable way to spend a night in lockdown.

Ticketed online concerts are becoming increasingly popular in Korea, with K-Pop groups like (G)I-DLE and MOMOLAND hosting their own gigs. Even right here in UCC, we had a live set from Kerry-based group MESSYNG during the Student Union’s “Digital Freshers Week”. Events like these go a long way to keep some semblance of normalcy in our lives.

But how long will it take before everything returns to normal? I recently became a fan of the Chicago-based indie-pop group Beach Bunny. On a whim, I decided to see if they were going on tour. Turns out they are! They’re scheduled to play The Workman’s Club, Dublin in April. But then a thought struck me, “Will we even be in a position to allow gigs in April?”. Is there a purpose in buying these tickets only to refund them? Then I pondered if the gigs I already had tickets to, Brockhampton in May 2021 and Beabadobee in September 2021 were even going to happen. We’re living in a world where plans made over a year in advance may not be possible. When can we start looking forward to events again?

There isn’t really an answer, only time will tell.

Night in the Woods:

Approaching Mental Health and Mature Themes in Video Games

BY KANE GEARY O'KEEFE

Credit: GDC

Throughout the last decade, video game narratives have made leaps in exploring topical themes such as mental health issues. While thankfully film and television have seen depictions of mental health and related issues released to critical and commercial success, last year’s hit movie Joker and HBO’s Euphoria being major examples, many games which bring adult themes to the fore don’t receive mainstream recognition.

C

oming up to Halloween it’s never been a better time to look back on an underrated gem of a game that explores everything from mental health disorders to the degradation of small towns, to the sense of isolation felt by the LGBT youth. 2017’s Night in the Woods tackles these themes and more with the aid of wonderfully charming anthropomorphic characters, a simplistic art style, and an engrossing coming of age narrative.

Night in the Woods follows Mae Borowski, a 20-year-old cat who returns from college to her hometown of Possum

Springs for unknown reasons, as she discovers that her old town isn’t as familiar to her as it once was.

Her friends are working full time to scrape by, all of the major stores and restaurants are slowly closing and leaving, oh…..and there’s something sinister going on in the woods.

You’d be forgiven for mistaking Night in the Woods as a children’s game at first glance, with its colourful cast of animal characters and chirpy soundtrack, but this game touches upon some dark themes to coincide with it’s late October/early November setting. The player spends the majority of

AWARD SEASON:

DEVELOPERS OF INFINITE FALL PRESENTING AT THE 2018 GDC AWARDS

the game exploring the town of Possum Springs, delving into Mae’s relationships with its various inhabitants. She’ll reunite with her best friend Gregg, an excitable punk fox who lives with his boyfriend Angus, a soft-spoken bear. She’ll also attempt to rekindle her friendship with Bea, a goth crocodile who harbours resentment towards Mae for throwing away her shot at college while Bea is left to run her ill father’s hardware shop.

However, things really pick up once the group finds a severed arm outside the local diner. What secrets does this town hide?

The town of Possum Springs is its own deteriorating character in Night in the Woods, as we watch how the death of small-town America affects each of its corners. The

local supermarket now sits on the outskirts of town, abandoned and home only to travellers with no place to stay and the local homeless.

The local Pastor struggles to create an initiative to allow the homeless to stay in her dying church but faces resistance from the town council who worry for the town’s image as they try to bring business to the town.

We learn from our interactions with the many characters in Night in the Woods that existing in Possum Springs brings its own issues. Gregg and Angus desperately wish to leave to the nearby thriving seaside town, where they aren’t the only LGBT couple.

Mae herself struggles to cope with how much her place of familiarity has changed, and she struggles even more so with what has remained the same. As her mental state deteriorates we are left in the realisation that this game has much more to say about the lives of struggling small town youth than we are first led to believe. Night in the Woods does a tremendous job of conveying the importance of relationships in overcoming communal and personal hardships while also telling an engrossing coming of age tale filled with lovable characters.

This Autumn is the perfect opportunity to explore this amazing game. Night in the Woods is perfect for fans of coming of age tales, Stranger Things, Halloween/Autumn, and games that explore themes of mental health. It runs for about 10 hours on a first playthrough and It’s available on PC, PS4, XBOX ONE, and Nintendo Switch for 20 EU.

ENTERTAINMENT | 29

Podcast

Break It Down

A Different Take on Pop Culture

The Epidemic of Her Not-So-Swift Recovery Album BREAK IT DOWN is an Irish podcast hosted by the perfect pairing of Hillary and Holly. Hillary is currently in final year in UCC studying Music and English and Holly has just graduated this year from a BA International.

The podcast explores many facets of pop culture. Break It Down is for those who are lovers of pop culture who enjoy having an in-depth conversation about shows which normally wouldn’t receive as much attention for their cinematography decisions like Love Island.

The first episode I listened to was “Love Island: The hyper-reality of TV.” As I am a massive fan of the show, especially within the last two years, it was interesting to hear the take of the girls. The introduction to the episode was lighthearted as they discussed TikTok obsessions with a guest on the show (same girlies).

30 | OCTOBER 2020

Break It Down includes a 60-second summary segment which gives you a rough idea about what theme/topic they are discussing in that show – which is a fabulous addition as it helps listeners stay engaged and gives them a taste of the topic which they may not be familiar with.

This particular 60-second summary was spot on! I mean, nobody could explain Love Island any better!

The podcast itself has an impressive flow to it and keeps you engaged throughout the episode.

I thoroughly enjoyed the analysis of the camera angles used for Maura Higgins’ entrance in the show and the description that it was almost predatory in nature.

Break It Down brings it all to the table, even if you don’t have a massive interest in analysing pop culture and have a simple interest in the show it is still very

BY REBECKAH MCCARTHY

accessible. But for anyone who enjoys analysing media to an almost academic extent and enjoys discourse on cinematography then this is the podcast for you.

I was lucky enough to get in contact with Holly and Hillary and ask them a few questions to get to know more about them and the podcast! During this conversation, we touched on many topics such as future plans, inspiration, who would be their ideal candidate for the show (dead or alive) and finally what their favourite form of entertainment is. The broadcast is the perfect balance between eccentricity and education (Holly and Hillary are onto something!).

The girls really get into the nitty-gritty about how the show is not all it seems to be but how easy it is to be drawn in and feel involved with the show.

They explain that Break It

Down is a podcast which explores the unexplored areas of pop culture: “What we mean by this is we take a pop culture topic, maybe a movie, song or a book and explore it from an angle that is overlooked. A lot of the time people don't see the value in popular culture and instantly dismiss it as ‘low culture’, but we don’t believe in this or guilty pleasures! We want to prompt people to think about the media they consume in different ways, and really think about it critically and analytically.”

Holly and Hillary’s future plans for the podcast include collaborations with other podcasts such as Bandwagons and Behind the Future. They are continuing to plan their weekly episodes and are taking everything as it comes.

With podcasting becoming more and more popular, and with its potential to overtake media

formats such as vlogging in popularity in the near future, I had to ask what Hillary and Holly’s favourite aspect about podcasting was. They both told me of their love of researching and getting into the minutiae of culture: “Getting the opportunity to research and explore topics that we usually wouldn't have thought about! Like, when else would one get the opportunity to do some heavy research on the Monster Mash? We actually have a Halloween series

coming up which we are so excited about!” Holly tells how she “nearly died when Hilary blew up [her] phone at 5am a couple of weeks ago saying [they] should break down the Monster Mash for [their] Halloween episode.”

With grá emanating from her she proclaims, “It’s just SO perfect!! Like, I would LOVE to listen to a podcast episode about the Monster Mash? We have been best friends for years, so it’s an amazing opportunity to be able to do something like

this together and share the great experiences that come along with podcasting. Our ‘podcast celebrations’ are the best excuse to crack open a bottle of wine. Also, we love meeting other podcasters and being welcomed to the community! Since we started, we’ve been connecting with so many brilliant Irish podcasters and Irish artists in general! We already have had so many amazing experiences like collaborating with Sissy That Pod. Also working with Cork

artist Shelley Trinder who designed our Break it Down logo!”

Break It Down is available fortnightly and you can keep an eye on their social media accounts for any updates, specials or collaborations that are on the way! Listen to Break It Down wherever you get your podcasts. If you have any suggestions for Hillary and Holly, you can contact them on their social media or send an email to breakitdownhh@ gmail.com.

AS THE SHOW IS ABOUT ANALYSING POP CULTURE I ASKED THE TWO GIRLS WHO THEY WOULD LOVE TO INTERVIEW, DEAD OR ALIVE:

Hillary

“For me, it's David Bowie. Not only is he my absolute hero, but there's always something about his interviews that fascinates me, he's always extremely engaging and seems to give something different to every interviewer.

Right now, I'm starting my dissertation on Bowie and Postmodernism and I would love to ask him a few questions about his influences and his opinions on media and identity. If he were still alive I’m sure he would have some fascinating ideas and insight on this dystopian time we are living through.”

Holly

“The person that popped immediately into my head was Greta Gerwig. Gerwig is someone that I really look up to and is kind of everything I wish to be! I think that her writing is just so wonderful, her characters always seem to resonate with me. Gerwig has such a fiery passion that radiates so strongly in her interviews, to the point that it almost feels contagious, so I think it would be delightful to hear her point of view on literally any Break It Down topic!”

ENTERTAINMENT | 31

Lofi Rebel Country: A Glance at Cork’s Music Scene

BY JACK COLEMAN

ANYONE WHO KNOWS ME PERSONALLY KNOWS I’VE NEVER REALLY HAD AN INTEREST IN LOCAL MUSIC SCENES, MY PRIMARY MUSICAL INTEREST LIES IN THE MUCH-DERIDED KOREAN POP GENRE. HOWEVER, UPON BECOMING THE ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR AT MOTLEY MAGAZINE I FELT IT WAS NECESSARY TO EDUCATE MYSELF ON THE THRIVING LOCAL MUSIC SCENE IN CORK CITY AND BEYOND. THIS ARTICLE IS THE RESULT OF THIS VENTURE, I LISTENED TO

APPROXIMATELY THIRTY LOCAL ARTISTS AND I WOULD GIVE MY THOUGHTS ON ALL OF THEM IF I COULD BUT UNFORTUNATELY, I HAVE LIMITED PAGE SPACE. SO INSTEAD I PICKED ARTISTS THAT WOULD COVER A WIDE RANGE OF MUSIC GENRES, SO EVERYONE WOULD HAVE SOMEONE TO CHECK OUT. I APPROACHED THIS EXERCISE WITH AN UNCRITICAL LENS, PREFERRING TO APPRECIATE THE MUSIC FOR WHAT IT IS RATHER THAN BEING NEEDLESSLY CRITICAL AND PEDANTIC.

ELAINE HOWLEY

Elaine Howley has been a mainstay in Cork City’s music scene over the years. She is the lead singer of The Altered Hours and Crevice among other outfits. Recently, Howley has been releasing some of her own solo work.

For starters, her song “Ignite” released as part of “The 343 Vol I”, an album compiled by The 343, a queer arts space in Belfast. Ignite is a mournful track with a smooth musical quality. Howley’s vocals are muffled and echo slightly as the music rises and falls, perfect for the forlorn vibe of this song.

“Song for Mary Black” is a personal favourite of mine. This song has eccentric traditional Irish tones which are accompanied perfectly by Elaine’s chilling soft vocals, which border on inaudible in this mix. Haunting is the most accurate adjective for this track. Following the pandemic, I imagine you won’t have to look too hard to find Elaine Howley performing at one of Cork City’s beloved venues.

32 | OCTOBER 2020

As someone who’s music taste usually lies in the highly produced and promoted, I approached this exercise with little idea of what to expect. I ended up being blown away by the quality of the music being produced right here in my own county. Although I couldn’t feature all the artists I enjoyed, I hope I have laid the seeds for the reader to conduct their very own exploration of our local music scene here in Cork. It’s now more important than ever to support our local artists who are going through tough times as a result of the ongoing pandemic. And when this is all over, we should support them even more because of our collective newfound appreciation for the arts. After learning about the wealth of talent in Cork, I personally will be attending more local gigs. I hope to bump into many of you there.

PRETTY HAPPY

Pretty Happy is a Cork-based trio made up of siblings Arann (vocals, bass guitar) and Abbey Blake (guitar) and Andy Killian (drums). While their discography isn’t massive as of yet, the tracks they have released are very promising.

I would describe their sound as aggressive, almost frantic, with an unmistakable punk colouring. Their most popular single “Schmuck” is a perfect example of their sound, Arann’s vocals are shouty and energetic and play over a guitar-heavy gritty backing track. The song gradually fades into distortion, leaving the listener wanting more.

“Mr Crabs” is a less aggressive track, possessing a pseudo-groovy beat that comes across almost like a sea shanty (appropriate for the song’s namesake). With catchy lyrics and a rowdy indie vibe, this tune was very enjoyable. By all accounts, Pretty Happy is exactly as energetic live as you’d predict from listening to their music. They play venues around Cork so when it’s safe to do so I recommend you check out one of their gigs.

OUTSIDER YP

Outsider YP is a Cork-based rapper with an eccentric boundary-pushing style. A familiar face in the Irish festival scene, the young rapper has played at festivals like Electric Picnic and Body and Soul. Regularly releasing new work, Outsider YP is one to keep your eye on for sure. His latest release “Pewdieboy” is a chill hip-hop track with a sombre beat playing repetitively in the background. Outsider YP’s vocals in this track are slightly distorted and are played in conjunction with various sample sounds, giving the track a lo-fi vibe which is perfect for its sad lyrics.

Many of Outsider YP’s tracks are in the same vein, sobering lyrics rapped over a cool yet bleak lo-fi track. He is certainly representative of a current trend in music but he excels in this niche regardless. “Disco”, an EP released by the artist in 2019, displays Outsider YP’s vocal ability more clearly. The majority of the song has Outsider YP showcasing his “sing rap” over a repetitive swerving beat, eventually growing more frenetic towards the end which is a nice touch. If you enjoy distorted lo-fi hiphop then Outsider YP is for you.

KYOTO LOVE HOTEL Kyoto Love Hotel is an electric duo composed of Laura Sheary (Belfast) and Joe Geaney (Cork).

Interestingly enough, the pair have said in the past that the physical space between them is an appropriate metaphor for their music which seeks to evoke a feeling of expansiveness in the listener. The first song I listened to from the pair was “I Float” and I was instantly drawn into this track. Laura’s enchanting accented vocals accompanied by a steady wondrous drone in the background immediately captures the kind of expansive vibe that the pair were going for. The synths that ping your ears throughout the song conjure up aerial images of nature in your mind’s

AUTOMATIC BLUE

Automatic Blue is where Hausu founding member Drew Linehan curates his electronic pop madness. For those unaware, Hausu is a Cork City music collective which houses multiple artists who often collaborate to great effect, I encourage everyone to check out their other artists. As for Automatic Blue, heavy distortion and vocal manipulation are the name of the game for the majority of his work. “make friends” opens with an erratic manipulation on the vocals before exploding into auto-tune goodness. The beat in this song is bouncy which synergises very well with its first drop. The occasionally shouty lyrics are icing on the cake.

“Boy Toy” is a collaboration with fellow Hausu member Ghostking is Dead. Linehan’s contributions are his typical distorted almost-inaudible vocal style which eventually transitions into Ghostking’s cleaner verse.

Various synths have been worked in throughout this energetic song so the trained ear is always exploring something new throughout. Overall, I was really impressed with both the work of Automatic Blue and also the Hausu collective as a whole. If you’re a fan of electronic pop you’d definitely find their work entertaining, very interesting production in all of their tracks.

eye as you listen.

The droning synths in “Shapes That Bond You” evoke a different kind of wonder, almost cosmic in nature. Laura’s distorted vocals are very reminiscent of GLaDOS (of Portal), they are robotic yet unmistakably emotional all the same. The backing track is very pleasing on the ears as it plays out in a pattern. I am intrigued by the work of this pair and I will personally be keeping my eye on them as they expand their discography. Kyoto Love Hotel has been known to attend festivals in the past so here’s hoping!

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Fashion

Cork Charity Helping Women Out of Unemployment

BY KAIA PURCELL

W

hile we all seem to be trying our best to navigate through the adversities and challenges we face in today’s climate, the truth is that every one of us needs a helping hand at times. For those facing unemployment and job losses in a time of global upheaval and a turbulent climate emergency, it can be impossible to imagine where to turn to in search of guidance. Cue Carmel O'Keeffe, CEO of Dress For Success Cork, whose notfor-profit organisation is helping women to re-enter the workforce by facilitating training and emotional support through various activities such as style makeovers and providing women with workwear for their job interviews.

Dress For Success Cork was born out of necessity during the financial crisis back in 2013, when over 19,000 women were unemployed in Cork county alone. CEO Carmel noted that “the need was obvious but it was difficult to know where to start”.

Since opening their doors Dress For Success Cork has worked with almost 1,000 women, offering them the necessary information,

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tools and skills to “succeed in life and in work”. Their services include confidence building coaching sessions, interview training, and personal presentation skills.

Clients receive a make-over from professional stylists at their premises on 123 Patrick Street. An holistic approach aims to empower and encourage women from every background that have found themselves facing unemployment and financial instability. As outlined by the organisation, one of the most common effects of unemployment is a loss of self esteem which can in turn lead to mental health issues and a lack of motivation to persevere in their quest to re-enter the workforce.

Such impediments can lead to a vicious cycle of loss of assets, debt, even leading to homelessness. Dress For Success Cork work to arm the women of the county with an armoury of resources and support to overcome these challenges.

Whoever said that the right outfit can’t help you accomplish your goals?

Carmel and her team firmly believe that boosting women’s confidence by giving them a style transformation can act as a fantastic focal point in their emotional, physical and educational journey to

a better life. The makeover portion of the experience includes dressing tips for interviews and workplaceappropriate attire, but the organisation also highlights the fact that they are “about much more than simply a new outfit”. The aim is to imbue the client with newfound confidence and style, and provide them with a valuable reintroduction to the world of work.

The admirable work of the volunteers and the goals which they strive to achieve for each woman that walks through their doors is needed now more than ever. The world in which we find ourselves is one full of uncertainty for so many. In order to face these difficult times in our country, we must all strive to foster a sense of unity and goodwill in our communities. The amazing work done by

LOOKING AHEAD:

MEMBERS OF DRESS FOR SUCCESS CELEBRATE THEIR 5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY IN 2018

voluntary organisations like Dress For Success Cork is helping women in disadvantaged situations to improve their employability by giving them valuable skills and training. They are a testament to the important role that fashion and style can play in boosting a person’s self-esteem, which in turn strengthens confidence in their own abilities. It can be all too easy to slip into a cycle of despair.

However, it is the little things that add up in bringing huge change to someone’s life. Thanks to Carmel and her team helping women to dress for success we can see how hundreds of women have benefited from a helping hand and an outfit to shine in.

If you wish to support this great cause you can at cork.dressforsuccess.org

Where We Are Photographer Emma Price Location Student house in Cork City Models Tom O'Connell Heather Sheehan

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Five Sustainable Beauty Swaps to Change Up your Self-Care Routine

BY GRACE CLARO

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My number one swap has got to be good old fashioned soap bars. Do away with plastic shower gel bottles and liquid soap dispensers, revert to a trusty bar of soap and you will be saving on resources and emissions. My personal favourites are the Palm Free soap bars from Zero Waste Irish Soap Ltd, a company based in Co.Clare who make vegan and cruelty free soap. I usually pick them up at Quay Coop, but I have also seen them in Horans Health Stores.

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Number two is solid shampoo and conditioner.

I have tried many zero-waste hair care alternatives in my time and the star items for me would have to be the Honey I Washed My Hair solid shampoo, and the Jungle solid conditioner from Lush. They retail at around €10 each but don’t be put off by the price, these bars can last several months.

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Number three is a really quick oil-based makeup cleanser recipe. Use a glass bottle or repurpose a plastic one and fill it with two thirds olive oil. Get yourself some organic castor oil (available in Holland and Barrett) and top up the remaining third of the bottle. Give it a mix around and you have an environmentally friendly, all natural makeup remover on a budget. I use a plain muslin cloth to remove the oil once it has broken down my makeup. I have been using this recipe over a year now and it is absolutely foolproof.

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et’s face it, sometimes being a responsible consumer can be hard. It can seem like every bottle of shower gel and shampoo is promoting its eco-friendly attributes. From “recyclable packaging” to “palm free,” to “plant-based cleansers,” cosmetics companies are using the language of sustainability as an attractive sales stimuli. But how can we be sure we are buying products that meet these criteria? Luckily for all of you Motley readers out there, I have put together this ethical beauty edit that will guide you in finding the best products for your money and the environment.

Before we begin, we should ask ourselves just what is it that makes a product ‘sustainable’? Even if the packaging is recyclable like PET and HDPE plastics, upwards of eighty grams of carbon dioxide are emitted into the atmosphere in the production of one 500ml plastic shampoo bottle. Ingredients like palm oil create havoc in the environment as a result of intensive monoculture in the global south, silicones’ petro-chemicals which form the basis of soaps and detergents seep into soils and water systems and take decades to break down, if ever. So, with these grim realities in mind, here is my list of five ethical beauty swaps that you can easily implement into your daily self-care routine.

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Number four is for my fellow menstruators out there. Natracare are a range of sanitary products that are made from organic cotton, cellulose, and bio-plastic.

While ordinary sanitary towels have a plastic base which will take 400 years to biodegrade, these are 100% biodegradable and will break down in just a few weeks.

Natracare products are available in Horans Health Stores and in the Quay Coop.

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And number five, where would we be without our bamboo toothbrushes in 2020? It goes without saying that a bamboo handle is better than a plastic one. Colgate released their very own bamboo toothbrushes earlier in the year so there is no excuse but to get on the dental sustainability bandwagon...if there even is one.

Societies Spotlight Irina Fernandes, Societies Executive PRO

Our brand new "Effective Committee Member" Digital Badge is awarded to any committee member who attends 10 of our training sessions over the course of the year.

These sessions cover everything from how to manage your Society Finances to graphic design and even how to update your LinkedIn to reflect the experience you've gained from being on a committee.

Now that societies have taken off, they will be holding elections to fill in their committees. If this is your first time getting involved with societies you might have heard the term EGM and felt slightly confused on what exactly it was. Well, an EGM stands for Emergency General Meeting and it is usually held within the first few months of the academic year. This is typically where societies elect their first year reps and make any constitutional

Employers are always on the lookout for that small detail that sets you ahead of the rest of the pack and a Digital Badge is exactly the kind of thing to do so! If you ever have any questions about the programme, just contact Adam (president@uccsocieties.ie) and he'll be more than happy to answer them for you!

amendments that they want!

Joining a committee is a fantastic way to get involved and get good experience on event organizing and being part of a team in an extra curricular activity. This is a very good perk to have in a CV as committee members on Societies can earn a Digital Badge to highlight all the work they put in!

Name: Adam Burke Position: Societies President What did you do in college?

BSc Chemistry of Pharmaceutical Compounds!

(CPC for short) What Societies were you involved with?

I was Webmaster and Chairperson of the Musical Theatre Society (or MTS as it's now known)!

Favourite memory of Societies? Oh god that's a tough question... I think I'd have to say winning Best Event for Cabaret when I was Chair of MTS! So many people put so many hours of work into that show and to have it recognised by the Societies Exec at the time meant so much to so many of us! It was also great because we were 100% convinced we hadn't won, so it came as a nice surprise to us at the C&S Ball!

What's your number one tip to stay sane while working/studying from home?

Stay connected! Keeping in touch regularly with my friends and family has done me the world of good and helps to have a social outlet that isn't just meetings and lectures!

Meet the Executive

THE PROFESSOR'S PEN DR. MIRANDA CORCORAN

Home is the Place We Cling To It’s late October. Night draws in earlier and earlier each evening. Trees blaze orange, yellow and red. Roadsides and ditches accumulate piles of fallen leaves. There’s an icy chill in the air, and Halloween is just around the corner. It’s the perfect time for a ghost story:

Imagine a young family – a husband, a wife, at least two children – pulling up to their new home in a clunky, family car, perhaps a wood-panelled station wagon. Their house is perfect: white timber, gleaming windows, a porch.

Slowly, though, over time, the house reveals itself to be something more. There are noises in the night, personal items disappear and reappear later in bizarre locations, furniture levitates, the children exhibit strange behaviour and speak in unknown voices. Of course, you know this story. It’s the plot of innumerable films and novels: The Amityville Horror (1979), Poltergeist (1982), The Conjuring (2013). As a child, and even as an adolescent, I would watch films like these and wonder why the families in question didn’t just leave. Why didn’t they pack up their belongings, bundle their children into the car, and find a new home? Naturally, as a child, I was unaware of the complex legal and contractual labyrinth in which one becomes ensnared when buying a house. It’s intriguing, though, that so much of our horror fiction is centred on the home, on the anxiety inherent in purchasing a new house and the fear that a longed-for dream home might sit a top some unfathomable well of darkness.

Decades later, renting my first apartment, I know that there is nothing, natural or preternatural, that could cause me to leave. If I discovered a malevolent spirit inhabiting my reasonably-priced, one-bedroom flat, I would probably contact the Residential Tenancies Board to find out if I could force it to pay rent or at least contribute to the electricity bill. I’m stubbornly entrenched here, and no amount of spectral activity, ectoplasmic manifestations or nocturnal groans could drive me away. Like many Irish people, I struggled to find a place to live. During my undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, I lived at home and commuted more than two hours every day to college and a part-time job based on campus. When I began lecturing, I also commuted daily because I simply could not afford to rent in the city on what was then a part-time salary. I finally moved out of home, at the late age of 31, when I secured my first full-time contract. However, I was only able to live in the city because, by that point, I was in a long-term relationship with someone willing to split the rent with me. Even on a decent professional salary, renting an apartment is difficult.

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Most people I know either live with a partner or share with flatmates. Searching for a place to live was an exhausting and demoralising ordeal. My partner and I would scour listings on daft.ie, but properties were swiftly snapped up, usually within a few hours of having been posted. Some buildings required prospective renters to fill out detailed application forms and were quick to dismiss tenants they considered less than ideal.

Despite the average rent in Ireland hovering around €1,200 at the time, most city-centre rentals in Cork were considerably higher.

I am acutely aware that as a potential renter, I occupy a relatively privileged position. I have what most landlords would view as a “respectable” job; I am white, able-bodied and cisgender. I don’t have children or pets to consider. Friends of mine struggled to find a rental property that would allow them to keep their tiny cat. I know a woman of colour who had inordinate difficulty trying to secure a temporary rental in Cork city. According to a recent article in the Irish Times, the average asking price for a house in Ireland is €282,000, though if you want or need to live in an urban area, that will be considerably more. I don’t hold out much hope of ever being able to afford my own home in this country. Yet, I am lucky. I have a roof over my head. I have somewhere warm and safe to retreat at the end of the day. When it rains, as it so often does here, I have shelter.

In Dublin alone, around 1,200 families were counted as homeless this year. In 2014, that number was only 331. The charity Focus Ireland reports that during the week of 24th – 30th of August 2020, 8,702 people were homeless in Ireland.

There is so much that could be done to alleviate the current housing crisis, yet it is a problem that remains largely unaddressed. Ireland lacks affordable public housing, and this is a problem that seems to be getting worse. In the late 1990s, my mother was able to finally purchase her council house with the help of a rent-to-buy scheme she had opted into during the eighties. Today, these kinds of supports are disappearing. While the last few years have seen an increase in private house construction, insufficient levels of affordable and social housing mean that those most in need will continue to struggle to find a home.

Similarly, the rental market is still largely unregulated, with rents remaining absurdly high and landlords free to make often unreasonable requests of prospective tenants. Horror often finds its way into our homes because that is where we are most vulnerable. Home is the place we cling to most tightly; it is our shelter in a chaotic, unreliable world. As a

child, I failed to understand the desperation with which the inhabitants of haunted homes clung to the properties, even at the risk of physical violence or death. Today, in the midst of a housing crisis, as rents continue to climb and more people than ever find themselves on the street, I finally understand that desperation. I, too, would brave monsters and restive spectres for the warmth and comfort of home.scenarios in which, bereft of human inhabitants, the earth continues to flourish. Often in these stories some catastrophe – a nuclear war or a deadly disease – decimates the population, leaving few, if any, survivors behind. Yet, with people vanished from the globe, nature is replenished. The earth is covered in resplendent greenery, animals multiply, water runs clear and pure. In Mary Shelley’s pioneering sci-fi novel The Last Man (1826), humankind is all but wiped out by a plague.

As our species dwindles, however, nature reawakens and in the midst of death, new life sweeps across the face of the earth. Similarly, Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” (1950) depicts a future in which humanity has been wiped out by nuclear war and all that remains is abandoned technology, smart homes and automated assistants that are slowly consumed by a natural world run wild in the absence of people. That such narratives should exist suggests two things: firstly, that humans have, for a long time, been aware of the damage we are doing to our planet, but have hoped that without our influence the earth might heal itself; and, secondly, that while we can visualise the destruction of humanity, the fall of civilisation and the cessation of progress, we have always struggled to imagine the loss of our habitat. We can imagine all kinds of losses, but the loss of the earth itself is too much. For a long time, we avoided thinking about it and imagined that even if we destroyed ourselves, the planet at least would linger after us.

In the past few decades, however, we have been forced to contemplate the far more disturbing possibility that we have caused irreparable damage to the planet and that even without us – without our polluting industries, our governmental indifference and casual carelessness – the earth might never repair itself. In 1962, a fifty-four-year-old marine biologist named Rachel Carson published a book called Silent Spring in which she warned of a “strange blight”, an “evil spell” rotting our towns and spoiling our countryside.

The wicked enchantment Carson described was pollution – which in the 1960s was largely attributed to chemicals like DDT – and her book is credited with inaugurating the modern environmentalist movement. Since then, we have

become more adept at visualising the destruction of our environment. In the same year, English author J.G. Ballard’s The Drowned World (1962) imagined melting icecaps and rising sea levels. Later, films like Silent Running (1972) would envision the extinction of earth’s plant life. After the turn of the millennium, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006) and Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy (2003-2013) would present even bleaker visions of ecological catastrophe. We have learned to articulate the once unimaginable loss, the incomparable grief, that would attend the destruction of our environment. We must confront this loss because we are already in the midst of it. In a 2009 issue of the journal Nature Johan Rockström, along with twenty-eight other scientists, argued that we have already overstepped three of the major planetary thresholds that define the safe operating space for humanity with regard to the biophysical systems. By the early 2000s, humanity had crossed the thresholds for carbon emissions, nitrogen pollution and biodiversity loss. We have been forced, in our fiction and in our fantasy, to imagine environmental collapse because the destruction of our planet is no longer a vague, future abstraction but a very real process in which we are currently caught.

I wanted to end this column with some reassuring words about how we might slow the pace of environmental degradation, but I’m not sure I can find them. When I was a child, in the early nineties, the popular narrative was one of personal responsibility: if we recycled our cardboard, picked up after ourselves and cycled instead of driving, we could save the planet. There was even a popular children’s cartoon called Captain Planet and the Planeteers (yes, really!) that ran from 1990-1996 and taught children how they could play a part in protecting the environment. Today, it’s harder to maintain the belief that if individuals simply modify their behaviour, we might be able to reverse the catastrophic damage already done to our planet. The last few years have seen a shift away from narratives of personal responsibility – discourses that often penalised our poorest and most vulnerable citizens – and towards an understanding that the mitigation of our current climate crisis requires major systemic change at both governmental and industry level. Although we, as individuals, should try to behave in an environmentally responsible manner where we can, the present crisis demands more: we need to hold our politicians and corporations to account, push for change in any way we can and refuse to remain silent as our planet becomes increasingly inhospitable.

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