VOL.XXV, Issue 7, UO

SU ELECTION SPECIAL

Candidate Interviews | Referendum Info | Analysis & Opinion

Supplement inside

THE UNIVERSITY VOL. XXV, ISSUE 7

OBSERVER 26TH MARCH 2019

UNIVERSITYOBSERVER.IE

Plagiarism, late submissions policy reviews “encouraging a change in behaviour”, says UCDSU Dylan O’Neill DEPUTY EDITOR Discussions are ongoing over the review of certain academic policies, specifically UCD’s plagiarism and late submission policies among sub-committees of Academic Council, the University Observer has learned. According to minutes from the 8th executive forum meeting, which took place on at the beginning of semester two, UCDSU Education Officer Stephen Crosby told members present, that UCD was looking at a “points based plagiarism service, as opposed to definition based plagiarism system.”

Under the current plagiarism policy’s scope, when an examiner detects plagiarism in a student’s coursework, the student should be informed and given advice on using correct citation to avoid future instances of plagiarism and may be asked to resubmit the assignment. The plagiarised coursework is then referred under each school’s individual plagiarism advisory arrangements, with the school making a decision as to whether to handle the incident at a local level or “whether it merits being handled as a disciplinary matter by the Registrar or their nominee.” In cases where the plagiarised coursework is referred to the Registrar, UCD’s disciplinary procedures allow for the possible penalties of re-submitting the coursework with a D- grade cap, exclusion of the student from the module or exclusion of the student from the programme.

In an interview with the University Observer, Crosby said that discussions on the review of this policy was being overseen on the Academic Council Committee on Student Conduct and Capacity, a subcommittee of Academic Council that specifically deals with “student-related conduct and capacity policies, like the Student Code.”

The points based system, if implemented by Academic Council, will “mean that there is less leeway in terms of interpretation. It’s more akin to a certain set of criteria that have a certain number of points attributed to them and then there is a certain amount of thresholds,” to determine what punishment is most suitable. Under this pointsbased system, a first year student on their first reported plagiarised piece of coursework will acquire less points than a final year student who plagiarised their thesis.

NUI Galway operates under a points based system for plagiarism, with the policy outlining specific scenarios of plagiarism and the points that are attributed to these actions. For example, “submission purchased from essay mill or ghostwriting service” warrants 225 points to the student. The system also states that a student with a points total of 380+ will be subject to a “formal warning, with record made contributing to the student’s previous history.”

According to Crosby, discussions began over policy review just prior to him taking office in the summer of 2018. “The last time they were reviewed was about five years ago, UCD is basically taking a quality assurance...

Something written five years ago may not be as clear to a new batch of students as something that is going to be reviewed and cleaned up in terms of language. The policy review system in UCD is based on a five year scale.” The points based system would “[take] more workload off of the student and the people investigating the plagiarism and it provides a more level playing field, an equal application across the different schools and different colleges, so you

don’t have a situation where one person has a particular plagiarism case in one school and its dealt differently in a different school, even if the student is in both schools.”

Crosby believes that this system would help students understand where plagiarism happens and would “level the playing field in terms of the experience students have when it comes to plagiarism investigations...that every student across UCD would have would be more streamlined and consistent...it’s almost like feedback: what you did, what the impact was, and therefore, what the level of punishment or lack thereof is going to be.” While Crosby acknowledged that the committee were looking into a new points based system, he was unable to confirm if it would be implemented in UCD. Another policy review which was discussed at the executive forum meeting was on late submissions. UCDSU Graduate Officer Niall Torris presented the item for discussion to members of the forum as he currently holds a seat on the Academic Council Committee on Examination (ACCE) which reviewed this particular policy. Torris told the University Observer that the policy, which was last reviewed in 2006, was discussed “lightly towards the end of semester one and the trusted discussion happened in semester two” on the board level, and was first brought to executive forum at the beginning of semester two.

The review on the late submissions policy concerns addressing incidents which arise on or the day before the deadline for submission, that differ from the current policy on extenuating circumstances that “are something that you know you have to apply for or for something that suddenly comes up that affects your ability e.g. bereavement or mental illness.” According to Torris, this review would address the scenarios that “only need a solution at a local level and don’t need a full extenuating circumstances application... and going to a programme board for approval,” formalising

this procedure and bringing it in line with “best practice in certain schools in the university and what the university feels is best practice.”

Under this proposed review of the policy, a student who encounters an immediate issue that prevents them from meeting a deadline for submission of a piece of coursework, may contact the module coordinator and decide on what steps to take next, without being penalised for late submission. Torris gave the examples of submitting only an online version or submitting a physical copy of the coursework a week later. Torris explained that this will differ from the existing policy “where nothing has been submitted for it and maybe it’s on the day or the day before, but you might not have the chance to apply until afterwards, which technically on the way that the policies are written currently, you have to go through extenuating circumstances, but that’s not necessarily always the case.

This rationalises that policy and applies it broadly.”

The ACCE also discussed penalties for late submission where no extenuating circumstances were approved.

Bringing the policy in line with the new academic regulations for next year, 0.2 of a grade will be deducted for up to the first week a piece of coursework is submitted late, with 0.4 being deducted up to the second week. Torris explained that the deductions are based on a paper he wrote and submitted to ACCE, “it essentially halved the penalties and that’s the recommendation from ACCE.” A third penalty of -0.6 for up to the third week of late submission is being considered, with Torris advocating for its inclusion in the committee’s review. There were concerns raised around the supposed practice of students missing the first deadline for an assignment and accepting a penalty reduction of 2 grade points so they could continue to work on the assignment for another week. “I believe the line that was used was ‘encouraging a change

in behaviour’”, Torris stated. Defending his proposal to the committee, he said, “my contention is that we are probably talking about a relatively small number of people who would even fall into the 2-3 week or the 10-15 working day bracket, if that were to be added, but there was some concern about if adding that third week would leave people who are possibly weaker students or finding it more difficult to excel in the module, it would lead them to not take it on because they are already struggling with it and may avoid it for longer.”

“The other one is that the language is changing from ‘weeks’ to ‘working days’, so the first week is now ‘up to five working days late’ and the second week is now ‘six to ten working days late’ and that also brings it into line with change to ‘working days’ language in the regulations more generally.” Students will be able to benefit from “extra time” to submit their late assignments without moving from one threshold to the next as weekends and bank holidays will not be considered “working days” that the piece of coursework is overdue, once the review is agreed upon by the Academic Council.

However, students who submit their coursework late, may not receive their feedback within the 20 working day period of the deadline, but may receive it within 20 working days of their submission. “I think if we’re going to expect people to hold up to deadlines for us, we have to hold up to our deadlines as well...If you’re two weeks late, it might be 20 days from then,” Torris told the University Observer.

Torris believes that the review of the late submission policy will be passed by the next Academic Council in April, and “any edits would be minor enough that they wouldn’t change the spirit of the document and could be made under the Chair’s action and implied the following year.”

Features

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Gaeilge

Sports

Caster Semenya and female athlete testosterone

The extent of the extended phenotype

Doireann de Courcy Mac Donnell

Emmet Feerick

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An Rath atá ar thairgí as Gaeilge Michéal Ó Cathasaigh P15

Output Sports: at the coalface of Sports Science Rory Clarke P20

Image credit: Conor Cosgrove

26TH MARCH 2019

1

NEWS

New teachers being poached to work abroad as teacher shortage worsens

National news in brief Tara Hanneffy

IT Sligo set to receive €13.7 million investment Education Minister Joe McHugh and Higher Education Minister of State Mary Mitchell O’Connor have announced that Institute of Technology Sligo is set to receive a €13.7 million investment as part of Project Ireland 2040.

Project Ireland 2040 is a scheme which aims to provide investments of €2.2 billion in Ireland’s higher education infrastructure.

The investment will be funded through the Higher Education Authority, and is intended for the development of the K and L blocks on the institute’s north campus.

IT Sligo President Brendan McCormack has said: “The funding will facilitate a significant upgrade of the existing north campus in IT Sligo, bringing together architecture, creative design, fine art, interior architecture & design, performing arts and writing & literature programmes into a creative hub on campus.

The upgraded facilities will encourage engagement with the creative industry and community and will act as a focal point for creative sector in the region.” This investment will be utilised in the formation of a North-Campus Hub, as IT Sligo looks to progress to the status of Technological University and increase its student population to 10,000.

Gavin Tracey:

Despite the acute shortage of secondary school teachers in Ireland, trainee teachers are being offered substantially significant sums of money to teach abroad by international recruitment shortages.

Offers including upfront sums of €5,000 and the promise of better wages in other countries are being extended to trainee teachers straight out of university, due to teacher shortages in countries including the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Countries such as the United Arab Emirates and China offer salaries far greater than Ireland.

The recruiting agencies are targeting teachers for subjects such as maths and science. Irish teachers are highly sought after, and are popular among schools and students, according to New Zealand recruiting agencies.

Even countries that offer slightly lower salaries than would be available to new teachers in Ireland are at an advantage, due to the relocation bonuses and substantially lower costs

of living.

The UAE currently has a large portion of Irish teachers abroad, with about a third of the 10,000 Irish people there being teachers. Due to strong regulations and standards in Irish schools, many trainee teachers in Ireland are more qualified than native teachers in other countries.

Many, including teachers unions such as ASTI and INTO, cite the reduced wages new teachers were faced with after 2011, resulting in a two tier pay system in Irish schools. The 10% pay reduction that was implemented after the crash has only been lifted this year. While this will certainly help in keeping teachers in Ireland, the damage it has done will take many years to recover from. Séamus Lahart, head of the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI), said that this pay discrimination meant that teaching couldn’t compete with more lucrative private sector professions. The number of applicants to postgraduate teacher education

Pay cuts were not the only issue facing new teachers for the past decade. Securing a permanent contract was notoriously difficult for new teachers, and usually they would have to work as a substitute teacher, as opposed to other countries whereby they would be teaching their own classes from the beginning. New teachers must complete 200 hours of teaching practice before they may register with the Teaching Council, however many find themselves in direct competition with already qualified teachers, making it difficult to get off the ground. It has been estimated that the number of teachers under 35 on part time contracts could be as high as 50 percent. This issue too has been partially addressed by the government earlier this year.

However many unions, including the ASTI and TUI, say that these measures do not go far enough in restoring full pay equality. The president of the TUI has called the measures “sticking plasters.”

These issues led to not only new teachers leaving, but also more experienced teachers seeking to benefit from teaching abroad. Some of these teachers will return now that these issues are being addressed, it will not go far in ameliorating the teacher shortage currently being faced.

Career progression is also an issue in Irish schools, as promotional opportunities are much greater in countries such as the UK and the UAE. Irish teachers may find themselves at the same career level for up to 20 years, as opposed to other countries where they might find themselves in more senior positions in only a matter of years.

These shortages have led to many students being taught by “out of field” teachers, teachers who are not qualified in the field they are teaching in, according to the Teachers Union of Ireland. This has led to concerns over not just the retention rate for teachers, but also for the quality of teaching being offered to students.

These developments have led to Irish universities, such as Maynooth University, expanding the number of places for trainee teachers, and establishing courses in computer science and mathematics education. However the first batch of teachers to come out of this course will only be leaving university in 2024, doing little to alleviate the present shortage. The number of primary school children has reached over 570,000, and post-primary numbers are expected to rise to around 400,000 by 2025. According to the president of the TUI, a further 2000 teachers are needed to fix the problem, but there is little hope among those in the teachers unions that the issue will be resolved anytime soon.

Bids to join new European Universities Network pour in

Hope that US visa scheme will be extended to Irish citizens Gavin Tracey: The EU are seeking to establish There is fresh hope that a special US visa scheme will be extended to Irish citizens seeking work in the US. Irish-American Congressman Richard Neal looks set to reintroduce a bill which could allow Irish people to avail of approximately 5,000 visas under the E3 programme.

Currently, the programme is only open to Australians, but as they only use around half of the available visas, the proposed bill would see Irish citizens allowed to apply for the unused visas.

The E3 visa programme is a scheme that currently allows Australians to avail of a work visa, and is easier to obtain and cheaper than the traditional H1B work visa.

The bill was blocked in the Senate last year by Republican Senator Tom Cotton, but it is now understood that President Donald Trump has liaised with Mr Cotton in a bid to get the legislation through Congress. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has extended his thanks to Congress and Donald Trump for their support of the creation of a new E3 visa programme.

Colleges could risk losing funding if consent classes not provided

a European Educational Area, through strengthening existing ties between European universities, as well as establishing some 20 “European Universities” by 2024.

The European Universities Network Initiative (EUNI) aims to offer a “co-envisioned long-term strategy focussed on sustainability, excellence and European values” according to the European Commission’s website. A senior official in the EC has said that the initiative would aim “to make European universities more competitive internationally, compared with the best of the US and Asia for instance, but also to strengthen the sense of a common European values and a common European identity” according to a policy brief published by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.

In 2017, the European Council called on all 28, soon to be 27, member states to take a number of initiatives including “strengthening strategic partnerships across the EU between higher education institutions and encouraging the emergence by 2024 of some twenty ‘European Universities’, consisting in bottom-up networks of universities across the EU which will enable students to obtain a degree by combining studies in several EU countries and contribute to the international competitiveness of European universities.” The scheme also offers smaller universities who may not be in the same level of demand as larger, more established universities access to a greater pool of talent from which to draw from.

These European Universities would be transnational alliances, which would allow students to complete degrees

by studying in various universities across the EU, with a guarantee that the degree will be recognised. There already exists some level of alliance between European universities, such as the Erasmus programme, but nothing of this scale has ever been attempted before. Fewer than 6% of students in Europe spend time studying at other universities, which the EUNI aims to boost significantly.

While the initiative is not a new idea, it has been given more serious and immediate consideration in the wake of Brexit and the rise of right-wing populism across Europe, which many in the EU see as a threat to the potential future of the EU as an institution. Long term, serious alliances such as this, with timescales of 20-30 years, are seen by those within the EU as adding to an already heavily integrated Europe. French President Emmanuel Macron, arguably the EU leader most in favour of increased integration, has spoken out in favour of the idea, proposing a “network of universities across Europe with programmes that have all their students study abroad and take classes in at least two languages.”

The initiative has proved to be incredibly popular, with 54 networks of universities have put forth bids to join the pilot programme of the European Universities Initiative.

The European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth, and Sports, Tibor Navracsics, tweeted that he was “very pleased with keen interest in our #EuropeanUniversities pilot! Proud to take this initiative forward which is a key part of the #EuropeanEducationArea we’re building with Member States.” Due to the popularity of the project, the European Commission announced that it would be

doubling the funding to €60 million for the pilot. Out of the 54 networks that applied, 12 will be chosen. The decision will be announced in mid-July, and the initial stages of the EUNI being implemented between September-December 2019.

However the enthusiasm is not shared by all. The growing polulist movements and Eurosceptic governments in countries such as Hungary will be wary of further integration. Some universities are waiting until the second round of offers, and there is uncertainty in the higher education sector in the UK surrounding Brexit. While many in the UK see the EUNI as an opportunity to keep their preexisting EU partnerships, the lack of any withdrawal agreement has meant that the UK is “working a little in the dark” according to the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Europe in Warwick University.

Some students’ unions have raised concerns also, arguing that the EUNI may offer little in the way of any real improvement for students, as it could potentially run the risk of creating a “top tier” of exclusive as opposed to inclusive university networks. However with the first round of offers yet to be awarded, there is time to fix any problems that may arise. The fact that the courses will be offered in “at least two languages”, according to Macron may also have the unintended consequence of leaving Irish and UK students at somewhat of a disadvantage. Compared to their European counterparts, the majority of students from Ireland and the UK do not speak two European languages fluently.

A Government commissioned report has stated that colleges should be obliged to provide sexual consent classes to students, or risk losing funding. The report comes amid concerns over the levels of rape and sexual assault cases on Irish campuses.

The report made a number of recommendations, some of which include the implementation of protocols for dealing with staff and/or students who are the subject of complaints, widely available consent classes, and an accessible system for students to report any incidents. The report was commissioned by Minister of State for Higher Education Mary Mitchell O’Connor, who recently said that “harassment and assault are experiences too common for many of our third-level students”. She also stated that she wants “to ensure that young adults are supported to achieve positive sexual health. We all have a duty of care to our students, to protect them from sexual harassment, assault and safety from the fear and threat of it.”

Her comments come as a recent report from the Union of Students in Ireland, which surveyed more than 2,700 students, found that 16 percent of participants had experienced “unwanted sexual contact”, with 5 percent of women stating that they had been raped, and 3 percent stating that they had been victims of attempted rape.

The recommendations of the Government report seek to implement a change in the culture on college campuses, overseen by college management.

Image: Glyn Lowe PhotoWorks, Flickr

2 VOL. XXV, ISSUE 7

New study suggests that the gender gap in STEM fields begins in school

Gavin Tracey: Trade unions are demanding

an end to “precarious” work practices that are disproportionately affecting women’s working conditions in third level and higher education roles. They have also appealed for the end of “exploitation of postgraduate labour.”

To mark International Women’s Day, SIPTU representatives from third level institutions gathered in Liberty Hall to discuss the “stark inequalities” experienced by women as cleaners, catering staff and temporary administrative staff and lecturers. Ethel Buckley, SIPTU Deputy Secretary General, said that many third-level employees are still excluded from making progress in their careers with very little chance of securing a stable job and “robbing” them an opportunity of a stable life.

She added that “at the core of this fight against precarious work are competing, indeed opposing, ideologies concerning what it is to be a worker in the third

level sector. Is it to be merely a generator of someone else’s profits or a self-confident actor who can assist in creating an environment which fosters true educational development?

Today, workers from across the sector discussed the issues affecting them and decided to take action by stepping up their union organising by utilising traditional methods complemented by social media and other tactics.”

Maggie Ronayne, SIPTU Education Sector Chair, said that the “focus on gender equality in higher and further education has largely been on the promotion of more women to senior academic roles.” She also said that the “precarious employment” of women in higher education is an “enormous but largely overlooked problem in the sector” and that “tackling precarious work is crucial to achieving gender equality and pay equity.” She describes the practice of outsourcing as “rampant and must be addressed” and affects cleaners the most.

Other attendees have been affected directly by these

work practices and spoke of their experiences. Dr. Deirdre McHugh from NUI Galway said she was “afraid to speak up because I might lose what little I had. Academics have put an immense amount of work into getting where they are. It’s very difficult to walk away from that.” Dr. Jennie Carlsten from Queen’s University spoke of the difficulties trying to balance precarious work hours and caring for children. She had to correct papers while in hospital after giving birth to her daughter. “The issue of being a carer disproportionately affects us as women. When my father had a stroke and died my husband had to cover my classes because there was no provision for sick leave or bereavement for casual workers.”

Dr. Aline Courtois of University of Bath said that these harmful and exploitative practices are common across third level institutions.“There are many different forms of low paid or unpaid labour that have proliferated. Hourly paid work should not exist in academia, it completely ignores the reserves that go into teaching, it’s insulting to academic work in general.”

Unions are demanding that all directly employed staff categories and grades be made permanent, staff have dependable employment with access to progression, sick pay and a pension. They are also calling for an assured grading structure for all teaching staff that unions agree with. Furthermore, family-friendly and leave policies should be reinstated and that researchers be provided with secure employment and progression and that outsourcing to be ended.

Adrian Kane, SIPTU Community Division Organiser, said that to tackle gender inequality in third level institution and create fairer working environment for all, the funding crisis for third level institutions need to be urgently addressed first. He said that “years of under-investment and reduced staffing has taken its toll and the entire sector is rife with insecure employment . . . It’s made it virtually impossible for workers to aspire to a stable career.”

SIPTU Education Sector Organiser Karl Byrne said that workers involved in third level sector- a “key social good” and mostly funded by the public, “should have the importance of their role respected and be provided with the same standard of employment contracts that are available to others in the public service.

The government has recently passed the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act that limits the use of zerohour contracts. Buckley has commended the move, but is wary of employers not adhering to the law as “legislation on paper is one thing but how the conversation is interpreted by adjudicators and the Labour Court is another thing.”

According to research by the Higher Education Authority, six out of 10 of academic staff who work in temporary or part-time roles are women, and that 45% of lecturers are working on a non-permanent basis. 41% of full-time, permanent academic positions are held by women.

In 2018, it was revealed that in UCD only 30 per cent of Heads of School are women, while only 24% of full professors were women. There has never been a female president in the university’s history.

Irish Trade Unions call for an end to gender inequality in 3rd level institutions Andrea Andres:

Trade unions are demanding an end to “precarious” work practices that are disproportionately affecting women’s working conditions in third level and higher education roles. They have also appealed for the end of “exploitation of postgraduate labour.”

To mark International Women’s Day, SIPTU representatives from third level institutions gathered in Liberty Hall to discuss the “stark inequalities” experienced by women as cleaners, catering staff and temporary administrative staff and lecturers. Ethel Buckley, SIPTU Deputy Secretary General, said that many third-level employees are still excluded from making progress in their careers with very little chance of securing a stable job and “robbing” them an opportunity of a stable life.

She added that “at the core of this fight against precarious work are competing, indeed opposing, ideologies concerning what it is to be a worker in the third level sector. Is it to be merely a generator of someone else’s profits or a self-confident actor who can assist in creating an environment which fosters true educational development?

Today, workers from across the sector discussed the issues affecting them and decided to take action by stepping up their union organising by utilising traditional methods complemented by social media and other tactics.”

Maggie Ronayne, SIPTU Education Sector Chair, said that the “focus on gender equality in higher and further education has largely been on the promotion of more women to senior academic roles.” She also said that the “precarious employment” of women in higher education is an “enormous but largely overlooked problem in the sector” and that “tackling precarious work is crucial to achieving gender equality and pay equity.” She describes the practice of outsourcing as “rampant and must be addressed” and affects cleaners the most.

Other attendees have been affected directly by these work practices and spoke of their experiences. Dr. Deirdre McHugh from NUI Galway said she was “afraid to speak up because I might lose what little I had. Academics have put an immense amount of work into getting where they are. It’s very difficult to walk away from that.” Dr. Jennie Carlsten from Queen’s University spoke of the difficulties trying to balance precarious work hours and caring for children. She had to correct papers while in hospital after giving birth to her daughter. “The issue of being a carer disproportionately affects us as women. When my father had a stroke and died my husband had to cover my

classes because there was no provision for sick leave or bereavement for casual workers.”

Dr. Aline Courtois of University of Bath said that these harmful and exploitative practices are common across third level institutions.“There are many different forms of low paid or unpaid labour that have proliferated. Hourly paid work should not exist in academia, it completely ignores the reserves that go into teaching, it’s insulting to academic work in general.”

Unions are demanding that all directly employed staff categories and grades be made permanent, staff have dependable employment with access to progression, sick pay and a pension. They are also calling for an assured grading structure for all teaching staff that unions agree with. Furthermore, family-friendly and leave policies should be reinstated and that researchers be provided with secure employment and progression and that outsourcing to be ended.

Adrian Kane, SIPTU Community Division Organiser, said that to tackle gender inequality in third level institution and create fairer working environment for all, the funding crisis for third level institutions need to be urgently addressed first. He said that “years of under-investment and reduced staffing has taken its toll and the entire sector is rife with insecure employment . . . It’s made it virtually impossible for workers to aspire to a stable career.”

SIPTU Education Sector Organiser Karl Byrne said that workers involved in third level sector- a “key social good” and mostly funded by the public, “should have the importance of their role respected and be provided with the same standard of employment contracts that are available to others in the public service.

The government has recently passed the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act that limits the use of zerohour contracts. Buckley has commended the move, but is wary of employers not adhering to the law as “legislation on paper is one thing but how the conversation is interpreted by adjudicators and the Labour Court is another thing.”

According to research by the Higher Education Authority, six out of 10 of academic staff who work in temporary or part-time roles are women, and that 45% of lecturers are working on a non-permanent basis. 41% of full-time, permanent academic positions are held by women.

In 2018, it was revealed that in UCD only 30 per cent of Heads of School are women, while only 24% of full professors were women. There has never been a female president in the university’s history.

NEWS

International news in brief Gavin Tracey

Dozens implicated in US University bribing scandal Dozens of wealthy individuals have been implicated in a bribery case involving several elite universities in the United States, including Yale, Stanford, University of California Los Angeles, and Georgetown University. The FBI have said that the alleged operation involved cheating on tests, bribing college officials, and even going so far as to doctor photos to make it appear as though the applicants played sports they did not.

Those involved include CEOs, Hollywood actors and various sports coaches. At the centre of it all is a man named William Rick Singer, who controlled firms, Key Worldwide Foundation and The Edge College and Career Network, through which he unethically and in some cases illegally helped over 700 people enroll in elite colleges.

The parents would give money to Singer’s charity in order to pay him while avoiding federal taxes, as well as hiding the true intention for the payments.

The FBI agent in charge of the Boston office labelled the scheme as depicting a “culture of corruption and greed.” Although the FBI did not indicate whether or not the institutions themselves had any knowledge of the scheme at an administrative level, many have pointed to the nature of the scheme, namely the faking of athletic credentials, to point out that the colleges must have had some knowledge that their admissions systems were being tampered with.

Trump threatens to withhold federal funds if colleges don’t protect free speech Donald Trump vowed earlier this month to issue an executive order that would bar colleges and universities who do not protect “free speech” on campus from receiving federal grants. In a speech delivered to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), he told an enthusiastic crowd that if universities “want our dollars and we give them by the billions, they’ve got to allow people to speak.”

On 22nd March Trump signed an executive order that stated colleges that wish to receive federal research grants must support “free inquiry.” However much of the executive order had nothing to do with free speech, with issues such as transparency surrounding student debt also included. The order is also light on detail, failing to lay out any sort of enforcement mechanism, penalties, or what standards it expects from colleges. There is also the fact that colleges have already had to adhere to the first amendment, which protects free speech.

The issue of free speech on campuses has long been a hot button topic for American conservatives, who feel as though their voices are being suppressed on campuses.

Many believe that Trump is merely playing to his base, especially with the 2020 race heating up, and his approval ratings hovering around the low 40s.

Students allege Israeli university forced them to work on farms Tel Aviv University in Israel has been forced to open an investigation after allegations were made that international students from Africa and Asia were made to work for long hours on farms. Students taking a masters course in plant science, a fifteen month course, only spent one month on campus, the other 14 was spent working on a farm, sometimes for up to 16 hours a day alongside labourers from Thailand.

According to the students, the work they were tasked with on the farm had little to do with what they were studying. A spokeswoman from the university has stated that some of the claims made by the students were inaccurate.

These allegations come only weeks after Israel announced it intended to boost its number of international students, targeting African and Asian students in particular.

An attorney who is representing one of the students in a lawsuit against the university claimed that “this would not have happened to white European students.”

26TH MARCH 2019

3

LOOKING TO GET INVOLVED IN JOURNALISM OR DESIGN? Applications are open for positions on the editorial team of the University Observer for the academic year 2019/2020.

The Position: Note:

The Editor of the University Observer is responsible for all aspects of the newspaper. The Editor is responsible • Applicants are only permitted to apply individually. for the management, the publication and distribution, the editorial direction and content of the newspaper and Joint applications will not be accepted. is responsible for the coordination of the newspaper’s editorial team.

EDITOR

The Editor is responsible for all internal appointments (with the exception of the Deputy Editor and the Designer).

The position of Editor of the University Observer is a demanding one and applicants for the position should be aware that the role involves working unsocial hours in a highly pressurised environment. The Editor is responsible for all deadlines being met by the newspaper.

The position includes working alternate weekends.

The University Observer is editorially independent from the UCD Students’ Union, as enshrined in the Union constitution. The Editor has complete authority over the content of the newspaper which must be published in line with relevant provisions of Irish law and in accordance with the Code of Conduct of the Press Council of Ireland.

The Editor will be appointed for the full academic year, 2019/2020.

Application Procedure:

Applicants for the above position must submit a cover letter, curriculum vitae and a detailed proposal, outlining how the candidate intends to operate and manage the University Observer. Specifics areas where the newspaper can be improved should be dealt with in some detail.

Short-listed candidates will be called for an interview.

DEPUTY EDITOR

• Canvassing members of the interview panel is forbidden and may result in candidates' applications being disqualified from consideration.

• Training will be offered to successful candidates.

• Applicants should make it clear in their cover letter whether or not they would like to be considered for the role of Deputy Editor as well as Editor.

• Applications should be no longer than 5,000 words.

Closing date for applications is 5pm, May 4th, 2019.

Applications should be sent as a .pdf file to editor@ universityobserver.ie or to the following address: Brían Donnelly, The University Observer, Student Centre, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4

The Position:

Note:

The Deputy Editor of the University Observer, upon direction from the Editor, is responsible for all aspects of the newspaper. The Deputy Editor, subject in all matters concerning the newspaper to the direction of the Editor, shall be responsible, with the Editor, for the management of the newspaper, the publication and distribution of the newspaper, the content of the newspaper and is responsible for the co-ordination of the newspaper’s writers.

• Applicants are only permitted to apply individually.

Joint applications will not be accepted.

• Canvassing members of the interview panel is forbidden and may result in candidates' applications being disqualified from consideration.

The position of Deputy Editor of the University Observer is an extremely demanding one and applicants for the • Training will be offered to successful candidates. position should be aware that the role involves working unsocial hours in a highly pressurised environment.

The Deputy Editor is responsible for all deadlines being met by the newspaper.

• Applicants should make it clear in their cover letter whether or not they would like to be considered for the The position includes working alternate weekends. role of Deputy Editor as well as Editor.

The University Observer is editorially independent from the Students’ Union, as enshrined in the Union • Applications should be no longer than 5,000 words. constitution. The Deputy Editor has authority over the content of the newspaper, subject to the standard regulations governing newspaper content (e.g. defamation etc.).

Closing date for applications is 5pm, May 4th, 2019.

Applications should be sent as a .pdf file to editor@ The Deputy Editor is appointed for the full academic year, 2019/2020. universityobserver.ie or to the following address:

Application Procedure: Applicants for the above position must submit a cover letter, curriculum vitae and a detailed proposal, outlining how the candidate intends to operate and manage the University Observer. Specifics areas where the newspaper can be improved should be dealt with in some detail.

Brían Donnelly, The University Observer, Student Centre, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4

Short-listed candidates will be called for an interview.

Note:

• Applicants may be required to present a portfolio of work upon request.

ART & DESIGN EDITOR

The Position: You will be responsible for the design and layout of the newspaper, working in conjunction with the editors and contributors in producing and sourcing high-quality imagery and related media with the Heads of Photography and Illustration. The position requires an understanding of photojournalism, visual culture, and the integral role they play in journalism. The position will require work at alternate weekends, whilst working hours during the week are flexible. Although this work is highly demanding it is also highly rewarding. The successful candidate would be expected to constantly strive to improve the overall design of the newspaper.

• Interviews may be conducted using modern communications media for candidates who are not able to attend in person.

• Canvassing members of the interview panel is forbidden. Candidates who canvass members of the interview panel may be disqualified from consideration.

• No formal training is offered to successful candidates.

The Art, Design & Technology Director reports to the Editor and Deputy Editor.

Closing date for applications is 5pm, May 4th, 2019.

Applications should be sent as a .pdf file to editor@ universityobserver.ie or to the following address:

Application Procedure:

Brían Donnelly, The University Observer, Student Centre, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4.

Candidates should submit a cover letter and curriculum vitae.

Applicants with further queries should contact Brían Donnelly, at 01 716 3837, weekdays during business hours, or at the above email address.

4 VOL. XXV, ISSUE 7

COMMENT

Swastikas and symbolism in discussions on free speech.

Emmet Feerick discusses the possible justifications for restrictions on iconography in free speech.

Most people aren’t fond of the swastika. The sight of it conjures up images of Nazi Party rallies, death trains and death camps; the moral low point of human history. Perhaps you were taken aback somewhat by the appearance of this symbol on the poster for the Musical Society’s Cabaret production last month. It’s quite startling to see that symbol on a college campus. Some groups, such as Jewish people, gay people, or black people, may find it more objectionable than the average student, given the ideology it represents.

But of course, this symbol was on a poster for a musical set in 1930s Berlin. It was not scrawled across a wall on the Newman building, nor printed on Neo-Nazi recruitment leaflets in the student centre. It was part of the costume design for a musical based in a time characterised by all that that symbol represented.

The inclusion of this symbol on a piece of promotional material for a musical was quite plainly not an affront to anybody who might take offense at the symbol; a point lost on whomever lodged a complaint against it with UCD Estate Service. Frivolous though this complaint was, the fact that it was made raises the question of when it might genuinely be appropriate to oppose offensive speech or imagery.

Suppose you’re like any decent person, and you go out of your way to avoid hurting others. Let’s say you work for some magazine as a cartoonist. Nice innocent job.

How could you have known that a cartoon you published could get you and your co-workers gunned down in your office by a pair of religious zealots? As you no doubt remember, this is exactly what happened to the workers for the satirical French weekly, Charlie Hebdo, in 2015.

You might also recall that shortly after this atrocity, Muslim leaders in Ireland, including the disgraced Dr Ali Selim of pro-Female Genital Mutilation fame (since retracted), called for the Irish media not to publish images of the new issue of Charlie Hebdo. Their reason? According to Selim, who threatened legal action against any journalist who would publish the cartoons, “It doesn’t help for peaceful coexistence”. Bit of a sinister ring to that. However, it had to be conceded, he was right. The Charlie Hebdo shootings had indeed just shown that penning a cartoon could get you killed.

Looming in the background of all discussions on this topic is the fact that offence takers never stop at mere resignation to differences in preference. We never “agree to disagree” on matters of offensive speech or imagery. It is

always the case that one side attempts to enforce their point of view through the law, or by other means of authority, or violence. If you give in to calls for censorship, you pave the way for the most malicious and power-hungry people to take advantage of your amenability. The laws you create to spare the hurt feelings of persecuted minorities will be the very laws used by the powerful to forbid criticism of their power.

At one point in Robert Bolt’s 1960 play A Man for All Seasons, the English statesman and avowed Christian, Sir Thomas More, is arguing with an ambitious young man, Richard Rich, a prosecutor and servant of the king. Rich, naturally an advocate of the primacy of the law, and sensing the fervency of More’s religious faith, asks if he would break the law to punish the devil. More responded that he would cut down every law in England to do so. “Oh?”, the prosecutor rejoins, “and when the last law was down, and the devil turned around on you, where would you hide, with all the laws being flat?”

This point is of central significance in the debate about free speech. The next time you propose to violate the free speech rights of someone else; it may not be long before it is you who needs those same rights. The people who most

“Calls to censor are always short-sighted, ahistorical, and bound to be used against the very people they ostensibly hope to protect.” ardently claim the right to censor, are the same people who will use that right to forbid criticism of themselves when they gain power.

But what about expression that seems self-evidently offensive? What about speech whose intention is to cause maximum ‘menticide’, or emotional harm? Aryeh Neier, in Defending My Enemy, talks about the decision of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to take the case of the American Nazi Party in their right to parade Swastikas through the town of Skokie, Illinois, a favourite retirement town for Holocaust survivors. If there was ever a case of gratuitous abuse of the right to freedom of speech, this was surely it. Legal attempts to prevent this march were found to be unconstitutional, however, on the basis that it violated First Amendment rights to freedom of speech. What a disaster, no? Nazis are free to march again, and this time in retirement communities full of holocaust survivors. What was the outcome of this terrible mistake? Neier, head of the ACLU at the time, said that “the best consequences of the Nazis’ proposal to march in Skokie is that it produced more speech, a great deal more -- it stimulated more discussion of the evils of Nazism and of the Holocaust than any event since the Israelis captured Adolf Eichmann in Argentina in 1960.”

This is exactly the point. When you drive objectionable views out of the public arena, they don’t disappear. They merely fester underground, and rise up again with renewed vigour when they sense the opportunity. Calls to censor are always short-sighted, ahistorical, and bound to be used against the very people they ostensibly hope to protect.

The complaint against the swastika on the Cabaret poster in UCD was clearly misguided. But what if, rather than being on a piece of promotional material for a musical set in that era, the swastika was on a recruitment leaflet for campus neo-Nazis? What do you know about Nazism, and how can you back up your objections to it? How important is it to you that your opinions on the evil of that philosophy are discussed in open society? Would you prefer if those people creating the leaflets were banned from doing so, and saved from the fighting words of anti-fascists? The reasons for opposing Nazism are always something worth keeping fresh in mind. When you forbid free speech, you close the door to the very discussion which is most harmful to offensive ideas. In the words of Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Louis Dembitz Brandeis: “sunlight is the best disinfectant”.

Am I my job?

With young people pursuing higher education to meet job requirements, Shivani Shukla asks whether the jobs we get inevitably become our identities?

There has often been a disconnect between how young individuals view themselves versus how they are viewed by others. With factors such as rising rent costs leading to the need to work longer hours in the day, an individual’s occupation has grown to fully encompass a person’s identity. This notion is as old as the earliest division of labour. It is a natural association, as some occupations are indeed associated with certain characteristics, such as physical strength in a construction worker, the deft hands of an artist, and athleticism in a sportsperson. One’s chosen occupation undoubtedly feeds into one’s identity, though the reverse may also be true.

Certain professions require, more than others, for one to have a greater association of identity with work, not simply requiring a daily routine working in an office environment.

For instance, an artist’s identity has a bidirectional relationship with their work, their art. A military personnel has to put forth their work as a defender of the nation before anything else, and this feeds considerably into their identity. On the other hand, a data analyst may not like to base their entire identity on their work.

This interrelation between identity and occupation cannot be detangled purely, and how a person identifies themselves is largely a personal construct, an output of personal motivations and one’s environment. In today’s economy, where the world has moved on from primary

even to put food on their tables. In the latter case, there may be a weaker link between occupation and self-identity than if the identity itself manifests into a profession. Values and beliefs play critical roles in designing a self-identity. If a profession is not in line with one’s belief structure, there is bound to be some sense of dissociation, which may lead the person to not entirely identify with the work they do.

In the modern context, most freshly educated individuals tend to start their careers with hopes of brilliance and early successes, which they end up working towards ardently and with full rigor. With more experience and education being required to enter some areas of the workforce than previous generations, achieving these milestones will imbue an individual with a sense of pride that they wish to hold onto. Some may go into a profession knowing themselves, for instance, a sportsperson is very likely to know herself as being interested in the field and capable of doing the job, which may then become her identity.

However, this represents the lucky few. Most people who start off to simply participate in the workforce in order to pay back their student loans or to start becoming financially independent, tend to pick whatever opportunity presents itself first. Putting one’s entire sense of identity to solely one’s profession, however, sounds like a recipe for personal disaster. Compartmentalisation may work to a

“Compartmentalisation may work to a degree towards resolving such dilemmas, with association of one’s identity not only with work but also through personal relationships, hobbies and interests, and social interactions.” sectors to more tertiary, service-based occupations, and trades and farming are no longer the only forms of economic engagement, more people are opting for occupations that suit their interests. Choice of occupation is one important way in which individuals express their identity. Of special note in the talk of occupation being one’s identity is the case of an artist. Every artist, be it a painter, photographer, or even writer, tends to associate all the work output with self-identity. The art is fed into by the artist’s perceived sense of self, and sense of his society and its constructs.

Thus it can be safely said that the artist is highly likely to associate his identity with his work.

However, it must be noted that such a choice is a privilege, with some individuals getting a say in the decision of a profession whilst a considerable number work simply to maintain the lives of themselves and their kin, some

degree towards resolving such dilemmas, with association of one’s identity not only with work but also through personal relationships, hobbies and interests, and social interactions.

Workplaces tend to be where most people spend the larger part of their days. Being closely associated with one’s sense of belongingness, a person may strongly associate their identity with a group holding a particular worldview.

There is a good chance that people around her would identify themselves being similar to her in some way, as she becomes adopted into the collective. In this way, one’s occupation is often skew or mask the minute differences between individual social identity, for that of the group.

Dissociation between work environment and self-identity can be detrimental to an individual’s sense of self.

Identity is a dynamic construct. With every turn in life,

a person associates self with a major dimension which may remain unchanged over life but most likely will alter. They may identify as a student but also as a daughter/sibling.

Coming into adulthood, they may have multiple dimensions to their personality, adding to a more layered, and fully realised identity: say gender identity, social identity based on friends and interests, and then the most prominent, one’s work. This realization of a multi-dimensional identity is what forms a whole person. Profession, or rather chosen work, plays an integral role in its development. Even though it does not have an isolated effect, for a substantial populace, it is the primary definition of their identities.

The entire concept of identity is quite complex, with several personal traits and a number of inputs from environs contributing towards it. Identity is not simply a one-dimensional concept. Who a person is perceived to be

is based on what they present outward. Occupation being the most salient aspect of one’s life is taken as a quick indicator of one’s identity, even as the individual themselves may identify more with other aspects of life. This cannot be known unless explicitly expressed. Some occupations allow for this expression more than others. There is no right or wrong when it comes to identity. Individuals associate self with whichever part of their personality is dominant, and if this feeds into their occupation, well and good, but even if it is the other way, when they relate themselves with their work more than any other aspect of self, it is not to be questioned. Knowing one’s whole identity can be a lifelong task, and even the greats of humanity have ventured to ask themselves whether they are simply what they do. To each, their own.

26TH MARCH 2019

5

COMMENT Revenge Porn is a crime, our laws should reflect that Rory Clarke examines how the woeful inadequacies of Ireland’s harassment laws threaten to impliedly permit the prevalence of revenge porn.

In recent years, with the true advent of the digital age, the sensation known as ‘revenge porn’ has become more and more prevalent. This has assumed the form of explicit videos/photos gathered during the course of an intimate relationship or exchanged in the heady days of a fiery romance, with their publication either threatened as a blackmailing chip, or carried out amongst one’s nearest and dearest, in a manifestation of vitriolic vengeance. Although it offends society’s innate sense of justice and fairness the usual benchmark for criminalising activities - our legal system has been caught playing catch-up on digital crimes in general, and nowhere are its woeful inadequacies better exposed than in this area.

Not even UCD is safe from the infamy of this regrettable trend. In the 2015/2016 academic year a report in the College Tribune alleged the existence of a group of approximately 200 UCD male students, in which explicit pictures of exes and other non-consenting women were circulated, exchanged and rated. Ultimately the existence of the ‘UCD 200’ was not upheld and was variously reported as based on ‘hearsay’ in this newspaper and “without evidence” in a communication from Registrar and Deputy President of UCD Professor Mark Rogers. Despite the story’s debunking, the narrative of a university awash with misogyny prevailed, showing perhaps the inflammatory effect of such activity, even where it could not be proven to be true. The nail in the coffin however, is that even if the allegations were true, it seems unlikely that the ‘UCD200’ would have faced legal liability under the current statutory regime.

The Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997 is the relevant legislation to date in this area. Section 10(1) of that Act is worth quoting in full; “Any person who, without lawful authority or reasonable excuse, by any means including by use of the telephone, harasses another by persistently following, watching, pestering, besetting or communicating with him or her, shall be guilty of an offence.” Nowhere in the section is there any allusions to blackmail, sexual images or revenge. This is just the first of many indications of the law being unfit for purpose; it is being twisted and stretched by prosecutors, desperate to prevent guilty perpetrators walking free due to the law’s own failures.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has chosen, with little practical choice, to proceed with prosecutions under Section 10 for revenge porn. There have been two successful prosecutions for revenge porn-type incidents under Section 10, but both have been caveated by the ‘guilty’ pleas, meaning there is still no case law upholding this interpretation. Thus far the Court has been willing, for obvious policy reasons, to indulge the DPP, but if raised by

a wiley defence team, it seems unlikely that, under judicial scrutiny, Section 10 could be held to encompass revenge porn.

There are two main problems with this law in terms of its practical utility for revenge porn prosecutions; the persistence requirement and limited list of activities which constitute harassment. The ‘persistence’ requirement essentially precludes prosecution for any single instance of revenge porn. Even with the generous definition given to this requirement by the Irish Courts (incidents which are separated by intervening lapses of time, incidents capable of such severance or one unambiguously continuous act) a one-time publication of videos/pictures would not be legally prohibited. With such personal and explicit material as is connoted with revenge porn, the marginal effect on the victim, in terms of shame and embarrassment, if more than one image/video is released is minimal. The sharing of one video can do irreparable harm to people’s reputation and lives and should not be countenanced by our criminal justice system.

“Following, watching, pestering, besetting or communicating with” a victim are the only acts under which a harassment charge can be brought in Ireland.

This list is exhaustive - if the behaviour isn’t listed, it is not harassment. End of. In particular, the requirement of “communication with” a victim has the net effect of precluding indirect harassment such as revenge porn, where the act is not directly with the victim, but concerns them. In an effort to make the law clear and certain, the Oireachtas has tied the hands of the DPP and the police.

Speaking at the Law Reform Commission’s (LRC) seminar in April 2015, a representative of the DPP indicated that the current system has created obstacles in proceeding with indirect harassment. Indeed the LRC has recommenced, on multiple occasions, that the law be reformed to make indirect harassment as an offence. Unfortunately, due to the law’s inadequacies and the false perception of the internet as a guarantor of anonymity, the LRC found that many victims are “reluctant” to engage with the Gardaí as they believe it is “futile”. This emphasises that the horrible reality of revenge porn is even more stark than we realise.

R v Debnath is an English case which is a classic example of revenge porn. After a one night stand where the accused (mistakenly) believed she’d contracted an STD, she started a year long campaign of online harassment. This included allegations of sexual indiscretions, sent to the victim’s fiancé and employers, and registering the victim on gay liaison websites. Although this was successfully prosecuted in the UK the specific language of section 10 would have disavailed him of a legal avenue of redress

in Ireland, where the accused’s actions clearly warranted legal censure. Similarly R v DeSilva, a Canadian case, would have likely failed in Ireland. In this case the accused posted a non-consensually obtained explicit video on his Facebook page, showing the victim in a compromising position.

Although some parties, particularly social media sites, are reluctant to expand our current law due to the potential impact on freedom of expression, these concerns are, in reality unfounded. The criminalisation of online satire and comedy, as well as gossip and rumours, is obviously undesirable but in light of the requirements of Section 10(2) as it stands this should not be an issue. It details that to constitute harassment the person’s acts must “intentionally or recklessly, seriously interfere with the other’s peace and

privacy or causes alarm, distress or harm.” This is clearly a high threshold for gossip to breach, and one which, in reality, it rarely will. Furthermore these arguments can be dispensed of in light of a recognition that with the bringing of a jury to Court, common sense also takes a prominent place.

Revenge porn is a problem which has swept the world in recent years, as relationships become more and more profligate and digital media offers an avenue of convenient and cruel reprisals for spurned romance. It is also a problem which Irish law has consistently failed to grapple with. If our justice system is to maintain credibility and the trust of the Irish people, this area of law warrants urgent attention.

“The sharing of one video can do irreparable harm to people’s reputations and lives and should not be countenanced by our criminal justice system.“

The predictable mediocrity of the UCDSU’s campaign weeks With the annual SHAG and Rainbow weeks rolled into one event, the traditional lack of engagement makes Brian Lynch asks whether the Union can get anything right.

The multiple failures of the Student’s Union in organising events that it had promised is something that has been previously reported on by both The University Observer and The College Tribune, most notably the promised debate between the candidates of last October’s national Presidential elections. This represents but one of the failings the Union has made in recent times, which appear to affect every area of its remit. A call for a referendum on the proposed amendments to its constitution was deferred by a week over confusion on the time given to discuss the amendments, as well as grammatical errors within the amended document. Perhaps most egregious of these was the Union’s mishandling of the annual Shag and Rainbow week events, which for some reason were compressed into

the same week; indeed, Rainbow ‘week’, despite the name, only lasted a mere two days.

While it makes sense on one level to amalgamate Shag Week and Rainbow week, given that they both deal with sexuality, it is ultimately massively unhelpful to those in the LGBTQ+ community. The brevity of the event will do little to foster a sense of inclusion and is also in a sense a squandered opportunity to create an awareness of LGBTQ+ issues amongst cisgender and straight students.

As it was, the Shag Week events buried those of Rainbow Week, but even here there were issues surrounding the quality of the events. A line-up of games such as ‘brapong’, ‘pin the genitals’ and ‘willy toss’ were seemingly chosen based on their supposed humorous qualities, rather

than their capacity to educate. Indeed, the only explicitly ‘educational’ event held was a screening of the Netflix series Sex Education. This failure lies squarely at the feet of the SU leadership.

Indeed, the current sabbatical officers are a fairly standard representation of the calibre of candidates that occupy the Union’s offices. It is a truth told more in jest than in sincerity that Union politics rewards cliques and popularity rather than skill, drive or capacity; however, it is a truth, nevertheless. Look at Agriculture, Food Science and Vet College Officer Amy Mulchrone, who failed to attend even one Council meeting during her tenure and was forced to vacate her position as a result, leaving the faculty’s students without representation. Was she really the best candidate for the job?

The Union Council’s priorities, as shown during the Rainbow and Shag debacle, are reflective of the insular and clique-y nature of the Union. Why else, at a time when students are facing exorbitant costs in both housing and living generally, and the university management is generating significant controversy with its development plans, such as the ill-famed University Club, is the Union attempting to re-establish the position of events officer?

Why does the Union believe it should use its resources to organise entertainment, when that is the purpose of the societies? Students do not need to have their dues spent on follies that the majority of the student body will likely never attend. Frankly, it is astonishing to witness the Union act so blindly.

But why is this the case? The most immediate culprit, and one to which the executive will point, is the lack of engagement from students in university politics. Turnout is almost always low in elections and relatively few candidates put themselves forward as class reps in the last election (the least time intensive positions), over one hundred seats were left vacant after the first round of elections. But why should students be expected to care about a Union that offers them relatively little, as far as they can see? Why should LGBTQ+ students support a Union that appears not to hold their needs in the same esteem as those of their straight peers? It is not only that community that has cause to feel marginalised by the Union’s behaviour; the utterly contemptible way a disabled representative was treated during a ‘bonding session’, having to be carried around

due to a lack of wheelchair accessibility, shows the Union’s appalling capacity for ignorance. This is a genuine tragedy.

Despite these failings, the Union is needed and plays a critical role in protecting students, for instance, of considerable practical value is the Accommodation Officer, whose role is exactly what students need in these costly times and which is currently not filled by a member of staff or an elected representative. Young Fine Gael is wrong to suggest, as they have for a long time, that membership should be non-compulsory; such a move would serve to split the student body and financially cripple the Union.

But if these failings continue, their argument will become more attractive to students, the reappearance of the group Freedom of Choice Coalition UCD may be on the horizon.

The executive must remember who elected them in the first place.

So how do you solve a problem like UCDSU? Reforms that tackle problems of transparency, communication and efficiency must be made. Having the Council sit more often than the minimum 3 weeks since the start of the second semester is a start, but removing the attendance quorum for minutes would also be advised. Even something as simple as regularly updating their website, which at the time of writing has not been touched since the last academic year, would go a long way to improving their relations with students. Regarding the Shag/Rainbow Weeks and bonding session debacle, the Equality and Inclusion officer as outlined in the proposed constitution, could pose to help the Union, but with the role only being a part-time position, there are still doubts over how it will be implemented.

Perhaps moving away from the ‘Union’ model altogether and replace it with a Student Parliament system, like those present in Norway’s universities, would help break the overly cosy culture that pervades student politics and make affairs more transparent by allowing more people into the decision-making process and delegate responsibility (such as communication and advertisement for events) more efficiently. With the resulting diversity of opinion, perhaps we can avoid a repeat of the Shag/Rainbow Week embarrassment. All options must be considered.It’s time to have a conversation about student representation. Until we do, President Deeks can sleep soundly, safe in the knowledge that the best guarantor of student’s rights is feeble, self-indulgent and incompetent.

“It is not only that community that has cause to feel marginalised by the Union’s behaviour; The utterly contemptible way a disabled representative was treated during a ‘bonding session’, having to be carried around due to a lack of wheelchair accessibility, shows the Union’s appalling capacity for ignorance.”

6 VOL. XXV, ISSUE 7

COMMENT Head-to-Head

Should UCD prioritise funding degrees with better job prospects?

Illustration: Samaneh Sadeghi-Marasht

YES

NO

Heather Reynolds

Nathan Young

As the largest university campus in the country, UCD has very high overheads. They have to be able to keep the lights on from month to month. Therefore, any extra funding they can gain, be it from government funding or Alumni donations, can only make the student experience better. In theory, the more money the university has, the more money it can channel back into courses and facilities. Rather than placing these costs on current students by increasing fees or facilities costs, it makes more sense for them to look for added Alumni donations per annum. However, for Alumni to donate, they have to be making money in the first place.

Revamping the Arts cafe cost the university money, as does maintaining student spaces and facilities around campus, such as water fountains and recycling bins, which are widely agreed upon to be good things. Whether they are large investments, like the renovations currently overtaking the Newman Building, or smaller day to day costs like keeping lights on, paying cleaners, and paying estate services to keep buildings open, UCD is a pricey operation. Therefore, it is in the university’s best interests to place preference on degrees that are more likely to produce Alumni who make large sums of money, and that can do so quickly. Increasing fees to meet these costs would only drive away potential students, and so, Alumni gifts and donations are key to larger, long term projects such as the new Alumni Club, or cross-building renovations.

Prioritising one set of degrees does not mean that another set could not be continued. If it was decided that Engineering was the most profitable degree, Business degrees would not cease to exist. They may be downsized, perhaps the Quinn building might not be able to licence from Starbucks anymore, but they would still exist. Lectures would still be held, degrees would still be handed out. Course sizes may shrink in some cases, but for those who are already in degrees that the university has little to no care about, nothing would change.

The argument that the university should put preference towards degrees which are expected to be high earners typically assumes that preference for one means a complete lack of funding for the other. This is not the case. Having higher funding for one course does not negate the money put towards another, and with potentially more money coming in from Alumni if this were to come to pass, the amount of funding available for both would increase. It could be a short period of decreased funding that gives way to increases across campus for all courses, both those perceived profitable and not. It would not be likely to shrink any larger course that is seen as less profitable so long as the demand remains high, as course fees cover the bulk of costs per student. Someone looking to do Drama Studies with Folklore is not likely to turn and do Business and Law just because it has the funding to franchise a Costa, making it unlikely to affect course sizes overall as interest levels would stay about the same.

As it stands, there is no logical reason not to funnel more funding into courses that are more likely to make money for the university, as the university populous as a whole is able to benefit from it in future years via increased donations, which can be put towards increasing the quality of life on campus. The degrees that are most likely to be negatively impacted by a process like this are not likely to be very heavily impacted by any cuts, which are not very likely to happen so long as course numbers remain the same. The positives seem to far outweigh the negatives.

The question of the purpose of education is usually answered by “who is paying for it?” Private tutors in ancient times taught young men skills they needed to be successful in life. Government-funded education of yore taught generations the skills they needed to be good citizens, combining genuine skills such as literacy with propagandistic interpretations of history and religion in an effort to create solid conceptions of “nation” and “empire” in the minds of the masses. Today, society at least pretends to have a more nuanced view about the purpose of publicly funded education, but the basic idea of public services serving all of society still stands.

Taking the “who pays, benefits” philosophy of education, then just on those grounds UCD should prioritise degrees based at least in part on their overall benefit to society, or at least the taxpayer. About half of UCD’s money comes from the exchequer, and with one of the highest rates of third level education in the world, Ireland stands to be one of the most enlightened societies in the world. Clearly we don’t pay taxes so someone else can qualify for a six figure salary.

Obviously there is a benefit to society to have people with readily employable skills such as engineering, medicine, or IT. However the usefulness of these degrees to society does not drive up their value on the job market alone. After all, petrochemical engineering has one of the highest average salaries of any degree in the world, as the fossil fuel industry is one of the largest in the world. To society at large, however, it seems obvious that research scientists looking for cleaner and easier alternatives are far more beneficial as a way to avert as much of the current climate crisis as possible.

A similar pattern emerges with a lot of STEM subjects. The popular myth is that the private sector creates the innovation, which could lead people to thinking all a public university should do is train people with the skills needed to get a job. This is the view of The Economist, for example. However, social media, mobile phones, the internet itself, space travel, GPS, touchscreens, and unlimited other technologies developed out of research paid for by governments, often through universities. While this isn’t directly the same as funding degrees per say, it’s still the case that educating future scientists and researchers, as well as paying for projects of current post-graduates and PhD candidates, can include a huge amount that isn’t currently economically viable in the private sector.

Another group who are often questioned much more intensely than STEM students about what benefit their degrees offer the rest of us are those studying the Liberal Arts. As they don’t lead always directly to jobs in their field, and don’t lead to future donations to the universities very often, what is the point in studying history, or women’s studies? The difficulty in arguing back is it is quite rare to have an individual whose knowledge of these subjects is a benefit to society in and of itself. However, many people find themselves in voting booths or generally interacting with the rest of society at large, and the higher the quality of the average level of education about our history and culture, the better. A public which doesn’t understand its own political institutions, history, and cultural heritage is ripe for being taken advantage of, and so if tax money, through education, is funding better and more enlightened public discourse, a clear social good has been reached.

REBUTTAL

REBUTTAL

The above argument defending the “Yes” side is largely based on two false premises, leading it to be laced with weird and untrue assertions about both the way things are, and the way they would be. The first false premise is that the university may be funded either by fees or alumni donations primarily. As described in the opening “No” arguments, university funding comes from a wide range of places, but the single largest source of money is the exchequer, which is a stand in for society, or at least taxpayers, as a whole.

The second, far more egregious premise is that the university uses money to benefit students and improve the student experience. Consider the examples given, being the renovations underway around campus and in places such as the Arts Cafe. A cursory browse of the news published in this paper this academic year, or any other, will show how little the university cares for its students and staff. The Arts Cafe was renovated while the Common Room was under attack by President Deeks, who told staff that there were other places to get coffee. Waiting lists for counselling remain long, but the Private Club’s construction is racing ahead. The university currently has money, but plans on having the student centre levy continued if the student body wants to have access to student facilities. Considering all this, it’s probably best not to assume that UCD wants money for the benefit of students.

Much like when craven politicians propose tax breaks to the rich, or corporate welfare in place of public investment, the other side is promising a magic money tree, where by helping the rich get richer, we will all live on their charity and innate goodness. Despite at one stage admitting that courses may well shrink, we’re also told that they may not, and that if a school loses funding, current students somehow won’t be affected as degrees will still be earned. It’s patently nonsensical to believe whether a school has funding doesn’t impact the overall enrollment numbers. Don’t buy a word of it. Actuarial students from Blackrock won’t fund arts degrees. If the decision to fund subjects that benefit society but don’t make a profit isn’t made by universities, or forced on them by the taxpayer, then it’s not going to be made.

This article makes many valid points with regards degrees that appear less profitable and the wider society, with the impact they have outside of simply paying back into society monetarily. However, it fails to address the immediate impact it would have on university society. By putting more money into promotion of more profitable courses, from the university’s perspective, as well as by increasing amenities in those buildings, they can more likely secure larger, and more frequent donations, allowing the university to grow and continue to fund expansion and rejuvenation plans around campus.

Of course, outside of campus culture there should not be a concept of which degrees are more ‘profitable’, as different degrees create different benefits for society. The university, however, does know which degrees are more likely to create Alumni who donate, and donate regularly, and this is where the university specifically can benefit from prioritising those degrees and faculties. An alumnum who had a good time in college is more likely to donate to their alma mater when the opportunity arises, than one who felt marginalised by the university proper. Thus it makes sense for degrees which create higher earners to be prioritised by the university, as it is in the university’s best interest, and if the university prioritises things as they should, it extends to being in the best interest of the students.

While this argument is valid, it views the issue far too broadly. It’s easy to say that the university should see all degrees equally when you are looking at the whole country for perspective. This question is a local one, and to see if fully, one has to view it in the context of the locality, which in this case, is the university and the university alone. To bring up the taxpayer in this question is to answer the question “should Dublin City Council prioritise ordering fiction or non-fiction books?” with an explanation of how in the eyes of Libraries Ireland, all county council ordering practices should be seen as equal. It is a short sighted diversion from the actual question at hand, as it does not take into account the impact on the university, only the wider country, which has many, many universities from which to make this context.

Without looking at the immediate university context, you are only looking at half the picture.

Nathan Young

Heather Reynolds

26TH MARCH 2019

7

FEATURES Semenya versus The IAAF; the testosterone-fuelled case changing the face of athletics Caster Semenya, a middle distance runner from South Africa is challenging the International Association of Athletics Federations ruling that she must take medication to lower her naturally high testosterone levels. Doireann de Courcy Mac Donnell unpicks the case and takes a look at the ramifications it could have for all people in sport.

Featured in the provocative ‘Women are Crazy’ advertisement recently released by the sports brand Nike, Caster Semenya has instigated a global campaign for equal rights for all people in sport. Semenya is a middle distance runner from South Africa who presents intersex characteristics. In February of this year, she took a case against the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to allow her race in a female category without having to take drugs to limit her naturally high testosterone levels. As a result of the case brought by Semenya, the debate has extended as to include all genders, biology, and identity; what should define who can race in which category?

Born in South Africa in 1991, Semenya won gold at both the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. In 2009, Semenya won gold in the World Championships 800m race with a time of 1:55.45 and beat her own record in 2017 with a time of 1:55.16, again winning gold. After her win in the 2009 World Championships, at the age of eighteen, questions arose regarding Semenya’s exponential improvement in her performance. Just a month earlier, her personal best in an 800m race was four seconds slower. Having confirmed no doping was involved, she was subject to a sex verification test by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

Semenya is a cisgender woman. A cisgender person is someone whose gender identity matches the sex that they were assigned at birth. However, upon being tested apropos of her unusual natural ability, it has emerged that Semenya possesses intersex characteristics. Semenya has hyperandrogenism, a medical condition in which the cisgender woman possesses an unusually high level of

Chand’s case was treated very insensitively, with little regard for the personal ramifications. “Think about how much she would have suffered” Santhi Soundarajan, another Indian athlete is quoted saying; “She is not from a wealthy or powerful family; just another ordinary family…

Even if she gets help from the State Association, can she stay in peace in her village?”

Between 2012 and 2017, Semenya continued to win races all over the world. However, in April of 2018, the IAAF re-opened discussions on the hyperandrogenism policy. The IAAF has emphatically rejected the claim that they wish to classify Semenya’s gender. Speaking to The Guardian, the IAAF said that they “accepted [Semenya’s] legal sex without question.” Yet this stance does not seem to follow through as the IAAF wanted the Court of Arbitration for Sport to bring in a ruling which required athletes with a so-called “Differences in Sexual Development (DSDs)” – sometimes coined “Disorders of Sex Development” instead - to have their testosterone levels lowered to an ‘appropriate’ level to ensure fairness when competing against other females. It was then announced that new rules would be introduced requiring female hyperandrogenous athletes to take medication to lower their natural testosterone levels.

This caused major controversy, especially within intersex advocate groups. The rules exclusively apply to female athletes competing in the 400m, 800m, and 1500m. In 2017, the IAAF produced scientific evidence, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, to show the effect that increased testosterone levels can have in races ranging from 400m to a mile. Female athletes with increased testosterone were found to have a 1.8% to a 4.5% advantage over their counterparts with lower testosterone levels.

Despite including results from 2127 observations of male

probably not even make the final were this to be true.

The United Nations’ Human Rights Special Procedure Body has petitioned to have the IAAF drop the case as they feel it “contravene[s] international human rights.”

Semenya stated in court that this is who she is, how she was brought up and that she is a clean athlete. She argued that it would be highly unfair to force her to take testosterone suppressants to be allowed to compete. It is a rare medical condition that gives her an advantage over her opponents.

Surely this argument can be used in regard to any Olympic athlete; to achieve gold one must have an advantage over everyone else. However, the inclusivity extended to allow Semenya to race with her natural ability does not appear to extend equally to the trans community. The importance of the decision on the Semenya case lies not alone in the

ramifications for hyperandrogenic athletes, but in the consequences it will have on the gender distinction of all categories in athletics, and furthermore sport in general.

In an open letter to the IAAF, the Human Rights Watch women’s rights director Liesl Gerntholtz stated; “The IAAF eligibility regulations for the female classification discriminate against women on the basis of their sex and their sex characteristics. Women with intersex variations

here” after coming sixth in the same 2016 Olympic 800m race. The IAAF lawyer for the Semenya case, Jonathon Taylor has also commented; “[If] the IAAF is not permitted to require athletes of female legal sex who have testes and consequently male levels of testosterone to reduce those levels, then DSD and transgender athletes will dominate the podiums and prize money in sport, and women with normal female testosterone levels will not have any chance

androgens (male sex hormones, such as testosterone).

When undergoing tests to understand her surprising improvement, Semenya was not informed that it was to determine her gender but rather that it was just routine.

Semenya only became aware of the true nature of the testing upon the publication of the results. This was not officially released by the IAAF but instead leaked to the media. In November of the same year, three months later, South Africa’s sports ministry released a statement deciding to allow Semenya to retain her title and medal. It took a further eight months, until July 2010, for Semenya to be allowed to compete again in international women’s competitions.

In 2015, the IAAF suspended the policy on hyperandrogenism as the Court of Arbitration for Sport found that possessing unusually high levels of testosterone does not improve female athletic capability. On the

and female performance, many feel that the introduction of this condition would appear to specifically target Semenya.

In February of this year, Semenya took a challenge against the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), countering the argument that she should be required to take testosterone neutralizing supplements. The medication in question that Semenya would be required to take was a particular form of the contraceptive pill. The IAAF has defended its position by arguing that “if a DSD athlete has… male levels of testosterone, they get the same increases in bone and muscle size and strength and increases in haemoglobin that a male gets when they go through puberty, which is what gives men such a performance advantage over women. Therefore, to preserve fair competition in the female category, it is necessary to require DSD athletes to reduce their testosterone down to female levels before they compete at an international level.”

have the same rights to dignity and bodily integrity as all women”. How are women who have been born with testes (as hyperandrogenous women have) but raised as female any different to transgender women? “Surely that [transgender] woman should have exactly the same rights” David Walsh, Chief Sports Writer with the Sunday Times commented as heard in an interview on the Today with Sean O’ Rourke show. He went on, however, to relay the story of two transgender athletes in Connecticut who recently finished first and second in the state championships, acquiring scholarships to university as part of their prize.

“Is that fair on all the [cisgender] females who have been competing in those races?” he questioned, “it makes it extremely difficult for women with normal female levels of testosterone to ever win”. Sara R Philips, Chair of the Transgender Equality Network Ireland, agreed during the same radio broadcast that transgender women competing in a female category becomes a problem when competing, prior to medical intervention. However, she felt that it was the responsibility of each individual sporting body to devise its own rulings. The tribunal is taking place in Lausanne, Switzerland and has heard that the ruling will be “one of the most pivotal CAS [decisions].”

As it stands, there are few official rulings regarding the inclusion of transgender people in sport. Anyone can compete in the Olympics as a woman providing their testosterone is at a certain level for a year. However, the level required by the IOC is significantly higher than that proposed by the IAAF. Martina Navratilova, a Czechoslovak-born American former professional tennis player, and gay rights activist, has come out and defended

to win.”

There are murmurings of a third category in sport being proposed; in which all athletes who don’t conform to the ‘male’ or ‘female’ characteristics would compete. However many feel that this would be discriminatory, and serve only to highlight the ‘otherness’ of athletes competing in the third category. It could also pose problems for athletes in countries where being openly intersex is seen as ‘wrong’ or even criminal. Other proposals include defining categories exclusively by weight, height or testosterone levels like in other sports.

The International Olympic Committee is reserving judgement on testosterone limits for female athletes in the 2020 Japan Olympics until a ruling has been made in the Semenya case. If the IAAF are successful and win the case, Semenya and other intersex athletes will be required to administer testosterone-lowering medication for exactly six months before competing in the 2019 World Championships in Athletics in Doha, Qatar in September of this year. “On one hand we have to think of equality and equal rights, and on the other inclusivity and civil rights” Niall Moyna, Professor of Health and Human Performance in DCU, said, “it is very difficult”.

“On the one hand we have to think of equality and equal rights, and on the other inclusivity and civil rights… it is very difficult” contrary, hyperandrogenism has many negative side-effects including acne, seborrhea, and hair-loss on the scalp. This ruling came about when questions were raised over Dutee Chand’s eligibility to race in a women’s category. Chand is an Indian female athlete who, like Semenya, has an excess of androgen, and possesses unusually high levels of testosterone. Also mirroring Semenya’s experience,

8 VOL. XXV, ISSUE 7

Public opinion generally believes that Semenya should be allowed to race in a women’s category, without having to take medication to lower her natural testosterone levels. If Semenya does have to take testosterone-lowering medication it is predicted that her average time will increase by between five and seven seconds in the 800m race. Rather than winning Olympic gold, Semenya would

later apologised and commented that she was solely referring to a “notional case in which someone cynically changes gender, perhaps temporarily, to gain a competitive advantage.”

Of course, Semenya is not an anomaly. She became the focal point of this controversy due to the mismanagement of her personal medical results. The gold, silver and bronze positions in the 2016 Olympic 800m race went to Semenya, Francine Niyonsaba and Margaret Wambui respectively – all of whom face questions regarding their testosterone levels. Many female athletes running in the same category as Semenya support the introduction of obligatory lowering of testosterone-lowering medicine in hyperandrogenous athletes. Notably, the British athlete Lynsey Sharp said; “everyone can see there are two different races happening

“Public opinion generally believes that Semenya should be allowed to race in a women’s category, without having to take medication to lower her natural testosterone levels.”

The Court of Arbitration for Sport is due to sit again on March 26th to give its verdict.

Illustration: Freya Williams

FEATURES A check-up for CervicalCheck: where are we now?

Sam Keane takes a look at what went wrong, how the Department of Health dealt with the CervicalCheck scandal.

In December of last year, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar stated publicly that the CervicalCheck scandal was his single biggest regret of 2018. “In terms of the low points, I don’t know of any one particular day, but definitely trying to understand and manage and respond to the CervicalCheck scandal was extremely difficult,” he said. The controversy surrounding false negative results, the HSE’s policy of open disclosure and the trauma experienced by individuals such as Vicky Phelan, gripped the nation and raised serious questions about the state of the Irish health system. Since then attempts have been made to understand what went wrong, what recommendations were made in the wake of the scandal, and how successful the Department of Health have been in implementing these proposals to date.

Cervical cancer is a cancer that affects the cell-lining of the cervix in women. Warning signs include abnormal vaginal bleeding and pelvic pain. The main methods of treatment for this cancer are radiotherapy, chemotherapy and, in some cases, a hysterectomy (the surgical removal of the uterus). Each treatment option works most successfully with the earliest possible diagnosis of the cancer, making screening programmes invaluable. Delayed diagnosis results in the disease progressing into higher stages, leading to substantially reduced survival rates.

In September 2008, the Irish government introduced the CervicalCheck scheme, a screening programme for cervical cancer that was to be made available to 1.1 million eligible women between the ages 25 and 60. Since 2008, it is estimated that over 280,000 women have been screened per year. The procedure, which is commonly referred to as the “smear test”, is both quick and painless and involves the removal of a small tissue sample from the cervix. This sample is then assessed using cytological and morphological comparisons in a laboratory. The Cervical Check scheme outsourced the testing of these tissue samples to Clinical Pathology Laboratories in Austin, Texas between 2010 and 2013. However when investigations began shortly after the Cervical Check scandal broke, it was discovered that a third of smears were being outsourced further, to five labs all over the United States of America; San Antonio and Victoria in Texas, Las Vegas in Nevada, Orlando in Florida and Honolulu in Hawaii.

In 2011, Vicky Phelan underwent a routine smear test, the results of which showed her to be “all clear”, in other words; no cancer had been detected. This result was however, a “false negative”. A false negative occurs when the results of a test indicate that the disease is not present, when in reality, it is. A 2014 audit of smear test

“It is important that students learn from the errors in communication that occurred in the Cervical check controversy.”

results undertaken by the HSE revealed that she had wrongly received the all-clear. Shockingly, Ms Phelan was not informed of this error. In 2014, after seeking medical assistance independently, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Following aggressive radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatments, Vicky Phelan was declared cancer free later that year. However, in November 2017, a routine scan revealed that her cancer had returned. While undergoing treatment that year, Ms Phelan discovered from a chance reading of her medical records that the 2011 smear test had missed her cancer and even more damningly, that she had not been informed by anyone about this. Some months later, Ms Phelan settled a High Court case against Clinical Pathology Laboratories for €2.5 million with no admission of liability.

These developments gained significant media attention. On the 27th April, Minister for Health Simon Harris stated that he no longer had confidence in the management of the CervicalCheck programme. Following this, the HSE admitted that it had been aware of the substandard examination of smear test samples in the US laboratories in 442 cases, 200 which should have resulted in earlier intervention. It was revealed that the Clinical Director of CervicalCheck, Dr Gráinne Flannelly advised gynaecologist Dr Kevin Hickey in a 2017 email not to inform several women of false negative test results discovered in an audit and that he should “simply file” the audited test results in the patients’ medical records. Dr Gráinne Flannelly resigned soon after these revelations emerged.

A helpline was set up by the HSE to address concerns and received 2000 calls over the space of two days. The former

Chair of the National Cervical Screening Programme, Dr David Gibbons, said that he had repeatedly voiced his concerns to the HSE regarding the standard of testing in the US laboratories, all of which were ignored. On 1st May 2017, Minister Simon Harris announced to the Dáil that an additional 1,500 women suffering from cervical cancer did not have their earlier negative smears rechecked. He also suggested that the Government establish an investigative commission into the affair.

The Department of Health commissioned Dr Gabriel Scally to publish a report detailing how these mistakes were made and to draw up a list of recommendations as to how a similar scandal could be avoided in the future.

The “Scoping Inquiry into the CervicalCheck Screening Programme” revealed serious failures in the governance structures of the programme, leading Dr Scally to conclude that the scheme was “doomed to fail”. It is abundantly clear from the Scally Report that a great injustice was done to the women affected by this scandal, particularly in regard to the non-disclosure of the information gathered from the audits. Many who were involved are still suffering from cervical cancer and undertaking active treatment.

Other women, despite having received effective clinical intervention, continue to suffer from the life-altering effects of the disease and treatment such as hysterectomies, chemotherapy and lasting psychological damage. They have been forced to come to terms with difficulties such as infertility, lymphoedema, incontinence, and sexual problems.

Many of those affected by the scandal are seeking more than just a financial settlement, stating that they only pursued legal action out of anger and frustration at the Health Service’s response. The Scally Report outlined three recommendations made on behalf of the women affected.

Firstly, the women are seeking full disclosure regarding what happened and what went wrong. Secondly, they want someone to take responsibility and issue a genuine apology. The final recommendation was for measures to be put in place to ensure something like this never happens again. These measures included changes to document management policy within the HSE, the implementation of common standards across all testing laboratories and the formation of a National Screening Council. The report called for urgent revision of the HSE’s open disclosure policy. The revised policies must reflect the fundamental right of patients to have full knowledge about their health and also failings within the care process. Any decision not to disclose an error or mishap to a patient must be subject to intense external scrutiny and fit very specific criteria.

The report suggested that a lack of professionalism and compassion among medical professionals contributed to the tragic course of events. The decision not to disclose potentially life altering information raised concerns among the general public over the practices and attitudes of the medical profession in Ireland. Efforts have been made by UCD’s own School of Medicine in an attempt to address this. “It is important that students learn from the errors in communication that occurred in the CervicalCheck controversy” the Dean of Medicine, Professor Michael Keane, commented. Several lectures have been given directly referencing the scandal and the subsequent Scally Report. These lectures involve concepts such professionalism, compassion fatigue and the importance of an open dialogue between doctors and their patients. But these efforts in themselves raise another question, namely; Can compassion and empathy be learned from lecture slides?

40 years of seat belts: what’s changed, what still needs to be done?

With the 40th anniversary of the introduction of the law which made seat belts mandatory, Nathan Young reviews the impact this law had, as well as the challenges still facing the Road Safety Authority.

On 1st February, 1979, Ireland introduced legislation that made the wearing of seat belts, at least for front seat passengers and drivers, compulsory. At the time, mandatory seat belt laws were just becoming in vogue across the western world, and with particularly high death rates on her roads, it was high time Ireland joined the trend. In 1971, it was compulsory to have seat belts installed in cars, but by 1978 a Dáil memo on traffic safety claimed that only five percent of drivers were using seat belts, and this number only comprised of drivers, and discounted passengers.

The effect was fairly demonstrable early on. In 1977, ‘78, and ‘79 Irish roads saw 583, 628, and 614 deaths respectively. In 1980, ‘81, and ‘82 the numbers overall

dropped to 564, 572, and 533. It may not have been the 40% death reduction that the Dáil memo had predicted, but it was a huge step in reducing road deaths. Another point that adds context to these high numbers is, at the time, there were about 850,000 cars on the road. In 2018, when we now have 2 million cars, there were 148 road deaths reported. Of course 148 deaths is still 148 more than the ideal situation, but if driving were as dangerous as it had been in 1978, many more people would have perished last year.

In the RTÉ archives there exists footage of a seat belt checkpoint on the very first day of the law, on the Stillorgan road – a location very familiar to the students of UCD. In

the footage, Garda Tom Gillerman is seen pulling cars over and looking inside to see if the front seat passengers are wearing seat belts. He told RTÉ that he hadn’t encountered anyone objecting to wearing their seatbelts. When asked what he does if he sees anyone not wearing their seatbelt, he said, “I advise them that it became law as and from today, and then I send them on to that man there and he gives them the information on wearing their seatbelts and the law on it.” When asked how long this “softly approach” was going to last, Garda Gillerman said, “Ah, sure we’ll give them a month anyway.”

While it may seem fair to introduce new laws slowly and give people time to adjust, it may have been misguided. In the European Commission’s Road Safety

It helps too that this attitude is almost totally culturally ubiquitous. Since 1992, it has been the law that all passengers, including those in the back seats, must wear a seat belt. That means that, year on year, more and more drivers will have simply grown up in a world where, once you get into a car, you put on a seatbelt. If a driver allows children in their car without using a seat belt, it is not just the children’s lives and legal repercussions they are risking, it’s also the scorn of other motorists.

And why shouldn’t seat belts be the focus of road safety?

Studies vary in their exact number, but according to a study, carried out by the US Department of Transportation, people wearing three point seat belts were 73% less likely to die and 41% less likely to sustain injury during a

“Year on year more and more drivers will have simply grown up in a world where, once you get into a car, you put on a seatbelt.”

Planning – National Approaches, a document prepared by the High Level Group on Road Safety, all policy is advised around awareness and enforcement. As most roads are not monitored all of the time, what is needed is either awareness of the safety benefits or fear of the law to encourage motorists to follow the law. This is why the introduction of new legislation, such as the ban on drink driving or the introduction of penalty points, often only has a short term effect. The new law is brought in, it coincides with an awareness campaign, the issue is at the forefront of everyone’s minds, and for a few months, at least, the rates in fatalities and injuries goes down. However, as awareness drops, the rates climb back to where they were. This happened in 2002 when penalty points were introduced.

In 2001 and ‘02, there were 411 and 376 road deaths respectively. In 2003 there were only 335, but in the two years following, the numbers went back up to 374 and 396.

Education, awareness, and, most importantly, consistent enforcement of seat belt legislation is what the RSA and others credit with having the most impact on cutting road deaths consistently through the years.

collision than people wearing no seat belt. Other studies put the number closer to 60%, depending which direction the collision is from and where in the vehicle a person is sitting.

The massive reduction in road deaths due to seat belts, as positive as it is, leaves a more complex question as to how to lower the death toll further. There doesn’t seem to be another “seat belt”, all the obvious safety precautions had been legislated for. To discover what else could be done, the RSA commissioned a report from the market research firm Behaviour and Attitudes. Their study concluded that “younger male drivers are the most likely to engage in forms of errant behaviour.” This matches the fact that while 51% of motorists are male, and presumably about 50% of pedestrians are also male, in all areas where there is gendered statistics available on road deaths, males take the lead- 66% of cyclist, 75% of pedestrians, and a whopping 95% of motorcyclists killed. Whatever campaign the RSA engages with in the future, it must focus on why young men are engaging in such dangerous behaviors.

26TH MARCH 2019

9

FEATURES Operation Fat-shame Nation: Ireland’s attempts on ‘making the nation’ thin is grossly problematic With summer approaching, the media is telling us to work on our summer bodies. Joyce Dignam asks if weight loss television programmes normalise fat-shaming in our society.

Weight loss programmes are exploitative and sensationalist television, made for the thin person’s entertainment. These shows operate under the guise of encouragement, health and self improvement but when you really look closely, you can see that the design of the programmes often encourage unhealthy habits and portray the participant as a figure to be mocked. It is becoming more and more apparent that our society dislikes overweight people. Whether it’s telling them they’re bad role models simply for sharing photos of themselves on social media; portraying their weight as the butt of a joke in film and television; or erasing them from popular culture in general.

However, each time that this happens, the perpetrators of this hate deny there being any personal attacks based on weight and suggest that they are coming from a place of care, with the intention of encouraging the overweight person to better their health. When we television’s role in examining diet culture and weight loss, we can see why the everyday person thinks fat shaming behaviour is acceptable. Speaking to The University Observer, UCDSU Welfare Officer Melissa Plunkett said that fat shaming can be seen “across all media platforms” and that it can often “be linked to weight loss rather than being healthy.”

These shows tend to begin with the audience viewing the participants lifestyle prior to the introduction of the show’s concept. Rarely, this is done with any sympathy and often their lifestyles and mocked and displayed in an over the top fashion, such as rooting through their fridges

these participants have, telling the viewer that they don’t really have their best interests in mind in the first place.

The food and exercise plans on these shows are not made to be sustainable but rather made to get significant results, fast. Jillian Michaels, trainer on The Biggest Loser, which has a title that is itself questionable, has said that the participants will workout for four to five hours each day.

These workout plans are not maintainable and on these shows, we see little evidence that any effort or training has been put into making the weight loss long term, proving to us that the programmes do not have the participants best interests at heart. Watching a participant lose a significant amount of weight after a gruelling week evokes a more visceral reaction for the viewer than watching a person lose small amounts of weight consistently. It’s like comparing a car chase or explosion in a film to the mundanity of a character’s weekly routine; which one is more exciting?

Trainers and leaders on these programmes often demonstrate “tough love”, telling the viewer that health, happiness and weight loss cannot be achieved from a place of healthy encouragement. On one of the newest weight loss programmes, Revenge Body with Khloe Kardashian, we see a trainer tell a young girl that she has to “tear you down to build you back up.” Is this mindset really necessary to achieve weight loss goals? Why must we break overweight people down to tears and shame them on television for them to become healthy? On the Operation Transformation food plan, we are told that you must power through any hunger

that is a result of laziness. It tells us that the act of losing weight is the most important thing and that the reasons behind it and any issues relating to it are to be ignored because the most important part is the number on the scales. Overeating and not looking after yourself are often signs of depression or lack of self worth, all of which are

ignored for entertainment purposes on these programmes.

It’s no wonder that fat-shaming has become normalised and is constantly being defended, when we look at how it is infiltrated into the everyday household. Let’s start asking ourselves if the T.V. show our families are addicted to is coming from a good place or a cruel one.

“We see a trainer tell a young girl that she has to “tear you down to build you back up” Is this mind-set really necessary to achieve weight loss goals?” or showing them gruesome images of all the food they eat in a week piled together. Series such as Supersize vs Superskinny and You Are What You Eat, will exhibit the participants lifestyle in such a way as to shame them by using methods such as hidden cameras in their homes to catch them eating foods they aren’t supposed to. Even the popular Operation Transformation, which does seem to encourage Irish people of all shapes and sizes to work on a healthy lifestyle, seems to have it’s faults. We never seem to question why each participant must wear little to no clothing whilst being weighed in front of a panel of fully clothed leaders.

It could be argued that this is done to highlight their weight and therefore their ‘otherness’. It does seem somewhat degrading and pointless to watch someone discuss the triumphs and pitfalls of their week whilst in ill fitting underwear. These sensationalist approaches fail to address the why behind the what. These weight loss programmes ignore the reasons behind the lifestyles that

you’re feeling and that “an extra piece of fruit in the first week or two may help you get over the hump but ideally stick to two pieces of fruit/day in your two snacks.” In one episode, the Operation Transformation diet plan followed a young teen, with Dr. Eva Orsmond telling a participant that being on your period was not an excuse for not reaching your weekly target. The lesson is clear, that failure is not acceptable and fat people are fat simply because they don’t work hard enough.

Going forward, Melissa Plunkett says that talking about the issues will help to break down the societal pressures that we are faced with. She says that the SU tries to “promote healthy eating in general, it’s not about weight loss and it’s not about changing your body, it’s about being well within yourself. For Mind, Body & Soul this year, I’m hoping to highlight the kind of impact that media can have on body image.”

What these television shows teach us is that the fat person is there to be mocked and their weight is something

The Fulcrum Building: UCD’s new-new-Student Centre Michéal Ó Chathasaigh delves into the plans, problems and potential for the latest stage of residential and recreational development on campus.

There are 3,006 new beds planned to be constructed in UCD. Phase One of this development is currently underway. While there have been some criticisms about the project, for example, the lack of affordable rooms expected, it is universally recognised that there is a need for this accommodation. However, you may not have thought about where 3,000-odd extra people will go to procrastinate for hours on end. There are only so many couches in the student centre. Well, the brains of UCD Residential Working Group have thought about this, and they subsequently planned the construction of the Fulcrum Building.

The Fulcrum building will be a seven-storey structure, with the upper five floors mainly consisting of studio apartments. The bottom two floors however, will act as a student hub; a “new-new student centre”. The ground floor will comprise of an auditorium with approximately

290 seats, a restaurant, four retail units for potential occupation by a bank, coffee shops and a convenience store. There is even a small phone shop and juice bar in the plans – appropriately suited to the ‘D4’ postal address.

The proposed floor-plan also reveals a bar within the restaurant. The first floor houses a dance studio, a barber shop, a fitness suite with a gym and five bookable multi-use rooms which students can reserve, similar to the bookable rooms in the current student centre. There will be little dead space throughout these two floors, with most of the remaining floor space to be filled by seating areas. The top floor will also house a health and well-being centre.

It is designed to be a fully-equipped hangout spot for UCD students, both for those living on-campus and otherwise. However, it raises some questions. Is this the facility we need most? Is this location going to split the student hubs or add to the overall campus?

Firstly, there is an ongoing housing crisis in this city, and UCD has taken action. UCDSU President Barry Murphy stated that although these blocks are planned to be expensive, students do need somewhere to stay.

He also mentioned that if the housing supply is meeting demand, it will subsequently lower housing prices in the surrounding areas of UCD. More accommodation is also required to house the increasing number of international, non-EU fee paying students that UCD wants to take in.

Murphy claims the university is forced to bring in more international students to make up for the shortcomings in the funding that the Irish government is investing in thirdlevel education.

The Fulcrum Building comes as part of the residential suite designed in the UCD Residences Masterplan, as a connecting point for all the residential blocks. With regards to whether this is the best use of space, it was

“It’s 50,000 square feet that can be used by students, for student engagement and activities. It’s fantastic, and it’s going to be a vibrant place”.

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thought to be better to build a focal point of facilities for its residences, rather than just more places to sleep and no places to socialise. Murphy told The University Observer that UCD decided on this plan as it was based on models in other universities where this type of building worked.

Secondly, the Fulcrum Building is connecting previously separate “Character Areas” on campus. The Belfield campus was split into 3 Character Areas to concentrate on their primary use, according to the Campus Development Plan. These three areas include a Sport and Amenities Area encompassing the current student and sports centres; an Education, Research and Innovation Area which mostly surrounds the two lakes and extends towards the Health Sciences building, while also including Richview and Newstead buildings; and lastly a Residential Area which includes the current residences blocks and the new planned ones. With regards to this Fulcrum Building breaching its precinct and possibly splitting the student hubs, Murphy claims that such an amenity actually serves a purpose on that side of the campus, “it’s going to be an effective use of space that will connect all of the residential blocks. It will become a hub for campus life and it’s another place where students can go to meet-up and get coffee or eat their lunch.”

When put in context, UCD is a community which is relative in size to Kilkenny City, and it does need more than one centre of leisure and activity. “I don’t think it will completely take away from what the student centre here does, I don’t think it will split the campus, I just think it will add to what’s currently available.” UCDSU consulted the UCD Residential Management team on whether this building had any possibility of splitting the student populous, but they were confident that it would, in fact, have an overall positive impact on student life.

The general consensus seems to be that this will be a great asset to the Belfield campus. It’s a key part of a suite that UCD is delivering for residences, to enhance student life and enhance the campus atmosphere. It should be noted that the current student centre is considered to have completely changed the life of the campus, and this new centre holds the potential to replicate this. Aisling O’Grady, the Head of Student Advisors in UCD, said “I absolutely welcome it. It’s 50,000 square feet that can be used by students, for student engagement and activities.

It’s fantastic, and it’s going to be a vibrant place.”

The Fulcrum Building will be located along the bus route, connecting the commuter belt to a recreational facility. There will be an open square located just outside it and will be connected to Sutherland by a pedestrianprioritised crossing. This square will be the new location of the Thursday food markets, and it has the potential to be used for a wide range of student activities.

For anyone interested in learning more about this project, the plans can be seen online at ucdplanning.ie.

SCIENCE Being wired differently: the psychology of political preference Emmet Feerik takes a look at an emerging evidence base which suggests that our political preferences are nowhere near as rational as we would like to believe.

We like to think that our political beliefs are coherent and well thought out. We tend to believe we have arrived at them through serious moral and factual consideration. But what if it could be shown that rather than arriving at these beliefs through careful deliberation, we in fact come to them by way of deeply-rooted biological predispositions?

What if reason, rather than being the mechanism by which we come to our political opinions, merely provides us with justifications for beliefs we were bound to have regardless?

Exactly this possibility is what researchers at Virginia Tech in the US explored in the mid-2000s when they studied the relationship between political orientation and physiological reactivity to threat. This team of neuroscientists looked at MRI scans of 83 peoples’ brains while they were shown a number of both emotionally evocative and neutral pictures. The emotionally evocative pictures included mutilated animals, people eating worms, and a screwdriver poking towards a human eyeball, while the neutral ones included a fruit bowl, and the inside of a room. After this, the participants were administered questionnaires asking about their views on important political and social issues. This enabled the researchers to place them on a spectrum from extremely liberal to extremely conservative.

To their surprise, the researchers found massive differences between the brains of liberals and conservatives when it came to their response to repulsive images. Both groups reacted to them, but these reactions involved different brain networks. This difference was so pronounced that it was possible to predict with 95% accuracy whether a participant was liberal or conservative. The researchers also noted that responses to disgusting imagery, like the person eating worms, was far more predictive of political orientation than violent imagery, like the screwdriver being driven into a person’s eye.

These results have been backed up by a growing body of evidence suggesting that conservatives are more sensitive to threat than liberals. This evidence also points to a stronger correlation between disgust and political orientation, than violence and political orientation. As of yet, however, it is unclear whether this is because disgust is simply a more powerful and relevant emotion than fear in the political realm, or whether it’s simply easier to make somebody disgusted in a lab than it is to make them afraid.

So strong is the role of disgust sensitivity, political scientist Michael Bang Petersen points out, that it is at least as good a predictor of political orientation as education or income. The robustness of these results is further supported by the fact that similar findings have been observed in a number of different countries and cultures worldwide. In each of these contexts, it is always the same; higher disgust sensitivity is related to conservative political belief.

So, what could account for this link? Why would your reaction to pictures of mutilated animals or germy sponges be linked to your views on immigration or transgender rights? To answer this, researchers have coined the idea

of a “behavioural immune system.” This immune system has the same function as our biochemical immune system (protecting us from pathogens), but it operates through behaviour instead of through the lymphatic and blood systems. The idea goes that when we encounter something which may cause infection or illness, like vomit or mouldy food, we feel revulsion, which causes us to move us away from the object of our disgust. Even the facial expression we make when we are disgusted – the eyes squinted, nose shrivelled, lips pressed together – this is designed to ensure that whatever is on the outside does not make its way into our bodies.

Just to keep us on the safe side of things, evolution has made us overly-sensitive to disgust, leading us to be disgusted by things like obesity, liver spots, and various non-contagious deformities. These have no chance of hurting us, but on an evolutionary level, it simply pays to err on the side of caution. As the scientific literature on this has repeatedly shown, this fear of contamination extends all the way to people themselves. Specifically, this disgust is often felt towards foreigners. Some researchers think this link can be traced back to the fact that throughout history, foreigners would have been more likely to expose local populations to pathogens against which they had no defences (think Christopher Columbus and the Native Americans). Others believe that the link is less deeplyrooted, and that fears about germs simply piggyback on negative stereotypes about foreigners; that they are dirty, more sexually loose, and eat strange foods.

This would seem to explain the relationship between views about immigration and disgust sensitivity quite easily. It’s also interesting to note that even the language used in these political discussions borrows heavily from language about disease and infection. Immigrants are often described as a “plague”, and their migration as an “invasion”. In Nazi Germany, Hitler spoke of the “vermin” that was the world’s ‘Jewry’ (he even used the same gas – Zyklon B – to exterminate the Jews, that he had previously used to rid German factories of rats after he became chancellor). He referred to Jews as “parasites” on German society, and as a virus which must be eradicated. It may thus be no coincidence that the man was a germophobe.

What then about issues like gay marriage and transgenderism? Can these too be squared with the findings of the so-called new science of “disgustology”? In one experiment, social psychologists Simone Schnall and Jonathan Haidt examined two groups with similar political stances. They exposed one group to a vomit-like scent as they filled out questionnaires assessing their social values, while the other group filled out the questionnaires in an odourless setting. Despite both groups having comparable political ideologies, those in the group exposed to the vomit smell showed more opposition to gay rights, pornography, and premarital sex than those in the second group. Other similar studies involving other methods of creating disgust, like bad tastes and sticky tables, have found the same

result; when we feel disgusted, we make harsher moral judgements.

None of this undermines the validity of conservative political opinions, it should be pointed out. It is just a matter of fact that sometimes the best solutions to political problems are conservative, and sometimes they are liberal.

The two poles would not exist otherwise. The fact that conservatives are more prone to holding political opinions based on disgust does not mean that this less pronounced tendency among liberals is any more rational. The facts are what they are, and a mind led by disgust is no less likely to come to the “correct” conclusion about an issue than a mind less led by disgust. What this research shows is that either way, biology plays a bigger role in our politics than we would like to admit.

“What if reason, rather than being the mechanism by which we come to our political opinions, merely provides us with justifications for beliefs we were bound to have regardless?”

The impact of GDPR on research Sean Mooney looks at the impact GDPR has had on some research sectors since being implemented last year.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect across the European Union in 2018, replacing the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC. The legislation outlines new laws regarding how organisations handle the personal data of EU citizens, regardless of where the data is being held. In summary, the laws demand that data processing is lawful, fair and transparent.

If the regulations are broken, swift fines ensue, as Google discovered when they were fined €50m for breaching the new rules, in the first major case since the laws were passed. They failed to obtain sufficient consent from users when processing their data for the purpose of personalised advertising. GDPR gives priority to personal privacy in many instances, but the aim is to encourage digital innovation so long as the appropriate safeguards are in place. There are certain exceptions made for research, although the term “research” isn’t well defined. For

Europe and China. The US secretary of commerce also voiced concerns around GDPR, saying that “GDPR creates serious, unclear legal obligations for both private and public sector entities, including the US government.

We do not have a clear understanding of what is required to comply. That could disrupt transatlantic cooperation on financial regulation, medical research, emergency management coordination, and important commerce.”

A biobank is a repository that stores biological samples for use in research, and over the last two decades they have become increasingly important scientific tools, lying at the heart of several types of contemporary research like genomics and personalised medicine. Biobanks give researchers access to research-ready, high-quality samples of blood, tissue, and fluids together with associated clinical data for a large number of people, which can help identify biomarkers for rare genetic disorders. Such studies were

operational within the EU but with their headquarters outside it.

The EU asserted its commitment to protecting the fundamental rights of individuals relating to privacy and data protection by introducing GDPR, which strongly protects health and genetic information. These types of data lie at the heart of medical research, so organisations conducting clinical trials must re-evaluate their procedures

around consent, and any secondary processing of data must be considered carefully in light of the legislation. First and foremost, the legal terminology must be understood to ensure its proper dissemination and application. It is important to protect the personal data of individuals, and also to ensure data can be used where appropriate to support necessary research. This is the line that must be walked going forward.

“Daily decisions about handling data have to be made by each individual institution’s legal team, and they are likely to err on the side of caution, potentially stifling research” example, it may extend to the data analytics conducted by private organisations too.

Early drafts of GDPR posed problems for the scientific community. One particular issue is around consent in research, which would have required researchers to get renewed consent to reuse data for a different study. The scientists met with the policymakers and this was rectified in the final draft, but medical research remains vulnerable to unintended consequences of the new law. For example, daily decisions about handling data have to be made by each individual institution’s legal team, and they are likely to err on the side of caution, potentially stifling research.

There are other outstanding issues too, which are caused by the fact that on several points, GDPR provides a moderate level of autonomy for each country within the EU to implement exemptions with respect to scientific research. In Ireland for instance, regulations signed into law by Minister for Health Simon Harris allow research to be carried out using people’s personal data without their explicit consent under certain circumstances. This lack of harmony on some points across the continent could prove problematic when it comes to sharing data between collaborators across borders within the EU. Barriers may arise further afield, too. Cooperation in the academic field with China “offers unique opportunities but also risks when it comes to handling of data, specifically personal research data,” said Professor Henk Kummeling, Utrecht University, at a seminar on cooperation between

not possible prior to the advent of biobanks, and they have led scientific breakthroughs and new treatments.

Understandably though, they raise legitimate questions about privacy and medical ethics. GDPR specifically brings some of these concerns to a point. Ethics committees and institutional review boards provided guidance in the past for how biobanks operate but such processes are no longer sufficient. Instead, a data protection officer has to be appointed to oversee the adherence to the new laws.

The legislation also requires that data for scientific research is “pseudonymised” as early as possible. In contrast with being entirely anonymised, pseudonymisation is the processing of personal data so that it can no longer be attributed to a specific data subject without the use of additional information, which is kept separately. Further, data remains personal data even when it has been pseudonymised and has to be treated as such.

Generally, the attitude of researchers towards GDPR is predominantly positive, and awareness levels are high. Many of the obligations imposed by GDPR are not new to institutions conducting clinical research, because this sector has long been subject to strict data security regulations all around the world. For the most part, GDPR requirements reflect current best practices in research, and therefore should not have a significant impact on how researchers operate. Nevertheless, precisely how activity within science and medicine will be impacted by GDPR is not clear, and this is particularly the case for organisations

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SCIENCE Do politics and vaccines make strange bedfellows?

James Donaghey explores the link between the rise in populism and the anti-vaccine movement.

A topic of increasing concern in the last year has been the hesitancy of some parents to vaccinate their children. As close as Blackrock, preventable diseases such as measles have seen a resurgence warranting public warnings. As with any scientific advances, there is a community of deniers, despite overwhelming evidence in favour of vaccines.

Recently, a study found that there is a correlation between those likely to display a hesitancy toward vaccinations and for those same people to show support for populist parties in their respective countries. In the study carried out by the European Journal of Public Health, the Irish populist party used was Sinn Féin.

Across Europe in recent years, the MMR vaccine has seen a decline in certain countries. MMR, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella, saw its biggest decline in Italy, where 90% coverage fell to 85% over 3 years from 2013-2016. This is owed mainly to the 5 Star Movement, the right-wing anti-establishment populist party there, founded by a comedian in 2009. Similarly, one of the most famous populist elected in recent years, Donald Trump has condoned the anti-vaccination groups and given them a platform to reach more with their message.

The mainstream disdain for vaccines stemmed from a 1998 article in an esteemed medical journal. British surgeon Andrew Wakefield published an article in the Lancet claiming that there was a link between an increase in vaccines and autism in British children. An investigation was carried out which completely debunked and discredited Wakefield’s assertion. The lack of evidence combined with the financial involvement of external parties led to Wakefield’s licence being revoked. Despite this overwhelming evidence against the original article, and no test ever proving the claim, the seed had been planted. In Ireland alone, measles saw an increase of 244% from 2017 to 2018.

Of course, a correlation has been found, but there needs to be causation for the findings to be significant. Basically, is there a reason for this link, or is it purely coincidental?

The principal reason offered was a profound distrust in elites and experts, which was seen as a disenfranchisement of “the system”. With a belief that the establishment doesn’t have their best interests at heart, people resort to alternatives, with essential oils being popular to fight diseases, and populist parties being the alternative to traditional political parties. UNICEF reported increases in the same period in 98 countries across the world, and in the last 20 years there has been a threefold increase in support for populist parties across Europe.

The causation depicted by the study is one which is already being exploited for financial and political gain.

Data harvesting companies such as the now-infamous Cambridge Analytica and social media firms like Facebook have already been using the interests of certain demographics to bombard them with ads which are likely to appeal directly to them, effectively narrowing the audience. This works by playing on biases already held by parts of the population to entice them further.

There is a system called Mosaic in the UK which aims

to make marketing more efficient by compartmentalising people based on location, profession, interests etc. One group that uses Mosaic are credit card companies, but this may sound counter intuitive. The credit card companies did not seek those who were most financially stable, or financially knowledgeable. Instead, they sought homes where “the interest in current affairs is low. They are educated to a low degree.” People targeted to receive advertisements for credit cards are “likely to be interested in adverts for financial products” because they were seen as most likely to take advantage of easy credit.

Independent facts such as those presented thus far, may not be as independent as we suspect. William Poundstone outlines in his book Head in the Cloud the seeming proportionality between general knowledge of an individual and the income of the same person (within reason). Poundstone found that 20% of every surveyed audience is likely to believe any conspiracy presented to them. Some people appear to be predisposed to believe conspiracy theories regardless of the evidence presented.

It was found, for instance, that people who believe Princess Diana faked her death are also more inclined to believe that she was murdered by a member of the royal family. This again displays the same lack of faith in the mainstream; an unwillingness of people to conform to the beliefs of those around them.

The link between vaccine hesitancy and populist politics is apparent, but the danger involved is yet to be made totally clear. While the majority still believe in the importance of vaccinations, it is with great concern that the future must be approached. Throughout history, eventually the accepted scientific model on a subject became the internationally accepted model. For example, only a small minority would deny that the Earth revolves around the Sun today. Yet the belief that the Earth is flat gained traction in recent years despite the overwhelming evidence against it. The main lesson to take from this is to trust in the prevalence of common sense, and to ensure that we take care of ourselves first to protect ourselves against the potential dangers wrought by others.

“Poundstone found that 20% of every surveyed audience is likely to believe any conspiracy presented to them.”

My way or the Huawei Huawei has come under fire recently for its potentially dubious uses of data. Jeremy Ling investigates.

Arguably, Huawei is at the forefront of modern technology.

In recent news, this Chinese company has been the subject of heated debate about what are core values to many of us – trust, honesty, and integrity. The US, in particular, has been vocal about its suspicions regarding Huawei’s motives.

With their rapid advancements in facial recognition, 5G and the Internet of Things (IOT), experiencing paranoia is not illegitimate or irrational. Could this global expansion and dominance of the European market all be a ploy for exploitation of other countries, such as Ireland? Could Huawei be furtively attempting to access private and confidential information, and more importantly, government data?

In Ireland, Huawei has connections with several of our major universities, such as Trinity, DCU, and our very own UCD. With researchers from these universities, it conducts ground-breaking research, including research on smart cities and safe cities initiatives. These partnerships have led to impressive advancements in the technological sector in Ireland, with the Vodafone CEO remarking that losing this partnership with Huawei would delay the

introduction of 5G by two years. 5G, meaning the fifthgeneration of mobile internet connectivity, promises much faster download speeds, better coverage, and moreover, more stable connections. In other words, video calls with that long-distance friend will be clearer, less glitchy, and fitness devices and navigation systems will be more “real time” than Dublin Bus’ Real Time is today. More impressively, 5G will power IOT, enabling communication between driverless cars and traffic lights. With all these benefits, why should we choose to lose this partnership with Huawei?

With all these technological advancements, come the negatives – the same existential debate over whether technology has been the best thing that has happened to us or the most damaging invention introduced to mankind.

If Huawei can devise these smart initiatives, what else could these developments lead to? Potential espionage? In Xinjiang, China, Huawei has been working in cooperation with the local Public Security Bureau to develop a new surveillance scheme for this region. The aim is to develop better security through population-control measures.

The motivation behind this? Threats of terrorism with a large Muslim population in this region. Thus, Chinese authorities have used Xinjiang as a pilot – adopting facial recognition and AI in the hopes of achieving more effective and stringent policing techniques.

This partnership between China and Huawei has fuelled concerns over Huawei’s legitimacy in developing smart cities or smart city initiatives in other countries as it continues to flourish and grow, particularly in the European market. How can this technology, such as that used in Xinjiang, be used in other countries outside of the Chinese market? Moreover, could this be an alliance with the Chinese government?

The US has accused Huawei of potential espionage on behalf of the Chinese government. In response, Huawei remarked that they only strive to serve the public, with no political alliance with the Chinese government and moreover, with no mal-intent at heart. In its extremity, US intelligence officials have formally announced Huawei as a national security threat. In total, the US has filed 23 charges against Huawei. An example of some of the claims

made against Huawei would be the US’ allegation that Huawei has committed wire fraud, and moreover, stolen technology from another company, T-Mobile.

Further fuelling the tension between the US and China, in December of last year, Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Meng Wanzhou was held in custody on the basis of fraud, and breach of sanctions on Iran while changing flights in Vancouver, Canada. She has denied the claims made against her, responding with a lawsuit for the breach of her civil rights.

In a relatively short space of time, Huawei have gone from a local brand to a name known worldwide (although pronounced incorrectly by most). Their main competitors are Nokia and Ericsson, making equipment for mobile phone networks. With the advent of their smartphones, Huawei now captures approximately 16% of the global

“The US has accused Huawei of potential espionage on behalf of the Chinese government.” market, being the third-largest supplier behind Samsung, and Apple. The founder of Huawei was a former army officer, resulting in the US citing this military background as a further threat and potential risk, fuelling more security concerns. Moreover, China’s National Intelligence Law further declares that all organisations must support, cooperate and collaborate with national intelligence work – a law heavily cited by US representatives. Nonetheless, in a communist society, this is a hardly surprising demand.

Huawei has the power to revolutionise the world as we know it, and yet, this involves major threats to public security. The US has been adamantly against Huawei, citing potential espionage. Australia and New Zealand followed suit, restricting Huawei’s involvement in their 5G networks. Nonetheless, New Zealand later established that this was still under review. Closer to home, some of our neighbouring countries, including the UK and Germany, are more inclined to keeping Huawei. Just last month, James Lawless, a Fianna Fáil Science and Technology spokesperson announced that there has not been much mention of this issue regarding Huawei’s involvement in Irish networks.

So far, it seems that as citizens in a fast-developing world, we can only hope to wait and see what happens. The argument against Huawei’s involvement seems legitimate as far as it is evidence-based. Nonetheless, restricting Huawei’s involvement due to simple paranoia could lead to a potentially major loss in terms of smart cities initiatives, IOT, and 5G. For now, let’s hope that any decisions made are informed and evidence-based.

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SCIENCE

Is nuclear power the answer to climate change?

Katia Gillen investigates whether nuclear power is a viable solution to our carbon emissions problem The recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, revealed that in twelve years global temperatures will reach a point that will be irreversible, even with any future environmental policy changes. With this alarming news more people have been making efforts to reduce their carbon footprint and more politicians have been working on developing policies that will help the world to go on in a more sustainable way. Many of the traditional sources of energy, such as gas and coal, release high levels of CO2, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. One of the considered solutions for alternative sources of energy is nuclear power. Nuclear power emits the lowest amount of greenhouse gasses. However, the risks associated with nuclear energy are seen by some as being too high to make nuclear energy the best solution.

The use of nuclear power avoids the emission of nearly two billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, which is reportedly the same effect that would be achieved by taking over 400 million cars off the road each year. The 2016 Paris Agreement, signed by 175 countries with the aim of reducing the rise of global temperatures to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial era temperatures, mentions nuclear power as an alternative energy source upon which governments would like to rely on more in the future. However, some countries have been turning away from nuclear power. Germany previously expressed the ambition to have its radioactive energy source replaced by renewable sources of energy. Renewable energy today account for 30% of Germany’s power sources, but its carbon footprint has gone up from 761.0 million tonnes of CO2 in 2011, to 763.8 million tonnes of CO2 following a six year period, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy, published in June 2018. Meanwhile,

countries like France, where nuclear power accounts for about 75% of its electricity, appear to have a much lower carbon footprint. In 2017, France’s emissions accounted for 320 million tonnes of CO2, less than half than that of Germany. This makes it clear that the use of nuclear energy could relatively quickly and drastically reduce the global carbon footprint.

Nuclear power plants require large sums of money to be built. It has long been believed that the costs arising from building new nuclear power plants can be justified by

“The use of nuclear power avoids the emission of nearly two billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.” the benefits arising from the plant after it is constructed, and the fact that operating the plant was considered to be a cheap undertaking that was going to pay off in the future.

However, a Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) report suggests that operating nuclear plants is actually rather unprofitable, so much so that a few nuclear plants have had to close down because of their cost inefficiency and there are several others that are predicted to shut down for the same reason in the near future.

Risks of accidents may be low, but carry significant consequences and are also very expensive to clean up, if cleaning up is even possible. Historical precedents of accidents associated with nuclear plants raise justifiable

concerns among the general world population. In 2011, a nuclear plant in Fukushima leaked radioactive material into its surroundings as a result of an earthquake followed by a tsunami. Somewhat similarly in Chernobyl in 1986, a design flaw in a nuclear reactor and a mistake made by one of the plant operators resulted in major radiation leaks into the atmosphere, going outside of the initial site of the disaster and affecting much of northern Europe. While risks are generally considered to be low, the inability to guarantee that there won’t be an unforeseen accident that could result in a leak, leaves many feeling uneasy about the prospect of more plants appearing close to their homes.

Another important environmental concern is the issue of nuclear waste and where to store it. Nuclear waste from power plants is relatively small but highly toxic and dangerous if mishandled. Nuclear waste decomposes naturally, but the length of time required for the process to finish depends on the type of radioactive isotopes used.

It needs to be isolated for long periods of time before it ceases to be hazardous, which is why it is often buried deep underground or underwater. Disposing of waste is not easy and people have their reservations about living next to such hazards. The UK has utilised nuclear power for 70 years, however, they do not have a single disposal site agreed upon, despite its efforts to entice local communities with financial compensation.

Even if used more widely, nuclear power will probably not help reduce the global carbon footprint by sufficient amounts alone. Nuclear power is effective when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the power sector, but “the energy system is bigger than just electricity” noted Sam Ori, the Executive Director of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. Industries like

agriculture and manufacturing, which are also responsible for significant amounts of global greenhouse emissions, would require separate solutions and would not be helped by nuclear energy as easily.

While it is clear that there are numerous issues with nuclear power as an energy source, it is important to note that the current state of climate affairs does not allow

“Historical precedents of accidents associated with nuclear plants raise justifiable concerns among the general world population.” for much time to reflect on better alternatives. However, the risks and problems associated with nuclear power should not be dismissed, and better alternatives can still be considered simultaneously. Relying on nuclear power sources, in conjunction with policies that aid in regulating emissions from industrial and agricultural sectors could in fact provide necessary relief in the short-term. At this stage, there is a desperate need for the implementation of sound drastic environmental policies, which would benefit from the inclusion of nuclear power. This would also allow for time to work out better alternatives or nuclear management solutions in the long run.

The extent of the extended phenotype Emmet Feerick When you look out the window, and see a bird flying off to some other place, do you ever get the sense that its life must be pretty meaningless?

I mean, it spends all its time flying around in search of mates and food. That’s the purpose of its existence. That’s all it knows and that’s all it’s here for. When it’s not doing those things, it’s sleeping in its nest. And it sleeps only so it can rebuild its energy to do more mating and eating.

That’s the whole ‘point’ of a bird’s life.

Yet when you look out your window at the human world, what do you see? One definite thing is buildings; lots of them. That’s an obvious sign that there is something similar between us and the animal world. In a way, you could view our buildings simply as more complicated bird nests. We make them so we can be warm and comfortable, and so that we have somewhere to sleep. You could look at beaver dams and fox dens in the same way.

From a biological perspective, it makes sense to say that nests, damns, homes, and dens are created by genes. It goes without saying that the heart, lungs, skull, and other body parts are also made by genes. What separates these things, then? Why can’t we say that our phenotype – the physical manifestation of our genes – consists of skulls, hearts, and houses? Is it only because that houses are outside of the body? After all, the job of a gene is to replicate itself. It has to keep the organism which it belongs to alive in order to do this. How it goes about doing this is surely worthy of the word ‘phenotype’.

In this view, a bird nest or a beaver dam, or indeed, a house, is just as much as part of an animal’s phenotype as its skull, or its fur, or its circulatory system. These are simply attempts by the gene to modify either the organism, or the organism’s environment, in order so that the gene survives. The biologist Richard Dawkins coined the term “extended phenotype” to describe this phenomenon in his 1982 book, The Extended Phenotype. An extended phenotype is simply a physical manifestation of a gene’s survival efforts which extends beyond the bounds of the

“It makes sense to say that nests, damns, homes, and dens are created by genes.”

organism itself.

It is easy to see, for example, how a house could be seen as an extended phenotype. Its warmth aids our survival by ensuring that our bodies expend less energy on temperature regulation; its roof shelters us from the elements; and its walls protect us from other primates and animals who might harm us. Houses, then, are just hightech bird nests. Going back to the window, though, and we see that the world of humans consists of many more buildings than just houses. We use buildings to get an education, to work, and to exercise. We use them to bank, to send letters, and generally to take part in the massive, complex global society that is unique to our species. This is our lives. How different this is from the lives of the birds!

We have meaning and direction and purpose. It seems that there is some meaning to all of this complexity that is of a whole different order than the merely survival-based adaptations of the “lower” animals. Where they build dams and nests, we build communications networks and global financial systems.

From the viewpoint of our genes, however, is any of this really different from building houses? What drives our intuition that there is a real, qualitative difference between structures like houses, and infrastructures like the financial system? The answer seems to be quite straightforward - distance. The end goal of a gene is to get itself passed on to the next generation. It’s easy to see how houses facilitate this. It’s less easy to see how banks facilitate it. In the case of banks, the starting place (the physical building of a bank) is quite distant from the end place (the survival of human organisms). And yet this is undeniably their ultimate purpose. We use banks to keep our money safe. Money is what we use to buy things, from food and cars, to, well, houses.

On the view of the extended phenotype, the goal of the entire global financial system is to maximise the survival chances of large numbers of people. Our genes have built brains which have built financial systems which, at least in principle, maximise wealth. Where they fail at this (and they do, with some degree of regularity, it must be admitted), this can be attributed to the complex nature of the systems themselves. With all of their moving parts and interactions, financial systems take on a life of their own, which is not reducible to the genes which created them. This is to be expected - even comparatively simple systems, like the weather, cannot be predicted with reference to individual air or water molecules. All that needs to be said to defend

the extended phenotype’s case, however, is that its overall effects are superior to that of those if it had not existed to begin with. Try and imagine a world without banks, and you’ll quickly see that they have been one of our genes’ most successful projects.

The same can be said of legal systems, whose goal is to maintain social order, and ensure the upholding of individuals’ rights. Again, not too many steps are required to work out how these things aid our survival.

It makes sense, then, to think of the banks and the law as tremendously large and complex life support systems.

They are like our hearts and skulls, in that their ultimate purpose is to maximise our chances of survival, and thus our genes’ chances of propagation into the future. We only fail to see the connection here due to the sheer distance between these systems and the end genetic goal of survival.

Where skulls and hearts are directly connected to genes, the financial and legal systems are connected to genes through the conduit of psychology. This psychology gives

rise to the behaviours which bring these complex systems into existence, and which in turn aid the survival of the organism. From this perspective, all roads lead to the genes.

There are some areas of life that do not seem amenable to this kind of explanation, however. How would art fit into the picture, here? It doesn’t have any obvious genetic purpose. Additionally, you could argue that the complexity of our brains enables us to experience depths of emotion and thought that are not accessible to other animals. To the extent that this increased intensity and complexity have intrinsic worth, our lives are more meaningful than the lives of seagulls. Despite these objections, the view of the extended phenotype remains a fresh perspective from which to view the world, and within which to place our own actions and motivations. So, think of that the next time you pity a seagull for the banality of its life. We’re really doing the same thing, at heart.

26TH MARCH 2019

13

STUDENT VOICES The Real Fake News: Motives for murder Matthew Tannam-Elgie

The existence of student media has been threatened before - it can’t happen again Claudia Dalby In 2011, a motion was put forward to UCDSU Council to remove Article 16 of the UCD Constitution, which guarantees the running, production and funding, of The University Observer and Belfield FM within the university.

The subsequent referendum risked the existence of these media outlets on campus.

Given the current flourishing of both the paper and radio on campus today, this referendum clearly did not pass.

However, this outcome was not guaranteed. The University Observer had to first campaign for its right to exist, by proving that it was editorially independent from what was both its source of funding, and naturally the topic of the majority of its news content, the SU. Claims to discredit it came from both the SU itself and the student body, these flames stoked by articles in the College Tribune.

The University Times, Trinity College’s counterpart to a union-funded news source, finds itself under the same circumstances - needing to justify its funding in order to continue operating on campus. This time, students are unhappy with the actions of the editor to uncover circumstances surrounding a group of male students ‘hazing’ students in initiation practises. Hazing practises in the United States has lead to so many deaths there is a dedicated Wikipedia page. The decision to pursue this story was commendable.

A recording device was found outside the room where the hazing was happening, and The University Times was subject to widespread criticism, a great deal of which came from its rival paper, Trinity News. The methods used by The University Times to obtain the information have been regarded as legally sound and constituting a matter of public interest, which the National Union of Journalists have supported, with Irish journalists expressing their concern that the referendum is a threat to press freedom.

Following a petition, there will be a referendum to remove its funding in April.

Back in 2011, once the referendum date was set, the Observer sprung to work on crafting the argument for its own survival. In Issue XVII, rallying the input from several past editors and media experts, the paper outlined the reasons to value a funded news source on campus, and why a single outlet, such as the College Tribune, was not enough.

Most notable contributions to Issue XVII were open letters from the founders of the University Observer, comedian Dara O’Briain and, then Political Editor of the Sunday Business Post, Pat Leahy. The two wrote, encouraging the student body to not help the SU “kill off this paper.” The squabbles and scandals they had seen the newspaper through while at its helm, although dramatic at the time, “had never been deemed sufficient to close down the college paper.”

The Irish Secretary of the National Union of Journalist thought the referendum was a “blow to media diversity.”

Former Education Editor of The Irish Times, Sean Flynn said “student media is sometimes taken for granted and [students] accept that it’s there. People need to realise what a useful resource student newspapers are.”

The University Observer had at that point, reported on students getting ripped-off by a well-known accommodation agency, and uncovered the story of a lecturer who had forged their work credentials. This is at an estimated average cost of 16.7c per student per issue.

Much like the case in 2011, the call to referendum on the funding of a student paper, which would lead to the end of its publication, is an attempt to silence the truth by those who feel threatened by it, or simply do not like it. Indeed, some of the loudest voices have come from a disquieting source, Trinity News, who in their indictment of UT’s press freedom and their attempts to dismantle its funding, do not make the case that they are deserving of these either.

Trinity News is thriving even without access to the same funding as UT, and deserves the same opportunities, but it will not earn them if it discredits their shared raison d’etre so comfortably.

Two funded papers means further opportunities for students from all backgrounds to participate as Editor or Deputy Editor, not just those with the financial privilege to work unpaid for a year. While at the moment there is only one, to have zero is to be in a far worse position.

The precedent that the response to disliking a story or its methods should be to shut the source down, is not one that holds the favour to any form of media.

14 VOL. XXV, ISSUE 7

In 2003, Gus Van Sant directed a rather idiosyncratic film called Elephant. The film has no conventional plot, the script appears to be improvised and teenagers are followed around their school by an omniscient camera as they go about their day-to-day routine. The only thing “filmworthy”, for the want of a better word, that occurs, is a traumatic shooting by two students in which results in several people being murdered.

The subject matter was all too recent at the time of Elephant’s release; the 1999 Columbine highschool massacre, which left fifteen people dead (including the perpetrators) and twenty-four injured, was still fresh in the memories of Americans. “Columbine” has become a byword for similar atrocities in many countries, a broad term that encompasses familiar tales of misfits gone mad who unfortunately had access to guns.

One of the things that makes Van Sant’s film so memorable, is that it refrains from offering a definitive reason as to why such carnage took place in the quiet suburb of Littleton, Colorado. The idea that it happened simply because the perpetrators were “misfits” is given no more credibility than other potential motives. Various scenes play out that encourage a cinephile’s speculation as to what may have triggered the students to commit such a violent act, but no stamp of auteur approval is placed on any of them.

It’s as true to reality as we can get. After a deplorable crime, many people assume a motive without looking at the situation objectively. One of the agents that inadvertently encourages this is the media, with opinion and fact often being spliced together in the whirlwind of disorientation and shock that follows a trauma.

A variety of authors, journalists and media outlets have noted the inaccuracies surrounding the reported motives for the Columbine shooting, as well as for other tragedies.

Dave Cullen, who wrote a book about the massacre after ten years of research, was quoted last year in Business Insider as saying that “most of the initial reporting was wrong” when it came to the killers’ motives. Cullen, and others, have written that the notion that the shooting took place simply because the perpetrators were bullied outcasts is inaccurate. However, it is a notion that is still seen as fact by many. The media, regrettably, has had a role to play in

the blind credence many people have given to that idea.

After a gunman killed twelve people at a screening of The Dark Knight Rises in 2012, the Guardian ran an opinion piece by Andrew Gumbel that highlighted two things that can happen after a crime; a hungry media ignores facts to report on whatever distortion comes their way, and fringe groups exploit the crime for their own ideological purposes. In this way, we see the potential for a news story to become tainted with false motives following a tragedy.

The infiltration of fringe groups into the news can contaminate public opinion, leading people who usually would not listen to such groups, accept motives that simply

were not there or were barely significant. This, of course, can be fueled by a lack of fact-checking. Everyone wants answers, and a respectable mainstream news source may leap on an “answer” without realising that it originated from one of these fringe groups.

The obvious, but vital, point to make is that sources are so important when researching a current or historical event. The media is usually quick to satisfy the public’s craving for knowledge after a horrific incident, and this hastiness creates serious factual errors and misreported motives. In other words, it creates genuine cases of fake news.

“After a deplorable crime, many people assume a motive without looking at the situation objectively.”

“Ireland is where I am and Ireland is where my education is and where I see myself in.

This is where my future lies.”

Andrea Andres speaks to Nahee, originally from Korea, about adjusting to a new country, the difficulties of applying for visas and how she keeps in touch with her Korean roots.

Nahee wasn’t even aware of Ireland or where it was. “I honestly didn’t know about Ireland. I literally told all my friends that I was going to Ireland and in Korean, ‘Ireland’ and ‘island’ sounds the same. So, they thought that I was going to some island in Korea, they didn’t even know that I was going to a completely different country. Some of them thought I was going to Iceland, so they thought I was going somewhere covered in ice, it’s covered in snow.”

“The biggest reason that we moved here was to learn English,” Nahee said. “English is like a huge subject, it’s a compulsory subject in Korea. So, if you can speak English, you’re going to get good grades...so that’s a huge advantage to have. We only planned to come here for a year and a half. And then we decided to kind of stay.” But what was supposed to be a stint of a year and a half turned into seven years.

Ireland’s education system led her, her sister and her mother to stay. She describes the Korean education system as “very, very competitive” and it’s “very hard to get into universities and the course that you want. In schools, they make you compete with your friends.”

“I kind of had difficulty making friends in secondary school because at the end of every semester you have a final exam. The teachers put up your name and your grade on the board so that everyone can see your grade,” she continues. “Everyone’s like ‘oh yeah you’re first place, you’re second place.’ Everyone knows who’s in what place.”

Unfortunately, her father had to go back to Korea for “financial reasons”. He had to move back to get a job because “if you don’t have the language skills, basically it’s very hard to get a job here.” He now supports Nahee’s family from afar and sends money from Korea to Ireland and visits occasionally.

Nahee moved to Sligo in 2012 and lived in a small community. She describes the people as “very very open” despite the fact that “most of [the community] have never seen or have talked [sic] to an Asian person.” She found that the elderly people “were very, very nice” and open about learning about her Korean culture. They would even invite her family at Christmas time “because we don’t have our relatives here during Christmas. Sometimes, you kind of feel lonely during Christmas.”

To cure her homesickness, “food definitely helps.” She feels that Korean culture is very connected to food and they “value food very much.” She and her family have access to ingredients through Asian markets, but they sometimes get things shipped from Korea through her aunt, “little things” like spice that one just can’t get in Dublin so she can have the same food as if she was in Korea. “Even bibimbap makes me feel at home.”

With the help of the local church, she was able to settle in Sligo, but she had to adjust to some social niceties in Ireland and tried “really, really hard to blend in with my Irish friends and I really altered my personality as well.

I used to be really bubbly.” Subtle things such as facial expressions and tones of voices were different for Nahee.

“My Irish friends tend not to express emotions that much because Koreans use loads of facial expressions, loads of hand gestures and the tone kind of changes a lot. So, if you’re talking to a friend, your tone varies. If you’re talking to a teacher your tone is completely different. But in English, it’s kind of more constant. If you’re talking to

a friend; if you’re talking to a teacher; if you’re talking to your parents it doesn’t vary that much compared to Korean so I had to adjust to that.”

She describes an “identity issue” between the ages of 16 and 17, where she questioned whether she was Irish or Korean. She concluded that she is more Irish to her Korean friends and to her Irish friends she is more Korean: “[I] stopped being torn between the two and accepted the fact that I may be both Irish and Korean. It doesn’t matter if someone calls me Korean, it doesn’t matter if someone calls me Irish it’s just me. That’s all. I’m happy with myself now.”

She initially felt a little embarrassed of her culture and would not mention watching K-dramas and listening to K-pop music, but now, she is “very, very surprised” with how big and how trendy K-pop has become.“It wasn’t trendy back then” and this recent explosion of interest is very “exciting” to her and her Korean friends in Dublin and gives her immense pride.

She still has a hard time blending in because of her visa and she doesn’t feel she is settled completely. “Because I have a student visa and I’ve been having it for seven years so, every single year you have to go up to the immigration centre and you have to ask permission to stay in Ireland. It’s very hard because they ask you why you are in Ireland and why you are doing that course in Ireland. They just keep throwing at you ‘why’. It’s very hard to explain because Ireland is my home. Ireland is where I am and Ireland is where my education is and where I see myself in. This is where my future lies.” She hopes to get a G-1 visa, apply for a job permit and after two or three years, she could try and apply for citizenship, but “it doesn’t mean that they give you the citizenship” and in the face of ever changing

policies this might become more difficult for her. “By the time it’s 2023, I want to apply for citizenship and I might not be able to because of the policy change. So, it’s a very unstable...If I don’t get the visa next year it means that I have to leave everything behind. I would be kicked out of this country.”

She describes her meeting in the immigration office after her Leaving Cert. “I went to the immigration office because I didn’t know what to do after the Leaving Cert. I asked if I could do a gap year and the man was really cold with me and said ‘no, if you want a gap year you can do it in your own country.’” It’s these little realizations, little moments that hit her hard and make her realise that she doesn’t have the same opportunities as her Irish friends.

She may change her mind and move elsewhere, but hopes to still stay in Ireland.

Coming to Dublin for college, despite being surrounded by foreigners in Dublin city centre, she feels that she hasn’t “blended” into Irish society. She could get varying treatments from strangers depending on which part of the city she’s in,“if you go to Dundrum, I feel like the shopkeepers there are nice to me and they don’t assume that I don’t speak English, but in the city centre they assume that I don’t speak English.”

“The biggest thing that I get is the question “are you Chinese?” Every time I meet someone: “are you Chinese?”

They don’t even ask you where you’re from. Sometimes little kids come at you and go ‘ching chong ching chong’.”

If you were born from immigrant parents and grew up in Ireland or you were born and lived in another country before you came here, we would like to hear your experience. Please contact andrea.andres@ucdconnect.ie.

GAEILGE An Rath atá ar thairgí as Gaeilge Labhrann Michéal Ó Cathasaigh faoi na tairgí nua suimúil ar fáil do Gaeilgeoirí.

Thug mé faoi deara go bhfuil na méid comhlachtaí úra atá ag díol táirgí as Gaeilge chomh fairsing le móin, ar na mallaibh. Ó thús na bliana tháinig mé trasna ar an oiread leathanach Instagram de chomlachtaí atá ag díol earraí as Gaeilge. Níor thuig mé má raibh na déantúsóirí ag dréim le brabús a dhéanamh astu nó nach raibh. An bhfuil margadh ann do na táirgí seo? De réir an daonáireamh i 2016, deirtear go bhfuil thar 1.7 milliúin duine ábalta Gaeilge a labhairt sa tír seo, ach níl ach 73,803 cainteoirí laethúla a labhraíonn í taobh amuigh den chórás oideachais. An iad seo na t-aon daoine a gceannófá táirgí i nGaeilge? Agus fiú má tá margadh ann, an bhfuil teorann ar an fhorbairt gnó atá uathu?

Chuaigh mise i dteangmháil le trí chomhlacht – An Siopa Leabhair ar Shráid Fhearchair, Gaeilgheansaí agus Beanantees, chun fáil amach faoina dtáirgí agus faoin rath, nó an caill, a bhfuil orthu.

Bhunaigh Cecily Nic Cionnaith, mac léann atá ag freastal ar UCD, Gaeilgheansaí i mí Eanair na bliana seo.

Tháinig an smaoineamh chuici le geansaithe a dhíol le bróidnéireacht “Tá Gaeilge Agam” orthu nuair a deachaigh sí chuig margadh Oireachtas na Samhna le airgead amadáin ina phóca chun rud éigin a cheannach a léiríonn a mbród

ina dteanga. Sé’n t-aon fadhb é nó nach raibh sí ábalta teacht ar táirge ar bith a raibh sí ag coinneáil súil amach fána gcoinne. Lena ceann gnó uirthi, smaoinigh sí ar an ráth a raibh ar na geansaithe “Repeal” ag léirú a gcúis.

Chonaic sí an bearna sa mhargadh fá choinne éadach Gaeilge ansin agus bhunaigh sí Gaeilgheansaí.

Thosaigh sí beag, ag díol a geansaithe ar Instagram.

Bíonn gach tosú lag, ach ina dhiaidh beagnach dhá mhí ar an fhód tá lucht leanúna de thar míle duine aici ar Instagram, leathanach Facebook agus suíomh idirlíne bunaithe aici, agus tá na geansaithe ar díol sa Siopa Leabhair ar Sráid Fhearchair. Ní ró-lag, a dheirim fhéin.

Níos tábhachtaí arís, tá ordaithe ag teacht isteach. Maidir leis an margadh atá aici, deir sí go gceannaíonn níos mó cailíní a h-earraí, ach go bhfuil suim láidir ag teacht ó fir chomh maith. (cóimheas 7:3). Daoine atá ag freastal ar an ollscoil iad don chuid is mó, ach mic léinn le caighdeán Gaeilge idir láidir agus lag. Is cosúil go bhfuil meascán mearaí aici anseo, ach meascán le pointe coiteann amháin – tá suim acu sa teanga agus tá siad ag iarraidh é a thaispeáint. Amach anseo, deir sí gur mhaith léi réimse níos leithne de dathanna a chur ar fáil, rud a d’fhéadfá níos mó suime a mhúscail. Tá éileamh mór ann don táirge

ollscoil iad don chuid is mó, ach mic léinn le caighdeán Gaeilge idir láidir agus lag. Is cosúil go bhfuil meascán mearaí aici anseo, ach meascán le pointe coiteann amháin – tá suim acu sa teanga agus tá siad ag iarraidh é a thaispeáint. Amach anseo, deir sí gur mhaith léi réimse níos leithne de dathanna a chur ar fáil, rud a d’fhéadfá níos mó suime a mhúscail. Tá éileamh mór ann don táirge atá aici, agus tá sí ag súil go mór le éileamh níos mó, agus scéal an ghnó ag taisteáil ó bhéal go béal.

Is cosúil go bhfuil sé nuálach agus faiseanta éadach Gaeilge a chaitheamh anois. Seo an dearcadh a bhí ag Ciara Ní Ghallchóir agus a chara is fearr Lana Nic Aoidh nuair a bhunaigh siad Beanantees roimhe an Nollaig a chuaigh thart. Sé’n sprioc a bhí acu nó leis an Ghaeilge agus mná na h-Éireann a cheiliúradh i ndóigh spraoiúil.

Bhí siad ag iarraidh teacht aníos le pun as Gaeilge, agus

chonaic siad mná tí mar ionspráidí in athbheochan na Gaeilge. De thairbhe seo shocair siad dul leis an bhranda “Bean an Tí”. Bhí an smaoineamh á phlé acu le cúpla mí ach chonaic siad an Nollaig mar am maith chun tús a chur le cúrsaí díolacháin. Tá réimse na deartha atá le fáil ar na t-léinte ag leathnú léi. Thig bródnéireacht ar nós “Bean an Tí”, “Yas Banríon” agus “buzzáil” a fháil, mar shampla.

Thosaigh siad mar ceannródaithe, ní raibh barúil faoi leith acu faoin dóigh go nglacfar lena dtáirgí i saol tomhaltóirí an lá inniú. Shíl siad fosta gur Gaelgóirí amháin a cheannófá na Beanantees, ach ní raibh siad fá bhúiche asail den fhírinne. Daoine le cúpla focal amháin a raibh an méid is mó suime a thaispeáint ann. Mná iad ach go h-áirithe, mar gheall go bhfuil a gcuid éadach dírithe ar margadh na mban. Má raibh cúis eile de dhíth chun tacaíocht a thabhairt do na chailíní seo, téann 10%

“An iad seo na t-aon daoine a gceannófá táirgí i nGaeilge? Agus fiú má tá margadh ann, an bhfuil teorann ar an fhorbairt gnó atá uathu?”

dá mbrabús go dtí an DRCC agus an RCNI chun cuidiú a thabhairt dóibh an obair iontach a dhéanann siad a dhéanamh. Tá a dtáirgí á dhíol acu ó cheann ceann na tíre - sa Siopa Leabhair ar Shráid Fhearchair, The Wishing Chair i mBun Dobhráin agus sa Harbour Road i nGaoth Dobhair, i dteannta lena suíomh idirlíne beanantees.com.

Tá sé ar intinn maith acu an gnó a leathnú, leis an sprioc acu go mbeidh beanantees á dhíol in achan chontae sa tír!

Mar a luaigh mé, tá na comhlachtaí seo ag díol a gcuid earraí sa Siopa Leabhair ar Shráid Fhearchair, ach caidé uilig atá ar fáil sa siopa seo? Leabhair dár ndóigh, ach an bhfuil aon rud eile? Tá idir leabhair, cártaí, cluichí, éadaí agus go bunúsach earra ar bith Gaelach a thagann siad trasna air faoi dhíon acu. Faigheann siad a gcuid earraí ó déantúsóirí ar fud fad na h-Éireann agus fiú na Breataine Bige. Deir siad go bhfuil siad i gcónaí ag faire amach fá choinne earraí nua, agus go bhfuil na meáin sóisialta milltineach úsáideach chun seo a dhéanamh, sin an dóigh gur tháinig siad trasna ar Beanantees.

Is cosúil gur a bpríomh-chuspóir i láthair na h-uaire nó le leabhair a chur ar fáil do lucht na Gaeilge mar gheall gur sin ar atá an éileamh is mó dóibh. Ach le sin ráite, deir siad go bhfuil tógraí úra idir láimhe acu leis an sprioc chun cúpla earra dá gcuid féin a chur ar an mhargadh amach anseo. Tchíonn siad margadh mór dá gcuid leabhair agus dá gcuid earraí eile, le daoine idir óg agus aoise, ó gach cearn den tír ag dul isteach chun rudaí a cheannach.

Is minic a bhain dealg beag braon. Sa comhthéacs seo, is iad na comhlachtaí úra seo atá ag baint féirín ón nua-mhargadh seo. Cé gurb fhios, b’fhéidir go mbeidh Gaeilgheansaithe nó Beanantees ar ardáin faisean an Domhain amach anseo.

Ach rud a dtig linn a bheith cinnte faoi, ná go bhfuil rath ar na táirgí seo as Gaeilge faoi láthair, agus tá dóchas ag na comhlachtaí seo maidir leis an todhchaí.

“Tá mise níos Éireannach ná túsa”; scéaltaí tromluí ó na tithe tabhairne

Tá Lá Fhéile Pádraig thart, agus tá achan nduine ag iarraidh a bheidh mar Éireannach. Léiríonn Hugh Mac Giolla Chearra na scéaltaí is measa.

Bhuel a chairde, tá an tóit imithe, tá na sráideanna glanta agus tá an tinneas imithe, den chuid is mó dúinne. Níl fhios agam cén dóigh a raibh muid abálta é a dhéanamh, ach bhí muid abálta Lá Fhéile Pádraig a mairstint. Níl fhios agam cén tuairim atá agaibhse, ach is fuath liom an deireadh seachtaine millteanach sin. Barraíocht bruscar, barraíocht ólachán agus barraíocht callán. Bhí sé i gceart nuair a bhí muid mar leaids óg, ag dul chuig na mórshiúllanna sna bruachbhailte beag thart ar an cheantar, ag leanst na bannaí ceol ó baile go baile agus ag ithe na milseáin uilig a caitear orraine agus muid sa slua. Ach sa lá atá inniú ann, is ainmhí go h-iomlán difrúil é.

Déagoirí ag ól naggins ar chúl foirgneamhí ollmhór, fir clúdaithe le alcól ag troid lena chéile ar na príomhsráideanna os comhair na gardaí nach bhfuil ag déanamh faic le cuidiú le duine ar bith, agus ná deán dearmad faoi na maisiúchan millteanach atá achan áit. Ach gan dabht, is é an rud is measa atá orainne a deighleáil leis mar Éireannaigh ag an am seo nó na daoine a cuireann orthu féin gur Éireannaigh iad fosta. Bíonn aerfort Baile Átha Cliath lán de gach uile sort do amadán ag iarraidh cuir orthu féin gur iadsan mac Pádraig Mac Piarais é fhéin, nó b’fhéidir gur iadsan na daoine leis an fíor pota óir i bhfolach acu. Is é seo ceann de na rudaí is measa faoi stair an tír seo; mar gheall go raibh ar an méid sin dúinn imirce a dhéanamh chuig tíortha ar nós na Stáit Aontaithe na céadta bliain ó shin, tá orainne anois cuir suas le daoine le ceangal beag leis an stair seo (nó gan ceangal ar bith) ag deanamh magadh mór den cultúr stairúil atá tógtha againne le na mílte bliain.

Anois, níl mé ag rá nár cheart go bhfuil daoine brodúil as a gcuid stair agus cultúr. Tá a lán daoine as thart ar an domhan a bhfuil ceangal acu leis an oileáin beag seo agus a bhfuil sásta táispeain a gcuid stair i dóigh measúil agus ciallmhar. Ach caithfidh muid a bheith ionraice, ní thig linn creidiúint a bheidh againne in achan nduine thart ar an domhan le bheidh chomh ciallmhar agus giota cop on a bheidh acu. Ar an drochuair, tá an méid sin daoine a úsáideanna na nascanna seo chun fíor amaidí a dheanamh den tír agus cuid is mór den uair, do iad fhéin.

Tá cuimhne maith agam nuair a buail mé le grúpa Meiriceanaigh i dteach tabhairne i lár an cathair agus mé sa chéad bhliain den ollscoil. Bhí siad anseo ar laethanta saoire i rith an bhlian mar go raibh siad ag iarraidh a bheidh sa tír do Lá Fhéile Pádraig. Grúpa girseachaí a bhí ann, agus bhí siad thart ar an aois céanna liomsa agus mo chuid chairde, agus mar sin de bhí muid breá sásta suí agus ól leo agus bhí craic ar dóigh againne. Bhí rudaí ag dul gan fadhb ar bith, agus bhí seans ann go raibh muid b’fheidir chun póg beag a fháil as na spéirbhin álainne seo, ach sular bhfuair muid an seans, thosaigh muid ag labhairt faoi an ceangal a bhí ag na mná leis an tír seo. Thosaigh

siad ag míniú nach raibh siad go h-iomlán cinnte cén contae ina raibh a teaghlach as ach go raibh siad cinnte gur Éireannaigh iad.

Agus ansin dúirt ceann acu rud nár dheánfaidh mé dearmad a choíche i mo saoil; “tá mise níos Éireannach ná túsa”. Nuair a deirimse gur d’fhág an aer an seomra den iomlan, níl me ag déanamh magadh ar bith ort. Ní raibh mé abálta creidiúint gur dúirt an bhean seo, an bean nach raibh a choíche tír seo roimhe go raibh níos mó ceart aici a ra gur Éireannach í nó mise. Ní raibh na leaids abálta seo a creidiúint a h-oiread, agus mhill sé an oíche dúinne píosa beag, gan dabht. Bhí muidne ag súil go mbeidh scéalta againne an maidín ina dhiadh faoi an craic a raibh muid ag súil leis agus in áit sin, tá an scéal gruama seo againne in áit sin.

Caithfidh mé a rá níl na scéalta uilig atá agam faoi

daoine as thar lear go h-olc leis an ceann sin. Anuraidh, bhí orm dul chuig an Daingean mar pháirt do mo chúrsa Gaeilge atá mé ag déanamh ar an ollscoil. Nuair a bhí mé ansin, chuaigh muid go dtí teach tabhairne beag darbh ainm An Bothar achan oíche ina dhiadh ar gcuid rangannaí ceol agus damhsa. Bhí muid ansin go dtí iontach mall san oíche am amháin ag ceol agus thainig fear isteach le éisteacht leis na ceol a bhí ar siúil againne. Thosaigh mé ag labhairt leis agus dúirt sé gur raibh sé as na Stáit Aontaithe ach go raibh teaghlach aige i gCiarraí. Bhí suim aige foghlaim níos mó faoi an cultúr agus d’éist sé leis an ceol agus an craic agus an Gaeilge a bhí labhartha againne.

Táispeannan seo dom nach bhfuil achan eispéiris le na daoine seo chun a bheidh go olc leis an céad ceann. Tá súil agam go raibh eispéiris maith agaibh do Lá Fhéile Pádraig, a chairde.

“Tchíonn siad margadh mór dá gcuid leabhair agus dá gcuid earraí eile, le daoine idir óg agus aoise, ó gach cearn den tír ag dul isteach chun rudaí a cheannach.”

26TH MARCH 2019

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LAW & POLITICS Eyes on 2020: A Joe Biden candidacy for President Ross O’Leary considers the likelihood and potential success of a Biden 2020 campaign.

Speculation is growing surrounding former Vice President Joe Biden and the possibility of his running for US President in 2020. If Biden announces his intention to run it will be his third time running for the office; his first effort in 1988, and second in 2008. Biden was a Senator for Delaware for 36 years before being elected as Barack Obama’s Vice President in 2008. He is polling as the current front runner in the democratic field and is arguably the bestknown potential candidate in democratic politics. Biden was favored by many to run against Hillary Clinton to win the democratic nomination in 2016, however he decided against this after the death of his son, Beau. Three weeks ago, Biden stated “there’s a consensus, the most important people in my life want me to run.” He has reportedly begun hiring campaign staff, further fanning the flames of speculation. If Biden runs, however, he will undoubtedly face a number of obstacles.

Biden’s potential run in 2016 was touted as another four years of an Obama presidency. This was beneficial in early polls, as Obama is wildly popular within the Democratic party. Critics argue that if Biden ran in 2016, maybe the United States would have avoided the mess it is currently in and that a Biden presidency in 2020 is a second chance.

However, Biden will be judged on his own politics in a potential 2020 run. He will no longer play the Obama mascot role and his own merits, words and policy ideas will play a crucial role in influencing potential voters. Biden’s stance on most policy issues is quite moderate, which may allow him to win over many conservatives and Trump voters, but is considered out of step with the Democratic base itself. Liberals in the Democratic Party are looking towards candidates that support Medicare for All, tackling global warming and reducing income inequality; such as Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren. As the far left-wing of the party is increasingly galvanized, Biden’s middle-of-the-road politics might not do enough to excite them, but is sure to gather the support of more moderate democrats and some moderate conservatives.

Biden’s long and decorated history of gaffes may haunt his potential presidential campaign. From claiming that in Delaware, “you cannot go to a 7/11 or a Dunkin Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent”, or asking a wheelchair bound congressman to stand up, Biden has a tendency to speak before thinking. This tendency has been majorly overstated in the media as a disqualifying trait. Up against the presumptive Republican nominee and gafferin-chief, President Donald Trump, Biden may get away with a few slip ups. His choice of words may play a more prominent role in the criticism that might emanate from President Trump. Biden has a well-documented history of plagiarism. During his run for President in 1988, he apologised for plagiarizing a paper written in his first year of law school. Biden extensively plagiarized the words of US Senator Hubert Humphrey, British MP Neil Kinnock and Bobby Kennedy throughout his 1988 campaign. Biden

and Bobby Kennedy throughout his 1988 campaign. Biden also made the fatal mistake of plagiarizing from President John F. Kennedy’s incredibly famous inauguration speech (which contained the fabled line; “ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country”). These hiccups derailed his campaign and will likely act as political fodder for President Trump and Fox News.

President Trump and Joe Biden have already come head-to-head a number of times. In March of last year, Biden claimed “if [he and Trump] were in high school, I’d take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him”.

Trump replied “crazy Joe Biden is trying to act like a tough guy. Actually, he is weak, both mentally and physically, and yet he threatens me, for the second time, with physical assault. He doesn’t know me, but he would go down fast and hard, crying all the way.” This type of tit-for-tat behavior has become commonplace throughout the Trump presidency and it is a likely indicator of how Trump might carry out attacks on Biden. This has reportedly weighed heavily on Biden’s mind when deciding to run, as Trump has shown he is unwilling to conduct himself with dignity and hold back from personal attacks on the families of his rivals. Biden’s families have faced some tragedies, such as

“Trump has shown he is unwilling to conduct himself with dignity and hold back from personal attacks on the families of his rivals.” the death of Biden’s wife and daughter in a car accident in 1972, which his sons Beau and Hunter both survived.

Beau passed away from brain cancer in 2015. Having been through this much, there is a concern from the Biden camp that they should not have to go through attacks from the President or even the tumult of a Presidential campaign.

These concerns were settled last week, after Biden’s announcement of their support.

Biden’s stature as an establishment figure may both help and hurt his potential candidacy. His experience is practically unparalleled among Democratic candidates, but his stance on certain issues may cause him harm. The

biggest argument from Biden supporters is that he is the only candidate that can defeat Trump. The Democratic party must ask themselves if that is the case. His age will come under question, as he will be 77 years old on election day, with Bernie Sanders being 79 and Donald Trump being 72. Trump is the oldest President ever elected, but Sanders and Biden are the first and second oldest candidates for President in United States history, respectively.

The conversation does not surround Biden’s or Sanders’ capability to run the country at their age, but their place in the party. Candidates like Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand are exciting the Democratic base as they are fresh blood to the party. Sanders’ outsider position allows him some leeway with the base, but Biden’s moderate views may bring with them a Hillary effect, a failure to unite Democrats behind shared issues and a common identity. Aside from this concern, the former Vice President is currently leading all major polls among Democrats and enjoys a reasonably high favorability rating among most Americans. His polling in key battleground states is also promising. This polling may change if he enters the battlefield of the Democratic Primary, as he will become a target of not only Trump and the conservative media, but the Democrats that he will be running against.

Image: DonkeyHtey, Flickr

Ilhan Omar and the right’s repetitive playbook With Ilhan Omar facing criticism over tweets and statements regarding Israel, Nathan Young wonders if there’s a parallel with the Jeremy Corbyn anti-semitism controversy.

“If one is to mention Israel’s abhorrent and illegal treatment of the palestinian people, it is only to pretend to be a critic of Israeli policy, thus giving the following support for Israel even more weight”

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Like many of her fellow freshman Congress women, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota’s 5th congressional district has been causing controversy stating the obvious and advocating mild social democratic reforms. Along with Rashida Talib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Omar has spent the few short months since entering congress supporting the “Green New Deal” and suggesting that America may still have a racism problem. None of this, though, has garnered quite as much attention as Omar’s comments about the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

Defending a tweet that claimed that American lawmakers commitment to Israel was all about the benjamins”, Omar claimed that said benjamins were provided by AIPAC. Condemned immediately as an anti-semite by people across the american establishment, Omar had found an aspect of bipartisan consensus beyond criticism.

Omar’s tweets and comments were about largely nonjewish lawmakers. She later came under fire once more for commenting, “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay to push for allegiance to a foreign country” at a public event. Clearly she’s talking about Israel. More specifically it’s in the context of a bill targeting the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement brought into the house as the first bill of the current congress. Omar was accused of playing into the “duel loyalty” trope, which is the idea that Jews are less loyal to their own society than they are either to Israel, or, worse, international Jewry. Consider, however, that the bill in question targets people involved in a particular boycott, which may well constitute a violation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution. Consider also that Omar was talking about herself, and her mostly non-Jewish colleagues. Non-Jewish lawmakers asking other lawmakers to support laws which violate the constitution but protect foreign business interests seems like the kind of thing that an elected politician should be able to criticise.

If she had been paying attention to British politics of the past few years, Omar would have been aware of the fact that bad-faith accusations of antisemitism are a staple tactic of the right against the left. Ever since the 2015 Labour election, the right has been trying to find an effective smear against Jeremy Corbyn. Having failed to destroy his support by calling him either unellectable or a marxist, they tried showing his links to the Irish Republican Army and pointing out that he didn’t want to use thermonuclear weaponry as Corbyn is a lifelong supporter of the campaign for nuclear disarmament. With these attacks going nowhere, as most people would rather not go to nuclear war and most Brits either don’t care much about the North of Ireland or regard at least some of the British policy pre-Good Friday to be a source of shame, another smear was needed.

This came in the form of accusations of anti-semitism.

Corbyn had, and still has, one of the best voting records on combating racism, including anti-semitism, of any MP. Many Early Day Motions (EDMs) in parliament are ignored as they are often seen as less important, at least to the official agendas of the parties. This is true of several

which Corbyn not only supported but co sponsored, such as one calling on the British Government to resettle Jews from Yemen in 2010, which cited that the conflict had exacerbated the already existing persecution of Jews there. It’s worth noting that Britain’s support for Saudi imperialism leaves much responsibility for the horror of Yemen at Westminster’s door. This motion failed, at least in part because many Labour members, including Blairites like Margaret Hodge, didn’t show up to vote. A similar story is true of a 2012 EDM calling on BBC Manchester not to cancel “Jewish Citizen Manchester” because it’s important for the Jewish community to have a voice.

Accusations of anti-semitism aimed at Corbyn are as unfounded as those aimed at Omar. He too, made the faux pas of opposing Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands and supporting the rights of the Palestinian people. As with Corbyn’s support for Irish republicanism, he was attacked for having connections “terrorist” groups and “terrorist” sympathising political parties. That Hamas are antisemitic and hold deeply troubling politics is obvious, but that Hamas should be excluded from movements fighting for the rights of Palestinians is patently ridiculous.

None of this is to suggest that there are no anti-semites on the left. Figures like Ken Livingstone and George Galloway say demonstrably untrue and toxic things about the holocaust and Jews. Both of these men, however, have been suspended from the Labour party. The main focus of most of these conversations is that the Corbyn opposes adopting part of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definitions of anti-semitism, namely those pertaining to Israel. According to the IHRA, “denying the Jewish people their right to selfdetermination, e.g. by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor” is anti-semitic, as is “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.” Nevermind that this would mark the late holocaust survivor and pro-palestine activist Hajo Meyer as an anti-semite. Nevermind that the Conservative party have yet to ratify any definition of islamophobia. Nevermind, particularly, that every legal expert yet to comment on the definitions says that, if taken as binding, would have what Jeffrey Robertson, QC describes as “a chilling effect of free speech and legitimate criticism of Israel.”

It is obvious how one can avoid being called antisemitic during discussions about Israel. What one must do is offer undying support for Israel and its policies. If one is to mention Israel’s abhorrent and illegal treatment of the palestinian people, it is only to pretend to be a critic of Israeli policy, thus giving the following support for Israel even more weight. People defending the rights of the Palestinian people must not fall for this. As with Yemen, and Jewish Citizen Manchester, and the suspension of Ken Livingstone, and fighting the rise of neo-nazis across the world, the left must continue to oppose anti-semitism in all its forms. This can become difficult while the supporters of Israel continue to, as is ironically also a violation of IHRA’s working definitions, equate “Jews” and “Israel”.

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PUZZLES

12

The Literary Alpaca 13

18

Issue 7 Literary Alpaca

Across

1 Down

3. Rolled or steel cut

3

4. €63 fine and tetanus shot; available here 17

2

1. Beam prohibition devices 2. Letters,awkward invites & an (un)familiar tongue

6. Flying Dutchman (in Brazil)

5. Old judges, in the know

8. Dihydrogen monoxide

7. Before the Euro (in short)

10. Youths definitely aren't adverse to celebrating this

9. "Not hors d'ouevres dear, I'm a writer"

11. To speak impromptu

6

15. Peacock, Simmonds & Weir

4 5

12. Persoxide deserts

7

13. Irish seat of power

17. Beans & Water

14. Pearls round her drooping neck

18. I'm nuts for this chicken

16. Fictional Fowl

8

9

10

Down 1. Beam prohibition devices 2. Letters,awkward invites & an (un)familiar tongue

11

5. Old judges, in the know 7. Before the Euro (in short) 9. "Not hors d'ouevres dear, I'm a writer"

g this

12

12. Persoxide deserts 13. Irish seat of power

13

14. Pearls round her drooping neck 16. Fictional Fowl

14 15

16

17

18

Across

Down

3. Rolled or steel cut

1. Beam prohibition devices

4. €63 fine and tetanus shot; available here

2. Letters,awkward invites & an (un)familiar tongue

6. Flying Dutchman (in Brazil)

5. Old judges, in the know

8. Dihydrogen monoxide

7. Before the Euro (in short)

10. Youths definitely aren't adverse to celebrating this

9. "Not hors d'ouevres dear, I'm a writer"

11. To speak impromptu

12. Persoxide deserts

15. Peacock, Simmonds & Weir

13. Irish seat of power

18. I'm nuts for this chicken

16. Fictional Fowl

The Harpy

17. Beans & Water 14. Pearls round her drooping neck “Cuius testiculos habes, habeas cardia et cerebellum”

Easter to coincide with Longitude 2020, according to Christian roulette wheel Eli Blunt

In a statement released by the Vatican Council of Roman Numerals and Cardinals (VCRNC) early this morning, Easter 2020 will fall between the 10th-13th July, coinciding with the Longitude festival in Marlay Park. The token spokeswoman for the VRNC told The Harpy, “that senior Church officials performed the sacred ceremony and determined that it was God’s will that Easter will be held in conjunction with the popular music festival known as Longitude.” When asked if the decision was made to sneak in Christianity into the lives of young people, the spokeswoman denied any such implications, stating “the Church has gotten a bad rep in recent years in terms of ‘sneaking’ and ‘young people’ and we were very conscious of this, although we deny any such knowledge of this.”

According to an investigative piece, published in The Harpy last year, the ceremony for the selection of the Easter dates, involves the burning of a giant wicker man atop the industrial size roulette wheel, housed in the basement of the Vatican archives. The sacrificial homosexual is left to crawl out of the ash and make his way to one of the 38 segments, marked with random dates of the year. The segment where he succumbs to his injuries, is then pronounced as the next Easter date. The Harpy obtained documents that stated in the unlikely event that the sacrifice was to make it off the roulette wheel, he would immediately be treated for his burns and given an all-expenses paid trip to a Disneyland of his choosing. This scenario has yet to occur, with rumours speculating that it almost happened in 1986, when Andy Warhol has chosen for the ceremony. Warhol allegedly died some months later in 1987, due to a “heart complication”, from what Vatican records show was a “non-invasive, routine, totally sterile, gallbladder surgery.” The coroner, however, failed to mention the gaping bullet-sized entry wound in Warhol’s skull in their autopsy report.

Longitude officials have yet to confirm their 2020 line-

up, but speculation has seen Daniel O’Donnell, the original Alive-O recording cast and even Garth Brooks earmarked to headline the three day festival. Usual sponsors for the event have been replaced with the renowned conservative Christian organisations such as Foróige, The Irish Catholic and that wedding cake bakery up North, which will supply the food and drink over the course of the weekend to patrons. Surprisingly, The Iona Institute have chosen not to sponsor the event next year, stating that they didn’t want to appear to support an event that would directly conflict with mass attendance on Sunday morning. Iona spokeswoman and wannabe-martyr, Katie Ascough, told The Harpy, “we don’t want to appear too down with the kids on this one, thus marginalising our key demographic: Maureen that reads the prayers of the faithful, and her neighbours. It’s not nice to marginalize people and take away from their experiences. We were very conscious of this, although we deny any such knowledge of this ourselves.”

Protestant leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Rangers FC supporter, Arlene Foster is set to announce details for her own festival, which is to be located in the old Parliament buildings in Stormont, Belfast. Foster told The Harpy, “we’re very reservedly pleased to have our festival, Latitude 2020 in the coming months. The festival will see the politely-welcomed return of the Orange Order marching band playing for three days straight.” The festival is being advertised as an independent celebration for Northern Ireland “after getting some sort of no-deal Brexit, we can now be satisfied with our status of notquite-independent, but just sort of an awkward position, somewhere in relation to the EU.” When asked if festival-goers could expect to see the likes of protestant-raised comedian, Graham Norton, Foster said she would consider him if there was a demand and if “he respects my right not to allow him rights.”

Outrage after announcement that UCDSU will start streaming Council from Barry Murphy’s OnlyFans account Lez Dykley Monday night’s Union Council ended with a bang after UCDSU President Barry Murphy’s declaration that all future student councils will be streamed from his personal OnlyFans account. Murphy concluded Council with a brief speech outlining all that he has given up to be able to maximise student satisfaction with his role, including a luridly detailed statement of what his account has been used for in recent months.

“The Dublin rental situation has gotten rough” Murphy told student representatives. “The only way I could afford rent and pints was to turn to online ‘organisation porn’.”

However, with the rise of Mari Kondo, even that well has dried up, and he has subsequently declared his account the official home of UCDSU media and promotions, likely hoping for an increase in audience numbers.

While Campaigns & Communications Officer Thomas Monaghan seemed relieved to now have even fewer duties, other members of the Council did not agree, with multiple freshman class representatives claiming that it was an abuse of power. Welfare Officer Melissa Plunkett, however, was only disappointed that Murphy did not feel safe enough to come forward about his night job sooner.

From the student perspective, the news fell on uninterested ears. “Ah here, will they ever stop” said Tomás Mac Raghnaill, a third year biomed student. “Don’t they know at this stage no one cares what they get up to in there”. Áine Kearns, final year Music and Archeology student agreed, saying “sure it’s not like they do anything anyway.” Both said that the only reason they were with the Union was because asking to leave was “too much of a hassle”.

As for more dedicated UCDSU fans, the tone turned from indifferent to ecstatic. “I can’t wait for it to start streaming!” said L&H member Laura O’Malley-O’Neil, on her fifth sugar free Red Bull of the day, “it’s so hard keeping up with the live tweets from the university papers, and you never know if you missed something!” (It should be noted that people are only capable of typing at optimum

speed when they are not being inundated with notifications with people correcting a grammar mistake, and phones can only vibrate so much before they force close an app, Ms O’Malley-O’Neil.) Throbbing with excitement, she continued, “I mean, I do wish it was free though. I understand things are a bit tight in the societies corridor at the moment, what with 50-odd people running for sabbatical positions, but another subscription does just feel like too much. It’s like, what’s our student levy even going towards anymore?”

However, UCDSU die-hard Rosaleen Aljohmani could not disagree more. “That Brían one from the Observer drags me through the mud for pitching a known pyramid scheme from my SU email one time, but Murphy makes his personal OnlyFans the new press office and no one cares?!”

While this is a valid point, Murphy responded with the simple “I’ve been streaming most of my job anyway, and no one has seemed to notice so far.” When pressed on this point, he expanded, “through my previous organisation streams, which have been free-booted across study Tumblr, legal action pending, I’ve shared weeks worth of SU information since joining the site back in October, along with folders worth of confidential information. Honestly, I don’t know how anyone can say I haven’t been fully transparent, when all the information I needed to communicate is right there on my account for only €8.99 a month.”

The dubious morality of charging students for access to the content for their SU meetings aside, the biggest question is when will the account change hands to the next SU President. Monaghan has stated that the account will be transferred over handover, but when asked directly Murphy refused to comment, only reiterating that he has put “a substantial amount of time into gaining clout in the internet organisation community”, before he was quickly shushed and escorted to a press free zone.

For the remaining 300 words of this article, please see The Harpy’s OnlyFan’s account, DeeksIsMySugarDaddy.

26TH MARCH 2019

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EDITORIAL Editorial: Platforms and influence are a privilege that should not be misused or abused On his annual visit to the US for St. Patrick’s Day, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, along with his partner, Dr Matthew Barrett, visited the home of Vice President Mike Pence. This left a bad taste in the mouths of many, as VP Pence has made a political career out of opposing LGBT rights. As governor of Indiana, Pence signed a “religious freedom” bill, which many critics noted was worded in a way to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people. Pence has publicly advocated for more supports to be given to conversion therapy in the US. The question stands: why would an openly gay Taoiseach accept an invitation to the home of a known homophobe?

While the Taoiseach told Pence that he will be judged on his actions and not sexual orientation or skin tone, many saw this as a missed opportunity to highlight the discriminatory politics ripe within the White House. What’s more, as the Taoiseach was on a state visit representing the Irish population, by accepting the invitation, Varadkar as a gay man took the passive approach of playing the polite house guest to a man who would actively take his human rights away, just to save face in diplomatic relations.

There is no “right way to be gay”, but as Taoiseach, Varadkar is in a position that puts him in rooms with other people that could potentially send a message to both Irish and American citizens (and more cyncially, voters) that change is a possibility and experiences can get better. This past St. Patrick’s Day, however, was just an example of an ineffective misuse of influence by those who possess it.

It isn’t just elected officials who have a responsibility to use their influence effectively. In social media circles, pop culture personalities arguably gather more following in

terms of sheer numbers and from across various different demographics.

In the wake of the Christchurch terrorist attacks, Youtuber Felix Kjellberg, commonly known as PewDiePie, has received massive criticism over content produced on his channel. While not directly linked to the mass shooting news reports claimed that the terrorist shouted “remember lads, subscribe to PewDiePie” before opening fire on the muslims gathered in the mosque for prayers. No stranger to controversy, PewDiePie was recently found to have paid freelancers to hold signs with anti-semetic messages for a video on his channel. Given that of 89 million subscribers, a large proportion are young, white and male, PewDiePie has made a following by using racist and problematic comments under the guise of “humour” on his channel.

This humour has been copied and reused by fans try to emulate the Youtuber, and in the case of the Christchuch attack, been referenced in the manifesto published by the terrorist.

Even though Kjellberg denounced the acts of the terrorist, and rejected and association between the two, the fact remains that he was a source of inspiration in this incident. Kjellberg, while probably trying to appeal to as large a demographic as possible, to maximise his ad revenue from Youtube, may not have thought his comments would be used in such a way, has still played a part in creating a culture where young men can spread extreme white nationalist views on the internet. The events of Christchurch are an example of the extreme reactions people can have, when told by and influenced by people

they look to on a daily basis, that holding these views of supremacy and seeing immigrants as “invaders” are just for the “lulz”.

While the focus can easily fall on those who abuse or misuse their influence, there are some who use their platform in the public eye to highlight issues in society that need to be addressed. Jameela Jamil, former T4 presenter turned actor, uses her social media following to call for action on subjects such as the #MeToo movement, body image and the patriarchy. While some have called her guilty of a “holier than thou” tone online, she has used her platform to publicly call out media publications that use applications to alter their models’ appearance. Whether you think she can come across as condescending or vehemently take her word as gospel, Jamil has been consistent in her approach to these issues, taking action against those who troll her online, and discussing her views with other celebrities to reach more people. Recently, she interviewed the musician Sam Smith on Smith’s issues with their body image and the internalised fatphobia that many people face. It is clear that Jamil’s approach to social issues, while not everyone’s cup of tea, understands the influence she holds from her career which places her in the public eye.

Influence is not only held by elected politicians, with the rise of the internet age, anyone can amass a following of like-minded individuals from around the world. As sites such as Youtube, Tumblr and Reddit find it increasingly difficult to police groups who spout hatred and violent rhetoric, the onus falls on those who have the ear of the many, to be an example.

THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER TEAM EDITOR Brían Donnelly DEPUTY EDITOR Dylan O’Neill ART AND DESIGN EDITOR Fiachra Johnston NEWS EDITOR Gavin Tracey INTERNATIONAL NEWS EDITOR Úna Sinnott SU AFFAIRS EDITOR Katia Gillen HIGHER EDUCATION EDITOR Brian Treacy FEATURES EDITOR Doireann de Courcy Mac Donnell COMMENT EDITOR Nathan Young AGRICULTURE & RURAL AFFAIRS EDITOR Dáire Brady PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION EDITOR William Higgins LAW & POLITICS EDITOR Laurence Childs BUSINESS & CAREERS EDITOR Ciarán Busby SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Emmet Feerick

Talleyrand Take notice, sick members - Talley’s back at it.

Talley sends his endearing love and best wishes to WIP Class of 2019 - Union President Barry Murphy and Rosie Aljohmani, forever a Union hack, are blessed to have been accepted. We’ve not quite reached April Fools Day and yet, Talley finds himself in stitches over the news. The WIP panel must have been particularly astute to see through the web of conspiracy and lies which have so obviously plagued their journeys as student leaders. Such damned luck they have to spend an entire summer together. Talley can’t wait to see the holiday snapshots.

Murphy is likely to have a blast on the elite cultural and political youth exchange program - he’s used to being labelled a Very Important Person on campus, but it’ll be a new experience entirely for somebody to actually believe it. Aljohmani, on the other hand, will probably feel vindicated after missing out in last year’s bid for the Union’s presidency, and decide to retire early into obscurity following her graduation. Equally, she may have this decision made for her.

Unfortunately for him, Murphy will have had one less person to celebrate the news with over the March break given the sudden and unfortunate, but ultimately short-lived force sojourn taken by his dearest friend.

A week off for one’s one welfare, so to speak - see you next Tuesday, President Murphy! What lark it is to know that our venerable leaders treat as a latrine the offices of their compatriots (although in this instance, it is perhaps deservedly so). Nevertheless, even had foul relationships been avoided, Talley notes that, what has always been, will always remain, a pigsty. Conflict cannot be avoided when Ego leads...twice.

As we drift merrily towards the finality of yet another miserable term in this horrid institution, Talley wonders - what little those Union thugs have to show for it! Long is the list of students’ desires, and longer still were the young sabbaticals’ manifestos just this time last year. Once more, Talley and his children lie waiting, exasperated and determined to see at the helm somebody (anybody), who does not represent the political malaise which has afflicted

the institution for so long now. Perhaps our long wait will be rewarded - though Talley thinks it more likely that we’ll just get what we deserve.

Talley out.

DEPUTY SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Séan Mooney EARARTHOIR GAEILGE Hugh Mac Giolla Chearra SPORTS EDITOR Rory Clarke DEPUTY SPORTS EDITOR Colmán Stanley CHIEF OF PHOTOGRAPHY Alex Fagan DEPUTY PHOTOGRAPHER Conor Cosgrove CHIEF OF ILLUSTRATIONS Freya Williams CHIEF OF VIDEOGRAPHY Orla Keaveney DEPUTY VIDEOGRAPHER Fiadh Melina Brosnan

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CONTRIBUTORS Tara Hanneffy Shivani Shukla Brian Lynch Heather Reynolds Sam Keane Joyce Dignam Michéal Ó Chathsaigh James Donaghue Jeremy Ling Claudia Dalby Ross O’Leary Ciaran Crowther Odhran McDonnell

SPORT The Cold War between sports personalities and the media

Ciarán Crowther discusses the relationship between sportspeople and the media in the Premier League and the NFL, how they differ in It’s a funny thing given the nature of modern sport, and its oversaturation in our culture by extensive media coverage, that the central protagonists and antagonists in the sporting dramas which we watch unfold can often seem impenetrable or inaccessible as people. Despite these men and women being some of the most gifted people in sport, the lack of personality sometimes in their interactions with the media is quite remarkable. It seems as though getting to know our favourite sportspeople is too much to ask for and that players and managers are now being media-trained to within an inch of their lives. However, this was not always the case, and if you look back not too long ago, you can see that the nature of professional sport and the media has shifted, and the way in which sportspersons interact with the media has changed massively.

To fully understand the contemporary relationship between professional sport and the media, let’s look back to before the creation of the internet. In the pre-internet age, sports journalists had much more access to players and managers than they do now. Print journalism was the dominant source of news and analysis in the 20th century, and the respect which journalists were given in terms of the access they would have is something which the journalists of today could only dream of. In football, for example, interviews with managers at half time, as well as access to players before and after the game were once the norm.

Football has now become a multi-billion dollar industry, meaning the stakes are higher than ever for clubs benefitting from millions in investment from super-rich owners. The relationship between the media and players and their managers has resulted in journalists often being kept at arm’s length, and a certain frostiness developing in press conferences. The archetypal example of this type of manager is, of course, José Mourinho. The self-proclaimed ‘Special One’s’ run-ins with the media in various press conferences over the course of his career have often been quite something to behold.

The confrontational nature of Mourinho’s interviews and press conferences as a manager (quite ironic considering he is currently doing some punditry for beIN Sports) have built to a crescendo in recent years, culminating in a now already infamous post-match press conference from this season. Questioned by Jamie Jackson of The Guardian newspaper as to whether he felt United’s fans were happy with him and the team after a shock 3-0 home defeat to a rival like Spurs, an incensed Mourinho went on a wideranging rant before abruptly ending the press conference by holding three fingers up to the assembled press corps, saying: “Just to finish, do you know what was the result?

This. 3-0, 3-0. Do you know what this is? 3-0. But it also means three Premierships and I won more Premierships alone than the other 19 managers together. Three for me and two for them. So respect man, respect, respect, respect.” On one hand it is refreshing to have a personality like Mourinho in the game, but journalists asking fair questions should be treated with more respect themselves.

The contrast to this can be seen in the NFL. In a country where President Donald Trump has gone on the record in stating that journalists are “enemies of the people”, this has not resulted in a cold relationship developing between the media and NFL teams, and their head coaches or players.

While Trump’s views on certain American football players ‘taking a knee’ did permeate throughout the NFL, where he found common ground with some franchise owners who control their team’s actions with an iron fist, NFL head coaches have continued to conduct their press conferences the same way they have always done.

Perhaps New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is the exception to this rule when he strikes fear into the hearts of all journalists who have to suffer his glare and his gruff, laconic responses to any questions in post-game press conferences (although he doesn’t necessarily have a Mourinho-esque relationship with the media). The responses from the rest of the players and managers however, tend to be broadly similar, win, lose or draw. When their team has won, head coaches and their quarterbacks are generally pleased with the performance, and their post-game comments are full of banalities as the assembled hacks throw them softball questions. If their team has lost, there is very rarely any histrionics from players or coaches, they simply take accountability for what has happened out on the field and move on, stating that they need to do better.

This sort of response may be much less entertaining than a Mourinho meltdown, but perhaps the “Special One” and other football managers who have a spiky relationship with the media ought to take a leaf out of the book of their brethren across the Atlantic. While there are a lot of welldocumented problems with the NFL, not least its treatment of players using their first amendment rights and its links with concussion and CTE, their treatment of journalists in terms of the access they’re given to players and coaching staff before, during and after games is second to none, and the journalists who ask the questions are generally treated quite well. As in the upper echelons of professional football in leagues like the Premier League, money is no object for franchises in the NFL so there is no excuse for people like Mourinho on that front. Perhaps the answer lies in the culture of journalism in America compared to Britain. Perhaps the growing issue of player power in professional football compared to the salary cap situation in the NFL has some bearing on how these sportspersons portray themselves to the world through the media.

Regardless of the approach, in either sport or culture, to their interactions with the media, many of the highest profile sports personalities still often seem to lack just that quality – personality. Maybe it is foolish to hark back to the past and what things used to be like in the ‘good old days’, but then again is it really too much to ask to see that the sportspeople we look up to and admire are also real people just like us and not merely the pampered multimillionaire robots we have come to expect?

“The relationship between the media and players and their managers has resulted in journalists often being kept at arm’s length, and a certain frostiness developing in press conferences.”

The UFC’s far right problem With UFC President Dana White being a friend of Donald Trump and Ramzan Kadyrov sitting in front row seats of big fights Nathan Young questions if the UFC is too comfortable with far-right leaders.

In April 2017 a story broke about Chechnya, a small federal subject of Russia, that most people in the West would have only heard of because of two wars in the 1990s in which Russia brutally suppressed Islamists and civilians seeking independence. The story was that a purge of LGBT+ people, especially gay and bisexual men, had been secretly underway. Immediately the Russian government, whose own record on LGBT+ rights was far from stellar, denied the claims, with the Foreign Minister saying that “there is not a single concrete fact, there are no surnames. If there are facts, if there are surnames, then our answers will be concrete.” Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov went further, claiming that there were no gay people in Chechnya. “You cannot detain and persecute people who simply do not exist in the republic,” he told Interfax news agency. “If there were such people in Chechnya, the lawenforcement organs wouldn’t need to have anything to do with them, because their relatives would send them somewhere from which there is no returning.”

If Kadyrov was an obscure figure to the wider world this would still be troubling, but he isn’t. He has managed to build a better relationship with the Russian Federation

leader, and has become a patron of a sport growing in popularity around the world, MMA. Readers not familiar with the politics of the Caucasus may instead recognise him from sitting in the front row of many a UFC fight, especially when the fights involve fighters from his own fight club, Akhmat MMA. The club is named after Kadyrov’s father and is run by Colonel Abuzayed Vismuradov, commander of Chechnya’s special police forces and Kadyrov’s personnel security. Despite the undeniable links between the club and the human rights violating Chechen government, the UFC continues to work with them and have signed five fighters from the club onto their roster.

It’s not only obscure figures with far right politics who have a close connection with the UFC. President Donald Trump is a fan and patron of the sport, and has been since as early as 2001. At a time when John McCain was calling MMA “human cockfighting”, the UFC was struggling to find a home. With 36 states having banned MMA, Trump offered his Taj Mahal hotel in Las Vegas as a venue, and UFC President Dana White accepted. Ever since then, White has been a vocal supporter of the now president, praising him at press conferences and interviews. When

a more socially acceptable sport with a larger following, in part thanks to Trump, Trump continued to attend fights.

In 2016, White gave a speech to the Republican National Convention where he retold this story, saying “Donald was the first guy who recognised what we saw in the UFC, and encouraged us to build our business.” He went on to endorse Trump’s presidential candidacy. “I’ve been in the fighting business my whole life. I know fighters. Ladies and gentlemen, Donald Trump is a fighter, and I know he will fight for this country.” Ari Emanuel, a businessman whose company Endeavour (Formally WME-IMG) bought the UFC for $4.2B in 2016, has also had personal and business ties to Donald Trump for years, with Emanuel having purchased the Miss Universe Pageant from Trump in 2015. Both men continue to have close access to the President, having had meetings and dinners with him since his inauguration. White describes how “I went back to the hotel, picked up my wife, and we came back and had dinner with the President in the residence...We had dinner for three hours, and then he personally toured my wife and I around the White House.”

MMA is the perfect sport for strongman politicians to

“It’s not only obscure figures with far right politics who have a close connection with the UFC” promote their image. Unlike football, there’s no protest movements kneeling to the anthem. Unlike professional wrestling, the violence is real, and the framing of fights is less camp. With many of the fighters, and all of the executives, buying into at least some of the same ultra masculine ideals of the Trumps and Kadyrovs of the world, and the UFC always looking to expand its business, the connection is natural. As well as the ties the UFC itself has to political figures, many fighters are vocal supporters and friends of leaders they admire. Conor McGregor met Vladimir Putin during the 2018 World Cup and afterwards on Instagram wrote, “This man is one of the greatest leaders of our time and I was honored to attend such a landmark event alongside him”. UFC welterweight Abu Azaitar met with King Mohammed VI of Morocco in 2017, and many non-Chechen fighters have had photo ops and meetings with Kadyrov.

Like the many men in neomasculinity movements who see Chuck Palahniuk’s (or more likely David Fincher’s film adaptation) Fight Club as a story about the liberating potential of violence against modern sensibilities, MMA is seen as a sport for those rejecting everything else. Unlike Palahniuk’s explicitly anti-consumerist club, however, the UFC is big business. Since the $4.2B purchase mentioned above, the UFC has signed on to a $1.5B contract with ESPN, leading White to claim, perhaps hyperbolically, that the company was now worth $7B. With so much money floating around it’s easy to see why the UFC is unlikely to engage with critics who seek to embrace their executives, sponsors, and allies.

The issue goes further than what Amnesty International calls “sportswashing” of far right leaders. The promotion and acceptability of these politics within the UFC is a threat to fans and even fighters. The women’s roster already has many LGBT+ fighters, including bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes (the men’s roster currently has no openly gay fighters). With reports from Chechnya saying the latest rounds of the gay purges are targeting more women than ever before, it’s hard to take the LGBT+ platitudes of people like White seriously. An endorsement of conceptual equality from a man who befriends homophobic and far right leaders during their purges of LGBT+ people is worth naught. For fans, fighters, and LGBT+ people everywhere, the UFC must do better.

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SPORT UCD researchers at the coalface of Sports Science Rory Clarke chats to the team behind Output Sports, a UCD-based Sports Science start-up at the cutting edge of their field.

Increasingly, modern sport is defined by marginal gains and minute-percentage improvements. Athletes strive for that extra millisecond, that extra metre, that extra bit of power that gets the ball over the line. In order to achieve such precise incremental improvements, more and more coaches, across all levels of sport, from professional to amateur, are turning to sports science and wearable performance measures. To understand this more completely I spoke to Output Sports, an interdisciplinary project based at the UCD Insight Centre, at the coalface of sports science research.

Martin O’Reilly, a sports scientist and computer engineer; Darragh Whelan, a sports-medicine expert and physiotherapist; and Julian Eberle, a theoretical physics “rockstar” - according to O’Reilly - and programmer, are the creative team behind the project.

The trio all have links to UCD, as part of the teaching faculty on the Health and Performance Science and Physiotherapy programmes and (coincidentally), 2 of the 3 are previous captains of the Olympic handball club!

The aim of their research project is “to create a genuine

S&C environments.”

The UCD Insight Centre for Data Analytics, apart from being Ireland’s flagship analytics research hub, is, according to the Output Sport team, “a pretty special place to be.” A joint initiative between Science Foundation Ireland, UCD and other Irish universities and the EU, “it houses experts ranging from clinicians, psychologists and anthropologists right through to statisticians and computerscientists.” Having such a breadth of academic experts on a diverse array of subjects is the “the key advantage of being part of the centre”. Their one small gripe - itself borne of their irrepressible enthusiasm - is that with “such academic environments, is that at times progress can move slowly due to everybody’s busy schedules.”

In addition to this, the team has worked closely with the Institute of Sports and Health to ensure the accuracy of their minituarused equipment. They have “all the traditional performance testing technologies e.g. force plates for power, light-gates for speed, LPTs (linear position transducers) for barbell velocity” focusing on how well/quickly you are actually lifting weights. For Output,

“Athletes strive for that extra millisecond, that extra metre, that extra bit of power that gets the ball over the line.” positive impact on exercise and sport...by combining interdisciplinary expertise and advances in technology spaces such as wearable sensors and machine learning.”

O’Reilly muses that, in spite of the competitive nature of the sports they are measuring, sports science itself has only been able to progress by incrementally building on the work of colleagues in pursuit of mutual beneficence.

During the last 2 years of his degree in Sports and Exercise Engineering, he completed placements with wearable sensor company Shimmer in Dublin. “During the placement, I had a bit of down time and started to explore how the sensors I was working with during the day, could be applied to the Strength and Conditioning (S&C) training I was doing in the evenings for my own sporting performance.”

Output Sports is the fruit of the idea that took root during this time. However, O’Reilly is quick to point to the aid of collaboration in helping the concept evolve and develop.

“This [their progress] is thanks to domain expertise from Darragh and Prof Brian Caulfield and engaging with system users (gym-goers, sports coaches etc.),” not merely satisfied to make up the numbers, the Output Sports team is determined to create “something that adds true value in

whose aim is to produce “portable and unified performance measurement systems with equivalent accuracy to the expensive, high-end kit” such access has been invaluable in developing ever-smaller and more convenient prototypes, without sacrificing performance.

Although sports science is inherently associated with elite sports, this is not a status quo which O’Reilly and co. want to necessarily see maintained. He explains that “in the longer-term the relatively low cost nature of our technologies could mean that we can put pro-sports performance analytics in to the hands of everyday gymgoers and athletes. This could allow such people to reach the training goals in a far more engaging and optimised fashion at both the elite and sub-elite levels.”

Merrily describing themselves as “nerds with a love for sports” gives an indication of the group’s enthusiasm for their work. For proud athletes - who, after counting, reckon they have “competed in over 20 different sports” - “the possibility to add value in our field of passion, sports and exercise, with technology and data analytics” as academic researchers is tremendously exciting. Moreover Whelan takes special excitement in being able “to solve the problems he has witnessed in practice as a physiotherapist

over the years.”

Asked about potential trials with current UCD athletes and clubs, the response was emphatic. “Absolutely! We’re big advocates for exercise and sport participation and education in UCD and we’d be happy to share our tech with any sports club or UCD athlete who would like to try it out.” Their systems, which allow coaches “to understand a bit more about their athletes’ power, flexibility, balance control or explosiveness” could be suitable for either clubs or individual athletes in UCD. Indeed, in recent times they have been working with Adam Byrne, Leinster winger and Biomedical engineer at UCD, to ensure their “tech meets the needs of pro-athletes and coaches.”

The interview ends as it began - with enthusiasm and passion abounding. I ask, with a not-so-vague inkling of

what type of answer I’ll get, why do they like their work?

“Funnily enough, the reasons we like our work are the same reasons we love sport. We get to work with a super team and approach very difficult challenges together.”

In truth, the smiles didn’t flag throughout and show no signs of disappearing now, as Output Sports moves towards the startup world armed with the expertise of some of UCD and Ireland’s finest sports scientists. In fact, as we go to print, they are competing as finalists in the startup competition at the world-leading MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. There is little doubt that they are indeed “onto a winner!

Follow @outputsports on social media for more information.

Chess: the rise of a different kind of sport Odhrán McDonnell discusses the relative renaissance which Irish chess has enjoyed in recent years, and why the game has a bright future ahead.

Chess may not be regarded as a sport in a conventional sense, but irrespective of this, it has seen a major increase in popularity in Ireland in the last decade. While the chess community is still relatively small and unknown on these shores, its continued expansion suggests that this may not be the case for much longer. In 2018, The Irish Chess Union (ICU), the body responsible for governing and running Irish chess events, announced a 50% increase in membership since 2015, a remarkable rate of growth for any organisation. They also found that there were 1100 active youth players in the country, including 220 new players in 2018 alone. This trend has also been evident here in UCD, with the revival of the UCD Chess Society since 2016. In the modern, digital world, in which video games and smartphones are dominating our lives, it seems that chess is offering an increasing number of people with a welcome escape from technology.

The origins of the recent renaissance must be traced back to 1993, when Grandmaster Alexander Baburin arrived to live and play chess in Ireland for a year. An elite Russian-born player who had once been one of the top 100 chess players in the world, Baburin decided to settle in Ireland on a permanent basis. In the years that followed, he set about raising the profile of Irish chess in many ways, such as selling chess books, giving seminars and teaching in primary schools. In the 1990s, chess was not a popular hobby for children, with it not being uncommon for chess

clubs to meet in pubs.

However, Baburin’s work helped to inspire ambitious young players to develop their hobby into something they could take more seriously. He now teaches in over 20 schools, with up to 700 children receiving weekly lessons from Baburin himself and highly rated players from universities such as UCD and Trinity College. He also organises monthly tournaments so that his students can test themselves against players from other schools. This model has produced many of the best young Irish players of recent years, highlighted by the rise of former Baburin student Conor O’Donnell to FIDE Master (FM) status amongst others. It is inevitable that current students will be inspired by the resounding success of their predecessors, and this can only further bolster the strength of Irish chess in years to come.

The vital work of Baburin has been complimented by the development of some strong youth sections of chess clubs. At primary school age, the leaders in this regard are the clubs based in Rathmines and St. Benildus (Kilmacud).

St. Benildus Chess Club has been particularly successful in producing young talent in recent years, shown by their representation on the Irish under 12 team by four of the six team members in 2018. Gonzaga College dominate the secondary school chess scene, having swept the board at under 19, under 16 and under 14 level in Ireland for much of the last decade. They are also the reigning champions of

the Millfield International Chess tournament, a competition which pits the top schools in Ireland and the UK against each other. As the winners of the last five consecutive editions of this international event, Gonzaga boast a level of superiority that even the Dublin footballers cannot yet match (unless they complete their ‘Drive for Five’ this summer, of course). Some of their past pupils have even gone on to represent Ireland on the European and world stages.

At university level, however, the game is less established. While there has always been a strong chess club in Trinity College, UCD Chess Society is a relatively new entity. The club was officially formed in 2016, and has been active ever since, with just under 200 members signed up for the 2018/19 college year. They provide an attractive proposition for established chess players who wish to play with like-minded college students in a social environment.

Beginners are also welcomed into the club through weekly basic lessons. The society host events such as the UCD Blitz tournament each year, which attracts players from all over the country. They also organise seminars which have been delivered by famous chess players such as Baburin and Judith Polgar.

Like any conventional physical sport, chess features several competitive leagues and tournaments. There are six divisions in the Leinster leagues which have grown considerably in recent years, with 89 teams involved in

the 2018/19 season compared to just 63 in 2003/04. There is promotion and relegation from each league, just like in any sporting division. The leagues serve as one of the main platforms for progressing players since they can move to play on teams in higher leagues within their clubs once they become too strong for their existing level. Most clubs have teams in at least two leagues, with larger clubs such as Rathmines, St. Benildus and Elm Mount (Drumcondra) having more than five teams apiece. UCD entered their first team into the Leinster leagues in 2016, and are now in Division 4 where they are occupying a promotion spot at the time of writing. Munster has a similar, albeit smaller, structure.

The tournament scene has grown immeasurably of late, with competitions taking place across the country over weekends and holiday periods. These competitions are split into sections of differing strength, from beginner to master level, giving every player the opportunity to play against opponents of a similar standard. There is an annual calendar of tournaments all over the country from locations ranging from Dublin to Cork and Bunratty to Kilkenny.

UCD are often strongly represented at these tournaments.

The largest tournament of the year, the Bunratty Chess Festival, took place in the last month. A staggering 343 players competed across the four tournaments, a steady increase from an entry of 291 players in the 2013 edition.

Nine Grandmasters from across Europe, including Barburin himself, played in the master’s section. There was success for UCD, with auditor Jonathon Peoples winning joint second place in the ‘Challengers’ section (the section below the master’s section) with a near perfect score of 5/6.

New tournaments are being added to the calendar each year to accommodate the demands of the growing chess community.

Although the exponential growth of chess in Ireland may be behind the argument for the game to be regarded as a sport gaining momentum, the game’s continued expansion and progression does not rely on this. While official recognition from sporting councils may lead to increased funding, fighting for this acknowledgement need not be the priority for the powers that be in Irish chess. Thanks to the tireless work of Baburin and many others, the game will continue to be played and enjoyed by thousands of new players each year regardless of whether the general public view it as a sport.

“While official recognition from sporting councils may lead to increased funding, fighting for this acknowledgement need not be the priority for the powers that be in Irish chess.”

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