College Tribune: Issue 5 by Simon

ucd.ie/tribune

Volume 21 / Issue 5

Siren

13th November 2007

the

THIS WEEK IN

Aslan rock the Student Bar

Exclusive interview: The Siren - Page 6

9/11 Interview with a hero Analysis - Page 12-13

Disabled toilets storing harmful chemicals ■ Deplorable condition of college facilities for the disabled exposed ■ College in breach of Disability Act of 2005 The only disabled bathroom in the Agriculture building is currently being used as a storeroom, housing chemical agents “that can cause damage to the health of persons exposed to them”, according to UCD’s own Chemical Safety Manual. The toilet contained a large container beside the sink, which was clearly marked with a large X on its side, in order to indicate the harmful nature of the purplishblue liquid inside. Both the toilet seat and the taps are missing in the toilet in question, the condition of which was discovered during a campus-wide investigation of disability access, carried out by the College Tribune in the past week. When a wheelchair-bound journalist asked for directions to the disabled toilet, the receptionist on duty was unaware of its location at ﬁrst, but later conﬁrmed

■ Cian Taffe that the toilet in question was in fact the only disabled toilet in the building. On examination, the toilet was caked with a layer of dust and there were sweeping brushes and mop-buckets cluttering the passageway through the door, hampering access for wheelchair users. The investigation shows that UCD is not a wheelchair-friendly place, and that basic needs such as li s are inaccessible because keys are needed to operate them. The college are in breach of the 2005 Disability Act, which states in Section 25 of Part Three, that, “A public body shall ensure its public buildings are, as far as practicable, accessible to persons with disabilities.” ■ Continued on page 4

NEWS

College Tribune

13th November 2007

Drop in rankings for Smurfit Several prestigious Masters programs at the Michael Smurfit School of Business have fallen dramatically in the Financial Times rankings. In 2003 the Masters in Business Administration (MBA) program at Smurfit was ranked number thirteenth in Europe by the Financial Times. In 2007 it was placed at 98th, a significant decrease in its world status. The Financial Times ranking, which came out earlier this year also showed that the Executive MBA (a separate program) was ranked at number 88 in a list of 90 schools across Europe that were tabled in the rankings list. In 2003 the Taught Masters program in the Smurfit Business School was ranked in the FT list as 17th while this

Contributors: Adam Watts, Vicky-Ann McKenna, Sean Cunningham, Peter Lahiff, Aoibhinn n Shuilleabhin, Jennifer Bray, Philip Connolly, Barra O'Fianail, Sylvia Stoll, James Geoghegan, Eoin Brophy, Eoghan Glynn, Bryan Devlin, Stephen West, Ben Blake, Colin Scally, Dan Hayden, Katie Keane, Lisa Towell, Amanda Farley, Eoin Boyle, Suzy Cody, Gareth Byrne, Fiona Redmond, John OFlynn, Orla Kenny, Maximillian Harding, Karen OConnell, Pete Mahon, Ruth Bourke Special Thanks To: Stephen & Billy @ Spectator Newspapers, Eilis O'Brien, Dominic Martella, A&B, Michael & Denise Cody.

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year it was ranked 40th out of a list of 40 such programs. The UCD MBA programme is designed to give an insight into how to run a business as a general manager. It purports to give a comprehensive business education to its students, ‘developing the skills and mindset needed for eﬀective leadership.’ Rankings are seen as an indicator of the quality of the education available in the university sector and depend on factors such as academic publications and staﬀ re■ Down: Smurfit search initiatives.

Mills and O'Donnell join Governing Authority

Editor Caitrina Cody Features Editor Colin Gleeson Designer Simon Ward Sports Editor Jordan Daly Health & Fashion Editor Cathy Buckmaster Arts Editor Cian Taaffe Music Editor Lorcan Archer

■ Ruth Bourke

A Senior Lecturer in the School of Geography, Planning and Environment has been elected as an academic representative of the UCD Governing Authority. Gerald Mills has vowed to argue for more transparency within the college regarding ﬁnancial matters and for more communication in the wake of the dramatic restructuring of UCD. “One of the most worrying aspects associated with recent changes has been the very large sums of money spent on outside consultants. This is the very area that most academics believe has failed.” The lecturer also called for a thorough examination of top UCD management. The Governing Authority is a board made up of senior management, academic staﬀ, UCD Students’ Union (SU) members, outside authorities from the Department of Education and various stakeholders. Its function is to guide the direc-

■ Caitrina Cody tion of the university and to monitor the performance of top management. Mills has spoken out about the lack of consultation between senior management and staff and has investigated the consultancy expenditure of the college, telling the College Tribune that it has raised serious concern. “With the results of the recent survey showing a lack of morale among staff and students, one would wonder exactly what all this spending has been in aid of. Who has benefited?” Administrator of the Applied Language Centre Hugo O’Donnell has also been elected to the Governing Authority as the non-academic representative. “As the Mercator Report has confirmed, the way restructuring has been implemented in UCD has brought much frustration and concern. Many staff are fearful and anx-

ious about the future and feel that changes have led to instability. “Many of us who have worked hard over the years or decades feel demoralised and devalued because of the way in which many staﬃng decisions have been handled.” O’Donnell’s priorities over his coming year as a representative will be to concentrate on the reasons for staﬀ demoralisation, the lack of transparency and the existing inequalities. O’Donnell achieved a landslide victory in the election, securing 518 votes, compared to his opposing candidate, Aoibheann Gibbons, Director of Research Strategy & Planning in the Research Department, who secured eighteen.

■ Happy: Hugo O’Donnell

Christmas exams loom large Adam Watts gauges the reactions of students around campus in the run up to the exam period

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Ivan, 2nd Year Arts: “I have six exams and most of my exams are two hours long. The most annoying thing at the moment is that Blackboard’s not working; you can’t even track your timetable. They should deﬁnitely postpone exams until a er Christmas or oﬀer some form of compensation.”

Stephen, 2nd Year Engineering: “I only have two exams and they’re on in the RDS. They’re only an hour long each so it’s ﬁne, I’m happy. I’m not worried; I think everything should be grand as one’s on a Saturday. The only thing is I don’t really want to do it on a Saturday because it should be my day oﬀ.”

Donal, 2nd Year Engineering: “I have plenty of exams and I had major problems with the scheduling last year but I’ve heard it’s going to be better this year, with more time between exams and all on separate days. That’s important I think for peace of mind.”

Barry, 3rd Year Engineering: “I have six exams which seems like a lot but I suppose it means I’ll have fewer exams next summer, so it balances out. I’m hoping I have time to study in between each exam because I haven’t started yet and tend to leave everything until later.”

Catherine, 1st Year Arts: “I ﬁnd it really hard to access the timetables on Blackboard, especially with all the problems with it last week and I’m a bit worried about my schedule. I’m hoping it all work out once I get to check it, once Blackboard’s running again.”

Colm, 2nd Year Science: “I’m dreading having to get to and from the exam venues if I have to go to the RDS or to Blackrock because I hate having to depend on the buses for exams. There’s never any guarantees that you’re not going to be late and I hate the stress. You just don’t need that when you’re trying to concentrate on doing well.”

NEWS

College Tribune

13th November 2007

Blackboard down ■ Senior Lecturer criticises outage ■ Students unable to access essay titles A Senior Lecturer in the School of History has spoken out in condemnation of the Blackboard failure that occurred last week. These comments come in the a ermath of the week-long technical failure of the Blackboard system which le students and staﬀ without access to electronic notes. Edward James noted that the system failure was “unsatisfactory and cumbersome.” Like students, he expressed annoyance at the fact that Blackboard was upgraded in the middle of term. As the coordinator of the Doing History module, James was concerned at the fact that he had no other version of his lecture notes other than the ones on the online resource. “Students were unable to access my notes, forcing me to give an extension on the essay assignment.” James declared “The diﬃculties of registering students always make the start of term very stressful as it is. It o en takes a few weeks of term before every student is registered, thus heightening the frustration surrounding access to lecture notes and assignments. When it’s up and running, you expect it to stay that way at least.” The failed implementation of the new Blackboard system has sparked outrage among students who were unable to use

Fine day for sailing...

■ Vicky Ann McKenna the system to access essay titles at a crucial period of the semester. The technical difficulties affected approximately 22,000 students and 2,000 staff members. The scheduled upgrade to Blackboard Seven was unsuccessful and subsequent attempts to reinstall Blackboard Six also failed, leaving the system completely down. As students have pointed out, taking Blackboard offline for so long has caused immense frustration and inconvenience. Michael Lee, 3rd Arts declared, “This was a disaster, coming so close to the exams. I couldn’t get to the notes I needed, and I had no way of checking what my essay titles were. It was stressful.” While attempts have been made to extend essay deadlines, there is still frustration at the timing of the scheduled outage. Alexandru Bratu, 3rd Science said, “It’s to close to the exams for that sort of thing to happen. It’s a ridiculous state of affairs.” With almost two million euro paid to computer consultancy firm IBM in 2006, the university places a strong emphasis on the importance of electronic resources, with online registration implemented across the board.

■ Error: The Blackboard system was replaced by this message

Sunday mornings are quiet in UCD. However the great lake of Belfield is rippled by the men of the Dublin Radio Boat Club, who are Ken Finn, George Young, John Stanley, Hugh Hume and Ken Murphy.

NEWS

College Tribune

13th November 2007

NEWS IN BRIEF COMPILED BY CATHY BUCKMASTER

SIPTU ballot

Disabled toilets storing harmful chemicals

UCD Grounds and General Operatives staff will meet this week to discuss the further clarification needed on the pay offer made by the university in October. Sector organiser of SIPTU Representative of the Grounds and General Operative staff, Chris Rowland states: “We need to iron out some difficulties in the proposal; certain things need to be looked at in more detail. We will meet the union members this week and hopefully we can then move forward.” The Grounds and Operatives Staff balloted earlier in the semester for industrial action in order to call attention to the deficit in their wages. However, UCD has offered a pay deal that Rowland is hopeful will put an end to the situation and see the staff members compensated for their loss in wages.

Parking delegation A student delegation will travel to National University Ireland (NUI) Galway in order to observe the successful parking system currently in operation there. The ongoing parking crisis on campus sees many staff and students without a parking space every morning, with a general consensus among staff and student representatives pointing to the need for a new and more efficient system. There are two new proposals in the pipeline with the first being a system whereby all staff, students and employees of UCD would be charged equally to park and the second being a division of the car parks with a certain ration allotted to staff, students and visitors. The Commuting Advisory Group will make observations of the efficient model employed in Galway with a view towards implementing the system in UCD.

Resident penalties A complaint has been lodged to the Student Complaint Procedure by the UCD Students’ Union (SU) President Barry Colfer and SU Accommodation Officer Gavin Reilly in response to disciplinary measures taken by the Residential Authority against UCD students living in on-campus accommodation.

■ Complaint: Gav Reilly

Students have been subjected to penalties during the current semester, incurred against such minor infractions of residential conduct as having overnight guests. Fines of over €200 have been paid by students for breaking the rules. Colfer adds: “This is a large amount of money for any student and in certain cases the fine was just not warranted.”

■ Continued from page 4

■ Storage cupboard: Disabled toilets in Agriculture

UCD are in breach of the 2005 Disability Act. This has come to light a er a campus-wide investigation was carried out by the College Tribune last week in order to expose many different aspects of accessibility that have breached the act. Areas such as the state of the pavement and the presence of ramps on the concourse, the weight and design of doors, and access to li s throughout various buildings in Belfield, have all been outlined in the report to compound what is already an extremely inaccessible campus for disabled students. Students’ Union Deputy President, Ciara Brennan and Student’s Union Welfare Officer, Vivian Rath launched an accessibility black-spot campaign last week demanding that the university address the issues outlined. “We must ensure that these issues are addressed as expediently as possible. It’s abhorrent to think that nobody has thought to make the changes that so desperately

need to be made,” remarked Brennan. She continued, “The authorities should be deeply ashamed of their complacency and negligence. This is their chance to act. There must be change. They have no choice.” A spokesperson for UCD responded to the issues highlighted, by declaring, “Some of the older buildings on campus have limited wheelchair access and in some instances disabled students may have to access the building in a diﬀerent manner to their peers. “However, these buildings were designed in line with the best codes and practices that were in place at the time. In certain instances, where possible, there have been improvements to accessibility and services for disabled students in older buildings. “More recently, all the newer buildings on campus have ensured disability access issues are considered at the early planning stages to ensure that they meet with the main access needs of students with disabilities.”

LGBT oppose ban on blood donations The UCD Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Society is publicising their opposition this month to a ban by the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) on blood donations from gay men. The LGBT says the ban is discriminatory and outdated, and unsupported by any modern statistical evidence. The group is looking for the IBTS to update their criteria based on sexual behavior rather than orientation, and are holding a petition this week to support this motion. LGBT Rights Officer Rob Doyle said: “The ban which says that homosexual men are most likely to have HIV is out of date. The IBTS feel that the gay community has higher risk behavior than any other group, which is not the case anymore. Constant vigilance and use of condoms have lead to the number of HIV infected gay men decreasing proportionately. In fact, heterosexual males are more likely to carry any STI than a homosexual male.” The IBTS disqualifies any prospective male donor who ‘has ever had anal or oral sex with another male, even if a condom or other form of protection was used.’ The ban is a lifetime one. A similar ban applies to women who have slept with AIDS infected men, but only applies for one year. The Food and Drug Administration originally imposed the ban in America in 1983, when Aids was prevalent among the gay population and blood testing was insufficient to insure proper safety. Testers at the time needed a six month window to determine the presence of the newly discovered disease. The move was reflected in similar bans throughout the developed world. Technology has since developed to the stage where HIV is detectable a er ten days, but the ban is still enforced by the IBTS and a large section of first world

■ Sean Cunningham nations. To Doyle and the LGBT, the issue should be about sexual behavior, not gay versus straight: “Anyone who has unprotected sex should be banned from giving blood for a certain amount of time. That doesn’t necessarily mean a lifetime ban, or speciﬁcally gay men. It’s not about labels, it’s about behaviour.” Statistics from the Health Surveillance Centre in 2005 show that, of the 140 cases of HIV where the probable route of transmission was known, 75 were acquired heterosexually, 37 were among injecting drug users, and 25 were among men who have had sex with men. Doyle said: “The World Health Organization and groups such as AIDS Africa all agree that sub Saharan African women are the highest risk group in the world, yet even they can donate blood a er one year living in Ireland. I would see this as something that is of even greater priority than the Civil Unions Bill. While this issue exists, we can never say that we have our civil rights.” The LGBT has sent their petitions, along with relevant statistics, to Minister for Health Mary Harney and the IBTS itself: “We have asked them to set up a working group to investigate the current risk. Both Mary Harney and the IBTS have each said that the other is the person that needs to be contacted. There has been no short term update that we know of. Mary Harney is taking the statistics ‘under advisement’, is the term used.” Members of the IBTS have conceded a discriminatory element in the ban. Chief Executive of the IBTS, Andrew Kelly has said: “This policy causes considerable oﬀence; it is clearly discriminatory against gay men and categorizes all gay men as being at increased risk of HIV.

■ Exclusion: Mobile blood transfusion Clinic It is arguable that the total ban on men who have has sex with men should be replaced by the exclusion on the basis of activity rather than gender preference.” Medical Director of the IBTS, Dr William Murphy said, “The transfusion services argue that accepting homosexual men as donors will not make transfusion safer, but may make it less safe. While this may be generally true, it is not universally so; any regular blood donor in a stable partnership is safer than one who is not, all other things being equal” Certain mandatory tests are performed on every donation, no matter how many times you have given blood. Currently the tests are those for HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, HTLV and syphilis. If the blood gives a positive result for any of these infections the donation will be discarded and you will not be eligible to donate again. Another spokesperson for the IBTS declared that “The exclusion of men

who have sex with men is in accordance with practice among blood transfusion services across the developed world”. These bans have come under similar scrutiny by various Gay Rights groups worldwide, leading to reconsiderations in Spain (where sexual behavior is considered most important) and Australia (where the ban applies for a year following unprotected sex). The IBTS needs 3000 donations a week to supply hospitals across the country, with one in four people needing a transfusion at some point in their lives. The response to the LGBT’s petitions has been largely positive. According to Doyle, “It is improving. There are certainly not half as many people saying that the ban should be there. I suppose the male medical students were the ones that needed more convincing. But maybe it’s down to an inherent kind of fear, rather than an actual understanding. But it is improving.”

NEWS

College Tribune

13th November 2007

Brady speaks ■ President calls for more government funding ■ Brady: Rankings 'increasingly important' ■ Caitrina Cody UCD President Hugh Brady has criticised the Government’s approach to third-level education in an article published in the Irish Independent last week. Brady wrote the article in response to the publication of the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) university rankings which placed UCD in a prestigious slot in the top 200 colleges in the world. The president noted that the development “is an encouragement to the considerable efforts which continue to be made in this regard by UCD staff” but pointed out that he felt called upon to acknowledge the “uphill nature of the work.” Brady called attention to the current financial trajectory of the Irish University sector, claiming that it is “unsustainable.” “The Irish University Presidents have informed the minister that all of the universities are either currently in deficit or likely to run a deficit this year.” He cited the failure of block grant to keep pace with sectoral inflation, a lack of research overheads compared to UCD’s international competitors and the total absence of a sectoral capital/ refurbishment programme. The former Harvard professor commended the emphasis given by the

■ Brady: Encouraged by the rise in UCD’s ranking THES to citations in academic journals when weighing their judgments but called for an even greater emphasis in future iterations. With the Department of Environment stating that there will be no return of third-level tuition fees for the foreseeable future, Brady made his concerns at the low level of resources available to the Irish university sector clear.

“If these challenges are not addressed by the government, the impressive trajectory demonstrated by UCD and Trinity will not be sustained.” At present, the budgets of both universities are less than half of that available to comparable institutions in the EU and the United States, with general study and sports facilities comparing poorly to other international universities.

UCD in top 200 UCD has climbed the international university rankings, entering the list of the top 200 universities in the world for the ﬁrst time, with the publication of the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) rankings last week. The university has improved its position in the tables, claiming the 177th place, an improvement on its ranking last year as 211th. The THES list has considerable credibility in the academic world and is seen as an authoritative guide to the international university sector. Trinity College has risen to an impressive 53rd place, while University College Cork (UCC) and Dublin City University (DCU) have broken into the top 300. UCD has focused increasingly on improving its international ranking in recent years with President Hugh Brady stating that the rankings are “seen as a measure of how we are performing to students, funders and other stakeholders . . . whether we like it or not.” The Irish university sector has seen an increase in government funding through initiatives such as the Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions (PRTLI) and Science Foundation Ireland. With an increased focus on research, UCD has succeeded in achieving more academic citations in international journals, a factor thought to be strongly linked to success in the world rankings. An attitudinal survey carried out by the Governing Authority last summer however, has pointed to a sense of dissatisfaction with

■ Caitrina Cody the new prioritisation on rankings among the twenty percent of staﬀ who completed it. The results stated that a number of people ‘expressed scepticism as to the value of an international university ranking, believing that the criteria for judgement were not always relevant to UCD.’ Senior Lecturer Dr Gerard Casey has noted his concern that the quest for international recognition has damaged the quality of the undergraduate degree programs in UCD. “Rankings simply don’t mean a lot. We cannot compete directly with the top-ranking universities. Not because we are inferior but because we’d need an income of about ten times what we have now and we’d need to have it for the next ﬁ y years. “We can’t compete with the toplevel but that doesn’t mean we are wasting our time. We do the best we can with the resources that are available.” “The really positive thing we do here is the undergraduate side. That’s our bread and butter. If we can do research that’s great, it should be facilitated as much as possible but not if it means neglecting our undergraduates.” The THES rankings have placed Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts at the top of the list, with the majority of top-ranking colleges being American institutions. English universities Oxford and Cambridge also hold a place in the top ten.

FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD

NEWS

College Tribune

13th November 2007

Setting the wh Cian Taaffe goes undercover as a wheelchair user in UCD and gets a first-hand view of the difficulties that students face everyday as they try to make their way around campus At ﬁrst my main concern about using a wheelchair for a day was that I did not think I would be able to manoeuvre the chair, but I was surprised to ﬁnd that the chair itself was quite easy to handle. The main obstacles I encountered were due to the lack of accessibility around the UCD campus.

Ramps

The first thing I noticed about the ramps was that the majority of them around campus are incredibly steep, most notably those next to the Michael Tierney building, which were absolutely impossible to get up or down without help. Even with help, it was still a major struggle. It was also interesting that the majority of staff and students were willing to help me go up the ramps, but when it came to going down the ramps, I was le to my own accord. If I had not have been in the chair I would have thought that going down the ramps was the easy part, but it was just as difficult as going up, due to the steepness of the ramps. If I had gone down too fast, it would have resulted in collision or injury, so I was forced to ease the wheelchair down the ramps very slowly, which required all my strength.

Doors

Apart from the sliding doors at the Quinn School and the Health Science buildings, all the doors on campus are quite heavy and must be pulled outwards to open them. This might not be such a big issue, if it wasn’t for the fact that both doors needed to be open to get the wheelchair through. Getting through the majority of the doors around campus proved to be a major task because on certain occasions, most notably in the lower ground level of the Arts block, the doors were too narrow to admit a wheelchair and managing to open both heavy doors while sitting in a wheelchair is almost an impossible task. It made me wonder what a wheelchair user is supposed to do when there is nobody else there to hold doors open for them; or what a student is supposed to do when they rightfully want to assert their abilities by being self-suﬃcient.

Li s

There are not many buildings on campus in which the li s are easily accessible, and for the majority of them a key is needed merely to get into the li . The li in the Library building, down by the Students’ Union Shop, was locked and the key for it was over in Belfield House, at the other side of campus, which I was informed is where the key is kept. This meant that in order to get to the Library, I needed to access it through the Library tunnel from the Arts block, which was not at all convenient. A er spending five minutes in the Science Block searching for the li , I found that it was barely big enough to fit into with the wheelchair and it took quite a bit of manoeuvring to get in and out. I also found out that the Science Block didn’t even have any li s until two years ago. Despite the installation of a new li

The Concourse in the Sports Centre, you still need a key to operate it and to obtain this key, you must shout up the steps from the lower level of the Sports Centre to the service desk. The li in the Restaurant is equally as distressing, as when you ﬁnally get your hands on it, you end up somewhere in the kitchen and are then forced to ﬁnd your way out to the main restaurant area.

Concourse Getting up and down the concourse proved an extremely diﬃcult task. Not only is the entire campus on a slant, making it incredibly challenging, but almost every slab on the pavement seemed to be broken or missing or in someway disruptive to the movement of the wheelchair. With the added pressure of the ramps,

this part of my experience proved to be a nightmare. On one occasion, it took me 25 minutes to get from the Sports Centre to the Arts Block, causing me to be ﬁfteen minutes late for my lecture. On a level surface, such as the sports halls in the Sports Centre, it was quite easy to wheel myself around as fast as anyone walking without over-exerting myself. The fact that walking from the Sports

Centre to the Arts Block only takes ﬁve minutes means that really it should take the same amount of time to travel the same distance in a wheelchair, rather than the 25 minutes of putting all my energy into it that it took in reality.

The Engineering Building Anyone familiar with the Engineering Building will also be familiar with the

NEWS

College Tribune

13th November 2007

eels in motion Ramps

Engineering

The Library

Lifts gargantuan amount of steps leading up to it. In order to access it in a wheelchair, you must go all the way around the back of the building. However there is no direct path leading to another entrance; you must either go around past the bus stops to avoid the grass or around by the AIB bank, both of which takes up an unnecessary amount of time. Upon reaching the back entrance to this building, I realised that the door was locked, but without a key and with no doorbell or phone of any sort I was expected to call services within the building from my own mobile phone. To make it even worse, there is not even a number for services anywhere near these doors, rendering the Engineering Building completely inaccessible for me altogether.

The Agricultural Science Building Toilet

only one in the building. I was informed that I would have to go to Food Sciences Building to use another one.

One thing that bothered me above anything else over the course of the day was the disabled toilet in the Agriculture Science Building, which was been used as a storage room; it was covered in dust, with chemicals lying around and the toilet seat strewn across the floor. This was not an acceptable bathroom facility and definitely not one that anyone would be willing to use. When I inquired where the disabled toilets in the building were, the services representative manning the desk at the time, was at first unsure where the toilets were and was finally able to tell me that the one I had already seen was the

Roebuck It took me about half an hour to get from the Quinn School to one of the theatres in Roebuck, which itself was inaccessible regardless, a er all my effort. I couldn’t get to a computer; I could hardly even fit through the doors. The surface on the roadway leading up was full of potholes and the footpath was tiny. I’d have been an obstruction if I’d even dared to use it. I concluded that if I had wanted to study law and was confined to a wheelchair, I would not have been able to come to UCD to get my degree.

Other People Overall the people I encountered throughout the day, helped out if necessary, but otherwise le me alone when I didn’t need or look for help. Other students I spoke to were friendly and didn’t treat me any diﬀerently than they usually would.

Wheelchair Basketball One of the positive events I experienced was Wheelchair Basketball, which was an adrenaline-ﬁlled, fastpaced and extremely competitive sport that can be played by anyone, as the Sports Centre supplies wheelchairs for the game. There was a great turnout at the Wheelchair Basketball event, which the

Students’ Union organised for Disability Awareness Week and everyone who took part thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Spending a day in the wheelchair was an overwhelming task and you really can not notice how badly the accessibility in UCD is, until you’ve experienced it first hand; no matter how much you think you can see. I was exhausted a er my day; my shoulders ached and my arms and hands were sore and I was unbelievably weary of the stress of dealing with the difficulty of getting around. There is a terrible problem in UCD in regards to the accessibility and not only for wheelchair users. There are plenty of things that have to be fixed and the sooner these issues are addressed by campus authorities, the better.

OPINION

College Tribune

13th November 2007

OPINION

AOIBHINN NI SHÚILLEABHÁIN WRITES FOR THE COLLEGE TRIBUNE

Love letters for the new generation The technological age has finally caught up with me. Last week, my trusty Nokia brickwhich has travelled the world with me, been through many a nasty fall, and, despite a cracked screen, has trudged heroically on with me for the guts of a year- finally kicked the bucket and stopped working. As you can probably guess, I’m not what you would call a ‘gadget person’. I don’t know how Bluetooth operates, my laptop will soon be five years old (and weighs twice that amount in kilos) and I haven’t a notion what a “Blackberry” is, but I’m presuming that office-types aren’t discussing jammaking on their lunch-breaks. My necessary trip to the phoneshop was a tad stressful. What brand did I want? Which colour best suited my ensemble? Was I a flipphone type of person? Taking all of these points into consideration, I eventually settled on the one the shop assistant herself owned, and a er the excruciating task of handing over my laser card, I brought another lucky phone into this world. I’m delighted with it. It’s shiny, black and comes with a camera, radio, mp3 player, video, internet and it wouldn’t surprise me if there was a personal shopper hidden in there too. I’ve been

Aoibhinn

Ni Shúilleabháin playing with it non-stop and don’t know how I ever could have survived without being able to listen to music on my phone. How on earth did people ever survive without mobiles? The exponential rise in the popular-

and happy-slap images that we see, the era of the phone has definitely spelled the end for love letters. My mom recently showed me her well-kept pile of letters my dad had written to her while they were in college. They were cute, endearing and hopelessly romantic. My aunt still treasures the letters her boyfriend, now her husband, wrote to her during her months in Africa. I don’t know what style of memorabilia we’ll have to show the next generation. I mean, who keeps a copy of romantic text messages? Or prints out their favourite emails? Before we know it, Christmas cards will be a thing of the past. On the other hand, phones have proved handy as a new form of flirting. There’s a certain tone implied by the cheeky “ ;) ” that could never be matched in a conversation and they’ve definitely shown their worth when changing last minute date plans.

“What brand did I want? Which colour best suited my ensemble? Was I a flipphone type of person? I eventually settled on the one the shop assistant herself owned” ity of the mobile will surely lead to a decline in the golden-moment stories we should tell our children over a cup of Barry’s tea. Leaving aside the endless tragic phone-videos posted on YouTube

Gone are the days of habitually meeting under the clock at Clery’s and I’ve heard that many a relationship has ended prematurely due to a prospective boyfriend waiting at the wrong door. So there it is - an ode to my old Nokia (that sounds like a Ritchie Kavanagh number). I’m going to send my dead

mobile to phone heaven via the ‘Jack and Jill’ foundation that recycle old phone parts for charity. I’m oﬀ to start planning my festive gi s. We’ve decided to buy Bóthar gi s this Christmas and I think buying a cow will be much more rewarding than receiving phone credit.

The changing face of UCD n Peter Lahiff Less than ﬁ een years ago people would stroll into their favourite bar on the oﬀ-chance of meeting someone they knew and would o en strike up a conversation with random strangers over a pint, a friend recently observed. These days, however, people coordinate their arrival by mobile phone and if they aren’t talking to those they had arranged to meet in advance they are texting others about moving on to the next venue instead of contributing to the general conviviality of the bar. The danger in indulging such nostalgia is that we ignore the fact that other things have improved. In a city that was a grim, monocultural, backward looking, unemployment black spot, it may have been that the only comfort was to be found in boozy camaraderie. Today, however, the place is brighter, genuinely cosmopolitan, optimistic and full of opportunities and as part of that the mobile phone has opened up a range of new social encounters that never would have been possible without it. Something has been lost but on balance

it seems that it has been worth it. There is a similar danger in blindly criticising the process of change that is happening in this university. The project of the President, Hugh Brady, has transformed the way things happen here. Change in any big institution is difficult and the pace at which it has been effected in UCD is impressive. It has been painful and some venerable aspects on university life have been lost, but the question is, was it worth it? The principle of bringing related subjects together in a way that reflects the interdisciplinary nature of all modern education and sharing the administrative resources and expertise between them instead of duplicating it across a range of fragmentary bailiwicks seems sound.

Giving science students the opportunity to taste the arts and vice versa, as the modularisation now in force aims to do, is reflective of the new realities too. We can’t afford to produce scientific graduates who don’t have a feeling for the cultural significance of their work nor humanities graduates who are suspicious of the sciences which increasingly impinge on all our lives. Bringing graduates together in schools where, once again, they can share experiences across disciplines is the logical extension of this. All these things are, in principle, changes for the better. The problem is in how that change has been implemented and managed. From the outside it seems as if the President and his close cabinet have developed something of a siege

mentality; resenting the luddites without, who refuse to see the need for the implementation of their vision for the sake of the University and the country. The drive to establish a knowledge economy in Ireland is seen by those who promote it as a race against time. Unless we can move fast enough away from high end manufacturing and into high value research and development, then Indian and China will claim all the multi-national investment that has driven our economic miracle. We will be le as a highly paid country of builders and property developers. It is even being mooted that we have already missed the boat in the bio-pharma area and, although now at the zenith of such production in Ireland, the news a few years down the line will be dominated by closures and the transfer of production to the Far East. In this rush against the clock much has been stamped upon. The hiring policy is particularly frustrating. A bid to maximise flexibility has resulted in a merry-go-round of nine month contracts which mean that the institutional memory of how best to run teaching in different sectors is suffering. The lessons of one year are lost the

next as most of the staff involved in imparting that course are forced to move on. There is also short-sightedness in the insistence that every subject make a similar ‘profit’ from each graduate regardless of different levels of investment needed to impart different skills. Languages have been notable losers in this. It also has ignored areas that may be desirable to maintain despite being ‘unprofitable’ such as old Irish or Arabic. The easy position to take in an opinion piece such as this is to brand the whole project negatively as some kind of neo-liberal if not neo-conservative conspiracy to rob us of all that is human and progressive in our university and replace it with a technocratic command economy built to service the needs of industry. There is much that is positive in the project of change but now that the most painful of the restructuring is complete the iron glove needs to come off and a more conciliatory hand should be extended to all sectors inviting staff and students to participate in making it a success and to temper the excesses inflicted to date. Peter Lahiff is a doctoral student and a former editor of the College Tribune

EDITORIAL

College Tribune

13th November 2007

Disability access

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Many students don’t stop to consider what making their way around campus in a wheelchair would truly entail. Things that they take for granted, such as steps, doors and paving become obstacles to be negotiated around when one is wheelchair-bound. The lack of facilities and proper access for disabled students in UCD is something that this newspaper has always taken very seriously and has attempted to call attention to in the past. Our investigation of the daily difficulties that face a disabled student has uncovered a plethora of blackspots on campus, areas that make it hard for students to be self-sufficient while pursuing their education. The outdated buildings pose serious difficulties for those in wheelchairs, while the uneven and broken paving of the concourses threaten their safety. While the management of UCD can point to the old buildings of the university and say that they were built in a time when disability access was not as big a priority, there is absolutely no excuse for the existing facilities to be neglected. The appalling condition of the single existing disabled bathroom in the Agriculture building is a cause for serious concern and a significant indicator that long overdue changes must be made on campus. Used as a storeroom and in a filthy condition, this bathroom is not fit for use, which means that wheelchair-bound students are forced to travel to the Food Science building in order to use the facilities there. This is an unacceptable situation and the College Tribune calls upon university authorities to rectify it at once and put a stop to the shameful neglect of the needs of disabled students. Every single student on campus has the right to be facilitated in so far so being able to make their way across campus, and to pursue the studies that they have come to UCD to undertake. The Library is another facility on campus that many students take for granted; the right to a quiet place to study and a resource for the books and notes that they need is considered essential to the daily life of a student. Negotiating the narrow aisles in search of that elusive book however, is something that a number of wheelchair users have not experienced, many motorised wheelchairs being simply too large to gain access. With 400 million euro being spent by the college on consultancy expenditure in 2006, it is clear that the money is there; now it is just a question of it being used in the right places for the right purposes.

Rankings The news that UCD has entered the Times Higher Educational Supplement university rankings at number 177 in the world has no doubt come as a welcome development to President Hugh Brady and the senior management staff of the college. Senior management has o en cited the importance of world rankings in order to explain the changes that have taken place in the university over the last few years. Increasing emphasis on research and academic publications has been undertaken with Brady declaring that rankings are an increasingly important part of the world in which we all live and work. But one must wonder what the effect that the improvement in our college’s international status will have on the average student and staff member? According to Brady, they can be seen as a measure of the college’s performance in terms of the students, as well as funders and other stakeholders, but during a week which also saw the failure of Blackboard, a system which students depend upon for essays and assignments, that performance must be evaluated in a wider context. Rankings may be important, but what are more important are the issues directly affecting students, students who came here first and foremost to study and to obtain their degrees. Amid the congratulatory atmosphere in UCD this week, must not be forgotten the regrettable state of wheelchair access. While UCD may have achieved a coup in terms of ratings, it is clear that it is now time to stop neglecting its students.

FEATURES

College Tribune

13th November 2007

‘Sure you knackers are up to everything' Mary Stubbs is a member of the travelling community who met Jennifer Bray to talk about her experiences with discrimination and abuse Mary Stubbs presses her foot down on the brake and slows to a halt as she approaches a Garda checkpoint. She stops in front of it and rolls down her window. The guard intently examines the tax and insurance in her windscreen. He is skeptical. Stubbs digs out her passport and hands it out the window to the guard in order to prove that the documents are above board. “I didn’t ask for your passport,” he snaps back. “Straight away there was a presumption that the insurance was false,” recalls Stubbs. She explains to him why she has handed over the ID, but he replies, “Sure you knackers are up to everything.” “The very people who are there to protect you from discrimination and violence are the very people who dish it out,” she says now as she talks about the incident frankly. “There are all sorts of presumptions made about travellers. The presumption is made that we always have ulterior motives, and so general day-to-day living is full of diﬃculties from even the smallest things like shopping. “The average traveller ﬁnds himself being followed from the moment he walks in to a supermarket to the moment he walks out again. Security Guards even stand at the end of the checkout until you’ve paid, packed, and gone. This really gets me down. “I have seven children, and when I have any of my children with me, I come under extreme scrutiny. A guard in a shop will come up to me and demand to inspect my bag, stating that

it’s just his job, but I always wonder, ‘Why aren’t you inspecting other women and their children?’ Why do I always have to be singled out? “The travelling community are being denied the most basic human right; freedom. This ranges from the freedom of speech to the freedom to just go about your business. Our children have the right to accommodation, health services and education. A lot of those things are denied to adults and children of the travelling community.” The treatment of children in the travelling community is a topic that Stubbs feels very strongly about, “It all affects kids more; a lot of young travelers leave school a er name-calling and abuse affecting them. “There are issues like teachers not challenging travellers because they think there’s no point, as they don’t expect them to grow up and get a job. There is a greater need now more than ever for education for the children. If they are going to succeed in any way, they need an education, or things will never change in Ireland for us.” The travelling community is also in an awkward position in so far as bringing claims of discrimination to court, as Stubbs explains, “To take a discrimination case against anyone is very difficult for travelers, as some have little or no literacy. “It was one thing going through the (Equality) Tribunal, but it would be a harrowing experience having to go through courts and to employ a solicitor, and really, a lot of travellers generally wouldn’t have the money to do it.

“Since the tribunal stopped, it has all just gotten worse. It’s a daunting experience to have to go through court, and it’s your word against the other persons, usually someone who’s educated and settled. “Also, the language of a solicitor or a judge is very difficult to gauge for a traveller. It’s hard to figure out if it’s negative or positive, it’s difficult to understand. There’d be little or no cases now going before the court on discrimination, there’s nothing there to protect us.” Discrimination is a problem with many varied aspects, and occurs on all levels of society in one form or another. Stubbs points out that, for her, there are two forms of discrimination that she must face, “There’s the discrimination you face every day and then there’s departmental discrimination. “That is where local authorities would say ‘Can travellers even live in houses? Can they make a go of it?’ If there’s a complaint, first and foremost, a settled person will be believed before the traveller. Everybody takes how travellers are treated as the norm, and to be honest it really gets me down.” Sitting back in her chair, Stubbs takes a deep breath and runs her hands over her face and it is clear that the discrimination she and her family face has a destructive impact on her mood and quality of life, “Whenever something good happens to me, there’s always something bad to bring me down again. I feel like people’s attitudes will never be changed.

“It only takes some small taste of discrimination to throw me oﬀ course in my day. And yet, it happens every day, so I ask, ‘Why is this throwing me oﬀ?’ It happens every day. But it doesn’t stop it from hurting. There are days when you just say, ‘What am I doing here?’” When asked what the worst experience she has had or seen in terms of exclusion, injustice and discrimination, Stubbs is for a short while silent, “The worst things I hear are things like, ‘You’re a traveller, you’re a knacker, you shouldn’t be here. “You people should be put in contained places, tagged. In terms of experiences, there are just so many. When I

think of one, I think of another. I just can’t pick out the worst. One experience exceeds the other.” Stubbs concludes by saying, “At the end of the day, both sides fall down, the settled and the travelling community. Both fall into criminality and some sort of trouble, but for a traveller, it is so much worse because of the stereotyped trouble-causing traveller portrayed by the media and word of mouth. In fact, none of us condone violence or rowdy behavior.”

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College Tribune

13th November 2007

Racist capital of Europe?

Several immigrants in search of asylum in this country speak to Philip Connolly as he investigates the issue of discrimination in Ireland

Father of three, Abdelaziz Nendil, is an Algerian who has been living in Northern Ireland for the past ﬁve years. He believes that he is lucky to be alive a er being viciously assaulted inside a popular Belfast nightclub, an attack he believes was racially motivated. Nendil claims that he was punched in the face and shoved to the ground by two men on a Saturday night. He claims that he was beaten up a er two men followed him into the toilets of the nightclub. “They just started to punch me and push me,” he says, “I did not do anything to them. I had never seen them before. I managed to escape from them and ran to the security guards to tell them what had happened.” Nendil said that a er he le the nightclub, one of his attackers followed him down the street and attacked him again. “He pushed me and beat me. I fell and ended up with a broken hand. I reported it to police and they sent me to hospital. “I believe it might be a racist attack,” he explained, “I did not do anything to them and I don’t understand why they have done this. Maybe they did not like me because of my accent.” The mass media has claimed that Belfast is fast becoming

the racist capital of Europe. Despite a number of high profile attacks on the Chinese, Indian, and Eastern European communities in Belfast, Chris Sidoti, who is chairing Northern Ireland’s Bill of Rights Forum, disputed claims that it was any more racist than other European cities. “I have heard stories but I would be very loath to call anywhere a race-hate capital,” he said, “This is an unfortunate characteristic of a large number of societies that everybody is grappling with. “Certainly, it is a standard experience that when the ethnic composition of communities change, and particularly change rapidly, you do get interethnic tensions. You do get expressions of racism. “There is no point in denying or refusing to use the word racism because that is precisely what it is. I would be surprised if Belfast was the racist capital of Europe. I think there are places in Europe where there are far nastier and far more prolific expressions of racism than what we find here. But there are people here who have told me that they have found experiences of racism. As understandable as that may be, it is totally unacceptable.” South of the border, Ireland’s track record on human rights is coming un-

der ﬁre from a new European anti-racism watchdog. The European Commission against Racism says Ireland is one of the worst countries in the EU for failing to ratify a number of anti-discrimination treaties. “We don’t want handouts; we want to be able to do things for ourselves”. The frustrated words of a frustrated man. Behroz has been is Ireland for two years, and he doesn’t expect his asylum plea to be granted anytime soon. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties is calling on the next Government to address the matter by rewriting Ireland’s hard-line immigration legislation, which allows for “up-front detention measures” and deportations to high-risk areas. Iyabo Nwanze, who was deported from Ireland in March 2005, was reunited with her son Emmanuel – now aged ten – earlier this summer, a er a separation of over two years. Formerly based in Athlone, Co Westmeath, Nwanze and her friend Elizabeth Odunsi made national headlines after they were deported to Lagos without some of their children on March 14th 2005.

Three of Odunsi’s four children are still in Ireland. Asked about allegations that the separation had been planned in order to halt their deportation, Nwanze strongly refutes such suggestions. “We were asked to report to Athlone Garda Station, not knowing that day was going to be D-Day,” she said. “There was no need for us to start running, because we felt that when you are asked to do something, you do it. But when we got there, they took our phones off us and that was it.” It has never been independently verified how exactly the children were le behind, with the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) claiming the women did not co-operate with them, while the women and their supporters insisted that this was not true. Both women were deported with one child each; both aged five at the time. Nwanze’s son Emmanuel was just eight when he was separated from his mother, and he gradually became increasingly distressed. Nwanze said she decided it was best for her son to return to Nigeria, and he arrived back in June. “Somebody just took him for me – because he was sick,” said Nwanze, referring to her son’s emotional problems. “I was the happiest woman on earth,” she added, when asked to recall the moment she saw her son again. “He doesn’t like it here, but we don’t have a choice.” She said her son’s return had been purely a family decision, and had not been influenced by the Irish authorities, “It was just our decision; they didn’t put any pressure. He was always saying he wanted to see me.” Following the deportation, many

Athlone locals campaigned for the return of Iyabo Nwanze and Elizabeth Odunsi – who were popular in the area, having arrived in Ireland claiming asylum in 2001 – and the story even made it onto the pages of Time magazine. They were part of possibly the most controversial deportation in the history of the Irish State. On the same deportation flight were Dublin student Kunle Elukanlo and Castleblaney-based Nkechi Okolie and her three children, who all had significant support in their respective localities. The then Justice Minister Michael McDowell famously allowed Kunle Elukanlo to return to Ireland to sit his Leaving Certificate, and he remains in the State today pending further challenges to his deportation. Yet, many asylum seekers never even get as far, stuck in camps pending their applications. “I’ve been here for two years, yet I am far from one of the people here longest, people are here for five, six and seven years,” says Behroz, a Kurdish man. He fled Iran, and since coming to Ireland, he has been living in Mosney, the former holiday village in Meath. By the early 21st-century, this had been converted into an accommodation centre for asylum-seekers. “I am a barber, I wish to work. I have friends here who are qualified doctors, teachers and engineers. We don’t want handouts, we want to pay our own way.” Behroz later explains that he receives nineteen euros a week, but regardless of handouts, he just wants to work, and such is true of many asylum seekers, according to the Iranian native.

FEATURES

College Tribune

13th November 2007

‘We were in hell - I neve

Sergeant David Miller of the National Guard was a First Responder at Ground Zero when terrorists flew two jet Colin Gleeson about the horrors that were bestowed on him and his team af The shadows dart evasively up and down the looming, silver, stilettoed skyscrapers as the rising sun stretches its ﬁngers over the sleeping metropolis and everything is transformed from a murky grey to a spectacular sfumato of bright orange. The white tu s of cloud overhead blow so ly in the wind as the tips of the city’s giant buildings stretch to disrupt the harmony in the skies. It is 6am and there is light rain forecast in New York City. In the Bronx, Sergeant David Miller is sleeping. He wakes up at 6.30am like he does every morning. He rolls over and switches on the news. Shortly a er, he gets out of bed, lights a cigarette and ambles slowly down to the kitchen. He turns up the stove and begins to cook sausages and eggs for breakfast. Then, he feeds his dogs and looks over to see that his rabbit has water. A er breakfast, he gets ready for work, and leaves. It’s September 11th, 2001, and this morning is to be no ordinary morning for Miller. He worked for the National Guard in New York and was a First Responder when the World Trade Centre was struck by two commercial passenger jet aircra s on that very morning. “I’m on my way to work, walking to the subway, and my wife calls me and says, ‘A plane just hit the World Trade Centre’,” explains Miller, “I hear a lot of people running around in the streets and the Cross Bronx Expressway has been shut down. So, I’m thinking, this is going to be a fucked up day.

“I call my wife again, and she tells me, ‘Another plane just hit the World Trade Centre’. So, I grab my toolbox in my hand, and I start running home. I go running into my house and I run all the way up to my roof. I live in a three-storey house. And from the top of my house, I can see the World Trade Centre. “I’m up on my roof and I can see both towers burning. I throw my uniform on and I go running down to my National Guard Armoury where I grab what I need, including a nine. You see; one airplane hitting a building is a calamity. One big airplane hitting is a horror. Two airplanes; we’re under attack. “I run upstairs to go and see my First Sergeant. I say, ‘What’s the story?’ He answers, ‘We haven’t heard anything from anybody. Communication lines are down and the phone lines are down.’ We’re afraid there’s going to be a blackout in the city. We don’t know if there’s more attacks coming. “Somebody said that the Pentagon was under attack. Somebody said that the Golden Gate Bridge had been blown up. Rumours – crazy shit. I turn to my First Sergeant and ask, ‘Should we pull weapons?’ He says, ‘Get them out of the armoury.’ We’re operating without orders from the Governor right now and we certainly hadn’t heard anything from the Pentagon. “We pull weapons. I look at my First Sergeant and ask, ‘How much ammo?’ He says, ‘Full-load.’ We had never pulled the full-load. Never. So, we’ve got 360 rounds of 5.56 ammunition on our bodies. That’s a lot of am-

munition. And the way we shoot; that’s 360 dead bodies. We’re pulling a combat load. We’d never done that. We’re pulling out the M16s; we’ve got everything. “About ten minutes later, he says, ‘Suitup, we’re going down.’ While we were going down, the first building fell. We went down the West-Side Highway, which was now completely shut-off, going at about 100 miles per hour. I thought I was going to shit all over myself. Terrified that we were going to be killed on the ride in. Remarkably, no accidents occurred.” Miller and his team were the first men on the scene at Ground Zero a er the buildings came down. The scene before them on ar-

rival was what later became known as ‘the pile’. It consisted of the debris from the collapsed skyscrapers and was more than ﬁve storeys high. Strewn among it, buried, lay survivors. “We arrive and people are still running the other way. And then the second building went down. It was chaos. It was horrifying. It was complete fucking insanity. About ten minutes later, we started walking onto the pile. “We were climbing up the pile. We had to dig from the top because if we dug from the bottom, the shit would just fall down on us. We’re trained in the National Guard to deal with things like buildings collapsing. This

wasn’t a building collapsing; thi mountain collapsing. I’d never been in that shit. “And we stayed in that hell for picking up what was le of people go into the details of it but think ab happens to a human body when it floors. There’s not much le . It was a mare. “So, we dug. There were no pro masks issued. We breathed in all t The silicon, the concrete, the mercu heavy metals, everything that was there; we breathed in. I got off t about September 21st. “I was on the Bucket Brigade. W a mile-long brigade of people; fi cops, sanitation, anybody that could passing buckets full of rubble acros where the pile was. It looked like anthill. We were passing as much as we could across the pile, digg survivors. There weren’t any whol I never found one. People were ripp by their limbs. “I hadn’t eaten in 72 hours and throwing up on the pile, which is disgusting. You’re throwing up and bodies beneath you. And those bo floating in sewage water, which is You can’t get any worse than this. probably the worst thing we’d ever we’ve seen some bad shit. “I was doing that for three days an straight. Then, my First Sergeant ca

‘We need to evacuate Washington DC' US Government Official Anthony Distasio was working in Washington DC on September 11th, and he describes to Colin Gleeson what the scenes were like in the capital during the attacks Sitting at his desk on September 11th, 2001, Government Official Anthony Distasio was typing on his computer. Across the street, his friend, with whom he had shared a li to the metro station that morning, was doing likewise. Just before nine o’clock, a woman strode into his office and declared, “Something’s going on in New York.” Distasio recalls, “We could hear sirens in the background in Washington about that time of the morning. “One of my employees then pointed out that there looked to be smoke coming from the National Airport, but it turned out a erwards to be coming from the Pentagon.” His office contained a television set, which at this point, he promptly switched on. “That’s when we found out about everything that was going on; that there was a plane that had struck the towers in New York,” he explains. “At that point, nobody really knew what was going on in Washington; all they knew was that there were fires somewhere. But, we could look out and see the smoke coming from the airport. So, I called my friend across the road and asked him, ‘What’s going on? Have you heard anything?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, I’m hearing that we need to evacuate the building.’ “His building was told before mine, so I said, ‘Why don’t you come on over here and we can watch what’s happening on television and see what we need to do,’ so

he came over and as we were watching television, another plane hit the second tower. “My oﬃce was right across from the White House and we could see out the window that there were all these people running out of it. We could see people in chef’s hats, people in uniforms; just running, getting away from the White House as fast as they could. “Normally, the gates are very secure as far as going in, but in that case, coming out was very easy and people were running out through the park and down towards the metro station. We still didn’t know what was going on. We knew what was going on in New York but we really didn’t know what was going on in Washington. “So, within about ten minutes of watching this, that’s when they told us that we needed to evacuate our building, and that it was the Pentagon that had been hit. So, we made our way down the building, outside and to the metro station. “When we got out of the building, we could hear the jets ﬂying over our

building and over the White House; they just kept circling the White House. You couldn’t get into the metro station because it was just full of people trying to get down to the train. “They were trying to evacuate the city, but there’s no way to evacuate Washington DC, and I think that was the mistake they made at the time – they let everybody go simultaneously. It became total gridlock. “I didn’t know that there were so many cars in (Washington) DC with sirens, because there were a lot of cars without lights that had sirens running. They were going up on sidewalks and trying to get through – I’d imagine they were probably government oﬃcials trying to get wherever they thought they needed to be. “So, my friend and I decided to just start walking out of the city, and that’s exactly what we did. We walked out of the city, as far as we could. I think we ended up at Chinatown Metro

Station, which is at the end of the line that we needed to be at, so we knew that we would be the ﬁrst ones on the train. “We went down and got into the train, and by the time we got to the second or third station, there were still about ten stops that needed to go by before we would get to where we wanted to get oﬀ. “The train was just full of people; there was no more room. There was no way that any more people could get on, so I think we made two stops, and then a er that, the train didn’t make any more stops.” Distasio recalls whispers beginning to circulate on the train. People were frightened and anxious that the metro was a likely target for further terrorist strikes on that fateful morning.

“There was some discussion on the train that we probably shouldn’t be on it. People were saying, ‘If this is a terrorist strike, maybe they’ll bomb the metro.’ But I think at that point, everyone was pretty well committed to staying on the train and getting to wherever their cars were. “By about 12.30, we made it to the station where we needed to be at for my car. Driving my car, I could still hear the jets and the helicopters overhead. There was a lot of jet-traﬃc and helicopter-traﬃc in the air.” Shortly a erward, Distasio made it home safely and in time to watch the rest of the day’s events unfolding on the news. Washington DC had been thrust into chaos, on this, its darkest day.

FEATURES

College Tribune

13th November 2007

er found a whole body'

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me and said, ‘You’re out. Go and get cleaned up.’ My skin was blistered from all the contamination, so was everybody’s. My nose wouldn’t stop bleeding and we were all coughing up shit. We were breathing some of the most toxic shit you can imagine. And we were ﬁnding bodies.

“We arrive and people are still running the other way. And then the second building went down. It was chaos. It was horrifying. It was complete fucking insanity.” “We go to sleep for about four hours, if you could call it sleep, and we get up again at about 7.30 the next morning. My unit’s spread out all over the place at this stage but we know where we’ve got to go and we know what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to go and dig. It’s day four. There may still be survivors. “We head back to Ground Zero and on the streets of New York, there are all these people waving American ﬂags and applauding us and by the time we get about seven blocks down, there are about a hundred of us all together going back in, carrying ladders, ropes;

people have gone and raided Home Depot. “We marched back onto the pile and it was probably the proudest moment of my life. We’re there for another couple of days and it’s starting to slow down from rescue to recovery because it’s obvious now that we’re not going to find anybody else alive. “Nine days into this, I’m on the Bucket Brigade and one of the bones in my hand snaps. My bucket goes falling to the ground, I’m in excruciating pain, I’ve got a really bad fucking toothache; so I’m told that I can’t dig anymore. I go home four days later. And a er that, you just have to go back to your life.” Miller paid a price for his heroism on September 11th however. Today, he wears a permanent respirator over his shoulder because of the poisoned lungs he suffers from a er breathing the toxic air during the rescue-operation at Ground Zero. He blames the US government for failing to warn the first responders and failing to evacuate Manhattan. “Now, years later, we’ve started getting sick,” he explains, “We’re all developing cancers and respiratory diseases; we’re all dying. The Environmental Protection Agency lied on 9/11, they said the air was safe and the air was clean. But it wasn’t.” The physical and psychological scars that are borne by Miller today are evident as he speaks, but he is a man that no doubt saved the lives of many men and women on the morning of September 11th, 2001 and the long, dark days that followed.

Terrorism is a great honour for ‘the Sheik' Philip Connolly looks into the past of Al-Qaeda general Osama bin Laden, and provides an insight into the mind of the world’s most feared individual “If liberating my land is called terrorism, this is a great honour for me.” Thus spoke Osama Bin Laden to Irishman Robert Fisk back in 1996. “When sixty Jews are killed inside Palestine, the entire world gathers to criticise the action, while the deaths of 600,000 Iraqi children (because of the US sanctions) did not receive the same reaction. “Killing those Iraqi schoolchildren is a crusade against Islam. Resistance against America will spread in many, many places in Muslim countries. Our trusted leaders, our ulema (religious authorities), have given us a fatwa (religious ruling) that we must drive out the Americans.” Bin Laden had yet to reach the post-9/11 infamy that links his name to every terrorist act since September 11th 2001, yet, he had an honour bestowed on him by President Bill Clinton in the a ermath of the American missile attacks on Sudan and Afghanistan, when he was declared, “America’s Public Enemy Number One”. Those who have met Bin Laden describe him as a mild-mannered man, who is generally polite and hospitable to strangers, yet he has become the most hated and implacable opponent of the US and all it stands for. When the Soviets invaded Afghani-

stan in 1979, he went to Pakistan, where he met Afghan rebel leaders resisting the occupation. Later, he returned to Saudi Arabia to collect money and supplies for the Afghan resistance, the mujahedeen. He made further trips, delivering aid and arms, and eventually joining the fight against the Soviets. As a wealthy Saudi, Bin Laden stood out and acquired a following. He opened a guesthouse in Peshawar - a stoppingoff point for Arab mujahedeen fighters. Eventually, their numbers became so large that he built camps for them inside Afghanistan. He gave the umbrella group for his guesthouse and camps a name: Al-Qaeda, Arabic for “the base”. As a military commander, Bin Laden was respected for his organisational skills, his bravery and, above all, for his ability to survive. The Afghan jihad against the Soviet army was backed by American dollars and had the blessing of the governments of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. A er the Soviet withdrawal, the “Arab Afghans”, as Bin Laden’s faction came to be called, looked forward to a warm welcome at home. But Bin Laden quickly became disillusioned by the lack of recognition for

his achievements. This turned to anger when the Saudis turned down his oﬀer to provide an army of mujahedeen to defend the kingdom a er the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Instead, half a million US soldiers were invited on to Saudi soil - a historic betrayal in Bin Laden’s eyes; “When the American troops entered Saudi Arabia (a er Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait), the land of the two holy places (Mecca and Medina), there was strong protest from the ulema and from students of the Sha-

riah law all over the country against the interference of American troops. “This big mistake by the Saudi regime of inviting the American troops revealed their deception. They had given their support to nations that were fighting against Muslims. They helped Yemen Communists against the southern Yemeni Muslims and helped Arafat’s regime fight against Hamas. A er it had insulted and jailed the ulema, the Saudi regime lost its legitimacy.” Bin Laden became an out-and-out opponent of the Saudi regime and began to direct his efforts against the US and its allies in the Middle East. In 1991, he was expelled from the country because of his anti-government activities. A er five years in Sudan, US pressure on the Sudanese government led to Bin Laden’s return to Afghanistan, where he became increasingly messianic and radical. By the mid-1990s, he was calling for a global war against Americans and Jews and in 1998; he issued his famous fatwa, amounting to a declaration of war against the US. Two simultaneous bomb attacks against US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania followed a few months later. A er September 11th, Bin Laden became a household name. Attempts to capture him and rumours of his death abound. It was early in the winter of 2004-05, and

Osama bin Laden and his entourage were holed up in a mountain hideaway along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Suddenly, a sentry, posted several kilometres away, spotted a patrol of US soldiers who seemed to be heading straight for Bin Laden’s redoubt. The sentry radioed an alert, and word quickly passed among the Qaeda leader’s 40-odd bodyguards to prepare to remove “the Sheik,” as bin Laden is known to his followers, to a fallback position. As Sheik Said, a senior Egyptian Qaeda operative, later told the story, the anxiety level was so high that the bodyguards were close to using the code word to kill Bin Laden and commit suicide. According to Said, Bin Laden had decreed that he would never be captured. “If there’s a 99 percent risk of the Sheik being captured, he told his men that they should all die and martyr him as well.” The secret word was never given. As the Qaeda sentry watched the US troops, the patrol started moving in a diﬀerent direction. Bin Laden’s men later concluded that the soldiers had nearly stumbled on their hideout by accident. Rumours of his poor health seem to limit his public appearances now, but Bin Laden has become more than the leader of a terrorist organisation. He is a ghost that haunts the US’s ﬁght against terror, an everlasting threat to America and all it stands for.

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13th November 2007

Living through your wo With her son missing for almost sixteen years now, Kerry Grist speaks to Jennifer Bray about the pain of having a child abducted, and how she copes in day-to-day life Last summer saw headlines all over the world dominated by the case of missing girl Madeline McCann, and for her parents, the ordeal has been filled with torment. Not dissimilar to this case is that of 21-month-old toddler Ben Needham, who disappeared in Greece sixteen years ago. “We were living in Kos in Greece at the time. I had gone out to see my mam and dad, and le Ben with them as I headed out to work. He was just playing outside a doorway, at a farmhouse my dad was building. He was in and out, getting water, playing in the dirt with his cars. A couple of minutes later my mum went outside and he had just vanished, gone without a trace. “At first you don’t believe what you hear. You think he just wandered off, or someone walked down the little lane with him, or even someone had taken him into their house just to get a drink of water and he’ll be back soon. Weeks go on, until eventually you realize that in all probability, your child has been abducted, and they might never be coming back.” In most cases like this, what eventually comes about are plenty of false leads, false hope and bitter disappointment, “The disappointment is devastating. We have had hundreds of false leads. “I believe we received over 500 pieces of information, videotapes and photos. We could look at them from home and say, ‘No, it’s not him’, or, ‘It could be.’

And o en, we would fly off to follow leads and work on it ourselves. “We believe now, a er investigating a lot of the disappearance ourselves, that there are child-selling organisations. Children are taken from the street and sold illegally to childless couples. The more European looking the child, the more money they seem to get.” When asked whether the pain of not knowing is worse that the pain of bad news, Grist stridently states that the worst part was being le in a state of never-ending doubt. “The not knowing is a million times worse than getting bad news, there’s no end. The pain never stops. Every day waking up and still being none the wiser. I still wake up a er sixteen years thinking, ‘Where is he?’ If something bad happened to him, I would still feel the pain of losing him but at least I would know where he is. It’s very hard to deal with.” So hard to deal with was the abduction of her toddler that Grist went through a period of physical and mental breakdown. “It all had a serious effect on me. It drove me to try and commit suicide, it drove and drives me to the depths of despair, I don’t want to live, I don’t want to die, I can’t find peace or happiness within myself or my life. “I make the best of the life I have. I have a thirteen-year-old daughter, and obviously, I’ve got to live for her. But you’re never really happy; you’re never really at peace. However, there’s al-

ways a reason to get up in the morning, whether you want to or not.” As well as herself, the disappearance of Ben has had an eﬀect on Grist’s family too. “All of this aﬀects my family. My thirteen-year-old daughter for example, it must be strange for her really. She copes very well seeing as she has been brought up with this all her life; media in the house, on the phone, trips to TV stations etc. She probably gets run down with it all like I do, like we all do.” As the parents of Madeline McCann

will know, there is nothing more hurtful at times like this than having accusations thrown at you. Kerry Grist knows how this feels. Her own family was accused of having some involvement in the disappearance of the toddler during the investigation. “There were headlines in the media that my brother killed Ben, as he o en took Ben for rides on his moped, and that maybe he took him for a ride on the bike and he fell oﬀ and died and my brother buried him.

Kalashnikovs for Christmas The use of child-soldiers in conflicts around the globe is a travesty that is encapsulated by the situation in Burma, but there is hope for change, writes Barra Ó Fianail “I would like you to give a message. Please do your best to tell the world what is happening to us, the children, so that other children don’t have to pass through this violence.” These are the final words of a fifteen-year-old Ugandan girl to Amnesty International. She had been forcibly abducted from her home by an opposition militia known as Lord’s Resistance Army, before being forced to kill a boy who had tried to escape. Later, she was forced to watch another boy be hacked to death for failing to raise the alarm when his friend fled. Such realities are so deplorable as to be almost beyond our comprehension. The horrors we associate with war, and the darkest side of our human species they embody, are completely juxtaposed with the hope and inspiration to make things better that children represent to us all. The term child-soldier, and all its connotations, is something we find morally repulsive, a phenomenon so dark and depraved as to make it very hard to even read about. Instances involving the use of child soldiers are o en associated with situations of tragic circumstances such

as civil violence and tyranny. Of the twenty conflicts in which the UN estimates that at least 250,000 children are being used in combat, the levels of violence and tyranny in most is such that the reach of international law fails to breach their borders. Around the globe however, there are many different organisations that are working to ensure that as few children as possible are forced to be involved in combat. They are also trying to provide for children who have been exposed to the horrors of war, in order to provide them with a path back to society. In Burma, September saw the deployment of government troops to attack Buddhist monks and other peaceful protesters. Many of the soldiers deployed may well have been children, as the ruling State Peace and Development Council has long been one of the states that is recognised for allowing children to be enlisted in its official army, the Tatmadaw. Human Rights Watch filed a report on the situation regarding the use of child soldiers in Burma recently, which extends to most of the 30 or so non-state military groups. They suggest that the recent violence may

make joining the state forces voluntarily an even less attractive proposition, and thus lead the army to rely to an even greater degree on underage soldiers, with 60 percent of some units already thus composed. However, the recent events in Burma have also shown us that even such very tyrannical regimes are not immune from outside pressure, and militia groups are only beginning to see the use of child soldiers as an issue, and thanks to the education provided them from outside organisations, some have ceased to use underage combatants. Another area where international pressure and eﬀorts can help children exposed to war is by putting pressure on the countries neighboring those where the use of child soldiers is known to occur. They can be pressurised not to send deserting youths back across their borders but to allow NGOs to set up structures on these borders, which will take in these youths and provide them with the rehabilitation they need. In Burma’s case, Thailand is the neighbour and such reintegration and educational structures have been shown to be successful, but are

limited by an agreement between the two governments which sees the Thai authorities send underage deserters back to face punishment in Burma. The Burmese example is a good one, not only because it is topical, but also because it has all the symptoms of tyranny, civil unrest and underdevelopment which can lead us to believe that situations involving child soldiers are hopeless and beyond our reach. However, although the situation in Burma is still heartbreakingly horriﬁc, others have already shown that even in such desperate situations, we can help these children whose realities have surpassed the horror of the most twisted of nightmares.

“The police have tried to shun the badness away from the Island; they tried to appropriate blame but couldn’t ﬁnd anyone to put it on. They weren’t very helpful, we hated them, thinking they were never doing enough, but nobody can ever do enough when your child is missing. “They came across as doing nothing, I think they were lost. They weren’t intelligent enough to deal with it. Their negligence in the case was because of their simple ignorance on how to proceed with an investigation. “They didn’t ask for any help though, and it’s so frustrating. They should have asked for outside help, and they never did. It came across as if they were thinking we would go away. But we never did.” “There were also little innuendos from the island people which came across as a little bit slanderous. I was nineteen and an unmarried mother. I went to work. My son was le with someone else, and though it was normal in England, it was strange to Greek people. “It was like a cultural diﬀerence. If you were a Greek woman who had a child, you had to get married to the father of the child and you certainly didn’t go to work. You had to look a er the child 24 hours a day. I didn’t conform to that.” Anyone who has followed the headlines since last summer will know about the support the McCanns have received on many levels, but un-

FEATURES

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13th November 2007

rst nightmare “I make the best of the life I have. I have a thirteen-year-old daughter, I’ve got to live for her. But you’re never really happy; you’re never really at peace” fortunately, not all parents of missing children have such comforts. “The McCann family has had an awful lot of backing because of their status; they know people in high places. People with money can always make things happen. I’m just an ordinary workingclass mother. Keeping it in the media has been a big problem for me, I didn’t have a spokesperson, and I had to keep it all out there myself. It’s a struggle. “The McCanns have also had a lot of backing from British authorities, which I am quite disappointed over, as I didn’t get a visit from the British ambassador, or the British embassy. I didn’t get that backing. I didn’t get ﬁnancial support, and again it comes down to the status of the McCanns. “They’re quite inﬂuential people themselves, and know a lot of people with a lot of money, and they can get

■ Ben Needham: Aged 21 months (right), and a police construction of what he looks like at 16 (above) and mother Kerry Grist (opposite) the help I never could. I’m an ordinary working-class woman living in a council house in Sheﬃeld; I don’t have the status they have.” Despite this, many have still contacted Grist with messages, mainly via an Internet site, and not all remarks have been to Grist’s liking, “I read comments about people telling me I would do better to leave my son alone, if he has indeed grown up in a normal life without me. “To them, I say no, I can’t do that. At the end of the day, Ben is my son. I didn’t give him away or put him up for adoption. He was stolen from me. If he’s alive, he’s living a lie,

and he deserves to know the truth. I don’t want him to ﬁnd me in ten or ﬁ een years and ask, ‘Why did you give me away?’ The people who have him have done wrong by him no matter how much they may love him.” Even when Grist thinks she has gone through all someone in her position possibly can, she is faced with a fresh circumstance, “He’s eighteen years old now, wherever he is. This has been my worst nightmare, knowing that once he turns eighteen, my rights over him are gone, that my right to demand him back into my home is gone.

“It’s been such a terrible aspect to deal with. It would be hard for me if he found me and walked into my life and could walk back out, with him not even knowing me. It would be heartbreaking.” Despite the pain and the anguish, Grist won’t give up hope, “As time goes on, it doesn’t get easier and it doesn’t get harder. You never cope with it; you just

find away to deal with days as they go on, it physically and mentally drains you. “You take a rest and some time off, but come back fighting, always fight, never give up. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow and I will think about it when it is here, it’s the only way I can survive.”

To school through the fields Thousands of children are being used for labour in developing countries, and there is need for focus on the problem if their innocence is to be saved, writes Sylvia Stoll The problem of child labour is complex and cannot be solved by simply rescuing children from their jobs. On November 21, 2005, Indian authorities did exactly that and rescued approximately 500 working children in Delhi. One of the boys being rescued was Mohammad Ramzani who worked in a handicra s ﬁrm. While he looks like a nine year old, he claims to be sixteen. He says that he does not like his work, but has no other choice. He makes 300 rupees a month ($6.5), which he sends home to support his mother and brother, who are unable

to get by without his support. Mohammad and many of the other children say that they want to continue working and will do so as soon as possible. Their families are not only unable to provide for them, they also depend on their incomes. The boys don’t have anywhere to go back to. There are no toys or games waiting for them, no childhood to return to. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) reported a significant decrease in child labour from 2002 to 2006, reducing it by eleven percent. Even though the ILO is hoping to eradicate child labour completely within the next decade, there are currently still some 200 children working in dire situations. Regions in Sub-Saharan Africa, in Asia and in the Pacific report the highest numbers of working children. The legal age to work is between fourteen and fi een in most countries, but many children in poor countries lose their childhood many years earlier. A UNICEF study in Eastern Africa showed that the AIDS epidemic forces children into domestic and agricultural work, because there are not enough adults to provide for them. In Cambodia, economical constraints force children to

work in salt fields, where salt is distilled from seawater into smaller pools. The heat that is necessary for distillation is extremely intense, and in addition to the heat, the salt water reflects the sunlight. In Nigeria, children work in granite and salt mines where they produce building materials. Their work involves digging and transferring massive amounts of sand and granite. Children from Benin, which is one of the poorest countries in the world, are also working in Nigerian mines. Child-traffickers, who promise large sums of money and decent working conditions for the children before leading them across the border to Nigeria, deceive parents into believing that their children have a chance of a better life. Asmin Franziska, a member of the Law Faculty at Atma Jaya University in Indonesia illustrates the effects child labour can have on initiatives from private companies or NGOs. She says that in rural Indonesian areas, the whole family, even the children, have to work in order to survive. When a private company or an NGO build a school without considering the communities’ situation, the facility o en ends up being abandoned. It is here, in the planning stages, that efforts to eradicate child labour must be made, if the innocence of thousands of children across the world is to be preserved.

NEWS

College Tribune

13th November 2007

Working in No Man's Land UCD student Ellen Naughton spent time in a Palestinian refugee camp, and she talks to James Geoghegan about her experiences there In Palestine today, there are thousands of international volunteers and political solidarity movements, a large number of which are Irish. One such volunteer is Ellen Naughton who is currently studying for a Masters in Humanitarian Aid in UCD. Naughton was a volunteer firstly with the European Voluntary Service and her reasons for going to Palestine were primarily motivated by an interest in the Middle East that has been with her since she was a child. She begins by describing her arrival in Israel and her first encounter with Israeli immigration. “Getting into Israel is a weird experience. While they’re questioning you, they won’t look at you directly. They will question you and they will crossquestion you, and then someone else will question you. So, you start to get quite agitated. “I was OK but a lot of my friends would have been there for about six or ten hours. An Irish guy was travelling also and they were convinced he was in the IRA. They’re really paranoid about everything regarding security.” Once in Israel, her movement crossing borders was not met with too much difficulty, but it was an experience undertaken with some trepidation, “Border crossings are ok for internationals, but it’s really a difficult place because you will see lines of Palestinians bveing treated quite badly. Because you’re an international, they’ll say, ‘Ok you can go ahead’, but I saw plenty of beatings and some horrible treatment of women particularly.” Naughton does not lay the blame at the hands of the individual Israeli soldiers, but looks upon the background of their situations and indeed their ages as a leading factor, “You have to remember all these soldiers are aged eighteen to 21. “They are usually on a lot of drugs and just kind of bored; they have this anti-Arab mentality drilled into them. They’re not all like that, but while I’ve met a lot of really great ones, the majority of them are usually fairly rough unfortunately. When you get a load of young guys like that all together and put them in a position of power, there is of course going to be misbehaviour.” A er spending some time working in Nazerath, which is the largest Arab area of Israel, Naughton got involved in political activism and spent time working in a refugee camp. In the process, she got to know some of the Palestine people. “The Palestinian people are amazing, they’re so optimistic all the time. You feel so useless when you’re there, but they’re so welcoming. People are so funny and so friendly; I have got some great friends from my time there.” Her time in Israel meant she had great friends there too, but for her, “Zionism is the big problem, and the Israeli people are just educated about suicide bombers and this fear.” There have been 92 Israeli deaths as a result of suicide bombings between January 2005 and November 2007, according to the Israeli foreign ministry. “It’s a weird thing that in every Palestinian town, you’ll have pictures of the murderers up. I don’t think people condone it, but there was a kind of understanding of the killers among the people I spoke to. It was borne out of really desperate situations.” Naughton describes one such desperate situation that she witnessed, “There was a case in Hebron a few days a er I was there, where they were looking for some guy who they thought was linked

■ For the cause: Ellen Naughton enjoys the local hospitality in Palestine

“When you get a load of young guys like that all together and put them in a position of power, there is of course going to be misbehaviour”

with the Al-Quds Brigade. “They were looking for someone and they went into this house and they just shot the whole family. He wasn’t there and they wouldn’t tell him where he was. We saw just blood everywhere because we were there a erwards; no one does anything to clean it up. It’s just one of these amazing situations where you’re like, how is this happening?” As well as the obvious security concerns and dangers that are an issue during daily life in Palestine, the ability of the Palestinians to get around is severely harnessed by the separation of roads for Palestinians and roads for Jewish settlers. “Because of the settler roads and the Palestinian roads, it’s just so difficult. Movement is the big thing; nobody can move anywhere. It could take them five hours to go to work.” The difficulty faced by movement goes as far as restricting the passage of goats. “I was involved in a protest in a place called Bet Omar. It was where the

Israelis had built the wall in such a way that half of this little town was now illegal and half of it was legal. So, these people couldn’t actually leave their town at all, even their goats. You’d go to the vet and the vet would say, ’No, these goats are illegal.’” The Israeli soldiers’ reactions to these types of peaceful protests that the activists engage in are not generally very receptive. “They had this wall, so some of our group went to one side and we went to the other side and we were throwing ribbons and balloons; just a really peaceful protest. Then they started throwing sand bombs at everybody and spraying tear gas.” The protest led to legal proceedings and Naughton explains, “It looks like they are going to get that wall removed.” But, as she underlines, the protest was a small-scale operation, and, “It’s only one of many tiny villages.” The dangers faced by political activists in Palestine need not be underesti-

mated, and while international visitors are given better treatment than the Palestinians, the dangers are still very real. “There was this American girl called Rachel Corey. She was literally bulldozed by the Israelis,” explains Naughton. Rachel was part of the International Solidarity Movement and was protesting against the demolition of Palestinian homes. “She was standing in front of this house in order to try and protect it, and the bulldozer just bulldozed over her. She died and there still hasn’t been a proper inquest into her death. That was a couple of years ago too.” When Naughton was leaving Israel, she arrived at the airport a day early for her home flight. She was questioned for eight hours and was forced to endure the humiliation of being strip-searched, because of the simple fact that it was noted on her Visa that she had been a volunteer in the Palestine. Her story is similar to that of many volunteers and activists. All the Palestinians that Naughton met made one request of her as she le , “Make sure you tell our story.” Her story is what’s faced as an international volunteer; her time there was wrought with difficulties and intimidation on a personal level. Yet, it is the plight of the Palestinian people that is of most concern to her. A change of mentality on both a personal level and on an international scale is the only way that she can see tangible change coming about. This for her can be brought about only through mobilisation. She encourages all to help in some active capacity, like volunteerism, in order to try and alleviate the suffering that the Palestinian people face.

THE TURBINE TURBINE THE NEWS

ISSUE XXI ■ VOLUME V

IT’S SATIRE, STUPID!

INSIDE SPOKESMAN: MINISTER MEANT TO SAY “ONUS” GOVERNMENT PLEDGES UNAFFORDABLE HOUSING ANARCHISTS PLAN MASSIVE DAY OF ACTION “WEATHERPERMITTING” AL-QAEDA WELCOMES RETURN OF CONCORDE TO SKIES BAG LEVY SHOWS IRISH ARE CHEAP NATIONAL DAY OF MOANING ANNOUNCED

College T

30th October

STILL JUST 31P!

RIVALDO TO BE CANONISED

Brazilian soccer legend, Rivaldo, is on his way to canonisation a er the Catholic Church confirmed that his moving injuries during Brazil’s World Cup 2002 campaign were real. The footballing deity got Turkish player, Hakan Unsal, sent off in the final minutes of their Group C clash when a ball struck him on the leg. This wound is said to have hurt Rivaldo “deeply and spiritually”. However, onlookers were said to be amazed when the injury miraculously moved to his head and he fell over in paroxysms of heavenly agony.

“It deﬁnitely moved,” shouted Brazilian soccer fan Juanita Ferrerrerra before falling down in a holy trance. “Truly this is a miraculous occurrence,” Turkish coach, Sunol Gunes, told The Turbine. “We are all amazed and overjoyed in the Turkish team at how this mortal injury could move from one part of Rivaldo’s body to another. A statue is to be built of the newly canonised Rivaldo beside the statue of Cristo Redentor with outstretched arms in Rio de Janeiro, depicting the soccer star simultaneously clutching his leg and his head in a glorious representation of the holiness of Brazilian soccer.

Millions massacred in horrorscope shocker There was widespread panic today as 500 million people were wiped oﬀ the face of the planet a er a series of freak accidents involving red buses. It is believed that the slaughtered people all had birthdays under the zodiac sign Taurus. Their twisted fate was sealed when chirpy astrologist Russell Grant wrote in his daily horoscope feature for Taurus: “With Jupiter in retrograde and Saturn now passing through your house, expect this day to be extremely signiﬁcant. You will have to make some serious changes in your life when it will be ended by an oncoming red bus.” Although not every Taurian read this passage

of doom, they were all subject to a gruesome end. A string of bizarre and horriﬁc accidents swept across the planet like a biblical plague. A seemingly endless stream of red buses swarmed the streets of every town and city, hunting down hapless Taurians and crushing them to death.

The soothsayer of doom, Mr. Grant, who is known to wear glossy shirts depicting moons and stars, said that although he regretted the tragedy, he felt vindicated. “There are so many sceptics out there who don’t believe a word I say. But I think this proves that we are all subject to the celestial ballet”. Commentators agree that this will probably mean the end of modern-day science and will see a return to medieval medical practices, which were based on movements in the heavens. On a more reassuring note, 540 million Librans had a romantic encounter, while 475 millions Leos had a ﬁnancial windfall.

FAI SELLS PRESS CONFERENCE TV RIGHTS TO SKY The FAI have sensationally sold the rights to all their future press conferences to Sky, depriving millions of Irish people of the right to watch the football executives wriggle out of their latest controversy. Over the past few months, a series of high proﬁle fuck ups have led to the association holding several heated press conferences, all of which have attracted high viewership. This prompted Sky to submit a €9m bid for the rights which, according to sources, RTE News just could not match. Fans reacted furiously to the decision, with the Supporters’ Association chairman, Billy O’Braghain, calling it “a damn farce”. He continued, “The FAI have messed up soccer in this country for years and the only relief the supporters got was watching them trying to

wriggle out of it in hastily-called press conferences. Do they expect us to fork out money to pay for that right now?” Meanwhile, the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, reacted positively to being asked another question on football, citing “the ignorance of the electorate” as the major reason. Ahern did, however, criticise the FAI, saying, “I will personally lobby whoever runs this country to get this decision overturned”. FAI Chief Executive John Delaney said, “I think Irish punters are just going to have to pay up to be honest wit ye. Our performances in recent press conferences have resulted in massive TV ratings, and we couldn’t turn down a deal like this. Plus, if you knew some of the fuck-ups we have planned, you would deﬁnitely subscribe to Sky”.

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College Tribune

13th November 2007

the diary of eimear...

B.A. While Eimear is given another chance to enrich the lives of her tutorial class, she whiles away the hours plotting the next move in her tragic love life So usually Halloween is one of my favourite holidays and this year was no diﬀerent. Yes, I am now the object of Dr Will’s aﬀections. So my ex-friend skanky Marikka can go jump in the lake. He is totally over that Yoko Ono chick that I saw him with in town as well. Picture it people, Halloween night, me looking fabulous (as usual) in this burlesque costume I picked up in Japan last year (that’s the country, not the shop) and who walks into the house party over in Belgrove, but Dr Will dressed as former US Prez Ronald Reagan. I knew who it was because he was in Point Break with Keanu Reeves and a post-Dirty Dancing Paddy Swayze. The Doc, as I like to call him, is so way hip and trendy for going to a student party. So I’m standing on the other side of the room to him and completely dissing him because of his previous behaviour with Marikka. So he comes over to me and is all, “Eimear, how are you?” Deep voice, so suave. “I was hoping I would see you here.” My face must have dropped like Marikka’s knickers. I mustered up the courage to speak back to him but completely bummed it. I am such a goon, here was my opportunity to impress and all I could do was ask “Why?” So he said that he had been speaking to Marikka and that she was worried about me, that I had developed a contagious rash and was thinking about dropping out of my Masters because I couldn’t face the embarassment. I’m going to B-slap that absolute slag. So obviously I had to play it cool.”Well, no Dr Will, there is nothing wrong with me obviously, she must have misheard, I had a crash, not a rash.” Which was kind of true. Bloody pizza delivery guy. Anyhoo, we bantered on, chatting away and totally clicked. Oh yes, he wants me, I can totally tell. But

then disaster of all disasters struck and some complete dickhead threw ﬁreworks into the letter box and smoked the place out of it. The place went smokey and I’m sure I felt someone grope me. It had to be Dr Will, like there was nobody else in my personal space at the time. Well, needless to say the party was evacuated asap. My new besties - the Gay Gays - were like we have to G for Go now Eimear. So we went for steak baguettes in some dark place on Camden St. Woke up the next morning and felt totally v-o-m. I could still taste the steak. Had to drag my sorry ass into college a er that, they’ve given me back my tutorial class,

something to do with a trade union strike or some such. The only thing keeping me going was the thought of seeing ‘the hunk.’ But when I passed him in the corridor he totally ignored me. He probably can’t show his emotion in front of me, he’s clearly afraid that someone will ﬁnd out. I’ll have to get him on his own again. Oh the joy. So I’m dying and I had to come up with some kind of a lesson plan for the ﬁrst years’ tutorial but my brain was totally frazzelled. Just like Marikka’s hair. So I made them watch Sex and the City for the hour. I told them to look for the post modernist meaning in it. They totally thought I was wicked but got snared again by

the Department Head. I am such a disaster. Not to worry, I’m all over Dr Will like a rash, as they say. Can’t wait for the Christmas hols so I can bid these first years goodbye for a few weeks and go stand under the mistletoe in the staff room with him. Although I might be better off making an effort with that boy from my Masters seminar who has been shooting me covert looks of desire for the last month. Apparently I need to do a thesis in order to get my Masters degree so I need someone to help me choose a subject and do the research for me. That guy is just the sort to do it too…Maybe Dr Will will have to wait.

Five things I hate about… THE ARTS BLOCK 5. Hardcore Philosophy Students This certain breed of student can be spotted a mile off. They can usually be recognised by the fact that they constantly look lost, despite the fact that most of them have been around UCD for at least half a decade, because of their inability to pass first year. Another recognisable factor of the Hardcore Philosophy Student, or HPS for short, is that they wear their UCD scarf all year long, no matter how hot it is. HPSs spend the majority of their time trying to figure out if the chair on which their butt-cheeks rest is in fact there or merely an illusion. Although they may seem harmless, be wary when approaching a HPS and avoid eye contact at all costs, because it gets ugly when a HPS attacks; they’re quite similar to wild animals in that sense.

4. The Smoking Area

What genii (yes, that is the correct plural of genius, but geniuses is also acceptable) decided, when the smoking ban was first introduced, that the best place to smoke was right outside the two main entrances to the Arts Block? Anytime you come out of one of those incredibly boring lectures (that make you want to stab yourself in the eye just to make the boredom subside) and all you want is a breath of fresh air, you must first wade through the monstrous cloud of smoke that greets you anytime of day, whether there are people smoking there at the time or not.

3. The Blob When you first come to UCD and hear about the infamous Blob, you have great expectations of seeing the fattest, most ridiculously obese human being ever to have walked (or rolled) the Earth, on display in some sort of glass cas-

ing, bio-chemically frozen for all eternity. It would provide students with a meeting place and a reminder to exercise at the same time, but alas this Jabba-the-Hutt-like creature does not exist and instead, all the student finds in its place is a disappointing statue that looks nothing like a blob, but is more of an oval.

problem, before admitting to you, that they don’t have a clue. They’ll then send you over to the Michael Tierney building, where you will queue for another hour with all the other Programme Office rejectees, from other schools.

2. The Programme Office

If you join the cult that is Dramsoc, you’re basically selling your soul to Lucifer himself. Despite having an office and a theatre of their own, Dramsoc use the entire lower ground level as their personal playground and God help anyone who walks by them as they’re rehearsing down there; the theatrical filthy looks they’ll give you, would give anyone the heebie jeebies. I implore all non-Dramsoc students to join the good fight against them and send these evil thespians back to the gutters from which they were spawned.

You spend hours queuing to speak to a Programme Office representative, because despite having at least five of them working there at any one time, four of the five will be on a coffee break, leaving only one of them to man the desk. Honestly, how many coffee breaks are needed in an eight hour day, when one of those hours is used for lunch? When you finally reach the desk, the representative will spend up to an hour trying to sort out your

1. Dramsoc

REGULARS

College Tribune

13th November 2007

A day in the life of… George W. Bush

Last night I had a dream in which I was a British rock star in 1965. Did you see how I did that? I said “in which,” which is pretty fancy for me, and then I said that in the dream I was British, who speak fancy all the time anyway. That’s called “foreshadowing.” I’m learning. I didn’t really sleep that well either. I’ve got those bloody Chinese on my mind again. They’ve objected to my giving a medal and recognition to the Dalai Lama. Noted. But who do they think they are? I know that the Dalai Lama has rufﬂed some feathers, (Having said that, do llamas have feathers?), but I’m going to reward who I want to reward and appear with whom I want to appear with. I’m still the decider. Fidel Castro is on my back again too. He’s mad that I took the Free Cuba slogan that Cuba used to get out from under Spain – which is “Viva Cuba Libre” in Cuban Spanish, and something similar in American Spanish – and used it against the island’s Communist dictatorship. “I never imagined I would hear the phrase 139 years a erwards from the mouth of a United States President,” Castro said recently. Well, turnabout is fair play, isn’t it? Plus, this isn’t the ﬁrst time I have said it. Back in the old days, I used to drink Cuba Libres all the time, and we used to toast them up like that. I like to shake things up. Did you know that about me? Why do you think I went to war or stopped drinking? It wasn’t really to promote democracy or

■ Dali Lama: Do Llamas have feathers? become a responsible adult, respectively. It’s because I like to shake things up. It s like things are a giant snowglobe and I am the hand shaking them up. Standing still isn t my métier. Learned that word from Sarkozy. Didn t know it before. Today, I have a question that’s been bugging me for ages. What the hell is wrong with people not to conﬁrm Mukasey? He’s a good man. He’s a fair man. He’s an independent man, and he’s plenty qualiﬁed to be attorney general.

So, maybe he hasn’t made up his mind about torture. Maybe he does need extra time to respond to the Doomsday Scenario – that’s the one where there’s a nuclear bomb somewhere in the city, and only one guy knows where, and the clock is ticking down, and he won’t reveal the location unless you kick him in the nuts, hard, a bunch of times. Do you kick him in the nuts? I won’t say whether I would kick him in the nuts – this is me remember – so I don’t answer questions so much as ask

THE HUGH BRADY GUIDE TO

LEADERSHIP

This week Hugh becomes... Winston Churchill The enigmatic, pugnacious, bullish, belligerent, truculent, deadly bloke. Took a dour, backward administration, and transformed it into a well oiled war machine. Winston also exhibited some of these qualities. Indeed we can have modularisation in our time.

them. In other news, there was a wildfire in California last week. I saw this woman on FOX news; she ran calling “wildfire.” Although, it was more like she ran calling “W-i-i-i-i-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-d-fire!” That’s what I would call them if I was an insensitive president, and I was asked to speak to the people of Southern California about the w-i-i-i-i-i-iild-fires that have ravaged their lands, destroyed their homes, and displaced their families. But since I am a sensitive decider, and since I learned from my mistakes a er Hurricane Katrina – remember when I flew over the site, frowned for the cameras, and kept flying? – I have

decided to spend my time in California making the people there feel better. Yesterday I met a guy and shook his hand and lowered my voice like I was telling him a secret and said, “Be brave.” He cried. That’s all it takes for a man to cry these days. His president has to tell him to be brave. This natural disaster is so much more of a non-disaster for me than that other natural disaster was! One final thought: why aren’t fires named? The hurricane was named Katrina. The earthquake in San Francisco was named Ricker or something. The tsunami was named Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. So, what’s a good name for a wildfire? Please email your suggestions to former FEMA director Mike Brown.

SPORT

College Tribune

13th November 2007

SPORT SPORT IN BRIEF COMPILED BY STEVEN WEST

Eircom Premier League of Ireland: Despite going down to a 2-1 defeat at Terryland Park last Friday night, UCD can look forward to another season of Premier Division football, courtesy of Waterford United’s failure to overcome Shamrock Rovers at Tolka Park. College went into the last weekend of the season two points ahead of Waterford and needed just a point – courtesy of their superior goal difference – to be certain of their top flight place. They took nothing from western trip however, but a 0-0 draw at Tolka Park, was enough to keep the students’ heads above water. It was 1-1 within two minutes of the kick-off, after a sensational start. Galway hit the front through Alan Keane’s penalty before Paul Byrne instantly levelled. Derek Glynn fired his eighth league goal of his debut senior season on seventeen minutes, and that proved to be the winner as College struggled to assert themselves.

Soccer Under-21s UCD’s Under-21 soccer side has reached their third league final in four years a er a comfortable 2-0 win over a poor Galway United side in Belfield Park last Sunday a ernoon. Fran Moran and Timmy Purcell scored first half goals, and Purcell could even afford a missed penalty as UCD cruised through to a showdown against St Patrick’s Athletic in Belfield this Thursday night.

Basketball Neptune claimed maximum points from a thrilling clash with UCD Marian in the Sunday before last’s only SuperLeague encounter. Neptune trailed by a point at the interval but managed to win out in this see saw battle on a scoreline of 74-73. Recently signed Irish international captain Justen Naughton made an instant impact for Neptune with 12 points, while Matt Gorman supplied 18 points of Neptune’s tally. UCD/Marian had James Clement as their top scorer with 24 points.

Rugby UCD claimed their hundredth win in AIB League history in fine style as they beat Dungannon 23-13 at Belfield last Saturday week. The students notched tries through centre Andy Cummiskey, fullback Michael Twomey and prop Conor Mitchell. They led 13-3 at the break with the impressive Cummiskey, who also touched down against UL Bohemians last week, scoring from a fine back-line move. Prop Mitchell burrowed over off a forward drive and another backs-inspired attack led to Twomey’s try, with scrumhalf James Bates’ late try only a consolation score for Dungannon. Mitchell’s try was the culmination of a lot of hard gra from the UCD pack and Bobby Byrne’s side ran out deserving winners.

D O W N T H E L I N E AlonsoThe Enemy Within With the Alonso-Hamilton pairing at an end, Simon Ward explains how team-rivalry in Formula 1 can get out of control Becketts. Its le -right-le jink is one of the more fearsome combinations in modern Formula One. It’s a place where positive and lateral g-forces collide. Its notorious crosswinds shake and destabilise, so overtaking is an event spared for somewhere else. It’s also the place where Lewis Hamilton made his name. All caution tossed to the crosswinds, he plunged his GP2 up the inside of two rivals at 150mph. Three abreast, he emerged in front, victorious. One disposed driver was sent scuttling across the grass, careering though polystyrene advertising hoardings. A star was born. Nevertheless, eyebrows were raised when Hamilton was promoted to the McLaren F1 team for 2007, as partner to world champion Fernando Alonso. Indeed, a considerable school of thought emerged that it was too soon and too early for the quick yet untested Hamilton to partner arguably the quickest driver of all. Formula 1 is a cruel, unforgiving business, and if Hamilton were to be blown away by the double world champion, a blossoming career could have stalled before it had even begun. The dice was rolled, the gamble was taken, and the dividends proved more bountiful than either employer or employee could ever have envisaged. Hamilton was immediately on the pace, matching the more experienced Spaniard in early season testing, and even had the gall to pass his team-mate at the opening grand prix of the year in Melbourne. A marker was laid. Competitive partnerships, while interesting, never last in Formula One. Close to twenty years ago, the late Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost shared a similar partnership, also at McLaren. One was a smooth, professor-like Frenchman, while the other was ﬁery yet ferociously talented boy from South America. Twice, they fought for the championship all the way to the last race. Twice in the last race, they took each other oﬀ the track. A decade earlier, Ferrari drivers Didier Pironi and Gilles Villeneuve quite openly despised each other. In 1982, racing on home turf at Imola, the Ferrari’s dominated the race and ordered the pair to remain in position to secure victory. Pironi ignored the order, and passed the popular Villeneuve to steal the win.

■ Best of enemies: Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton At the following race in Belgium, Pironi out-qualified a still-incensed Villeneuve. Perhaps it was the racer within, or perhaps it was the rage that drove him, but Gilles Villeneuve returned to the track. Tyres long past their best, the Canadian went out to better Pironi’s time. Within minutes, he was dead, his car flipped into an embankment. He had been ejected not just from his car, but also his helmet. When partnerships fail to have that competitive edge, it is typically characterised by a gulf in quality between the two pilots. When both exhibit speed and race cra , inevitably they’ll be best of enemies. At McLaren, Alonso soon became the enemy within. Hamilton, the Brit who had been honed since the tender age of eleven, gained the favour of ordinary boys on the McLaren shop floor. The Spaniard, however, became increasingly isolated. Alonso’s mistake was in believing his own press. As World Champion, he brought the coveted number one to McLaren from Renault, an environment poles apart from the uber-professional, if a little joyless McLaren team. He was unquestionably top dog at the

French team. His manager was (and is) the team boss, and even the teams’ colours matched the shades of Oviedo, his hometown. So, when he swapped France for Woking, for pastures new (if a little less green), he thought he would receive similar adulation. At least he would be able to pummel his inexperienced teammate and force their support and loyalty. Not so. Alonso, stripped of the velvet glove treatment he craved, lost none of his trademark speed, but a little of his composure. Uncharacteristic mistakes were made in Barcelona and Canada. Further errors of judgement occurred in Hungary and China. For the first time, Alonso seemed to sail through grand prix weekends, rather than dominate them. Toys were being thrust out of his supercharged pram. His ri with Hamilton had become a gaping chasm by the season’s close. A surprise to nobody, the inevitable announcement was made and the McLaren/Alonso marriage came to premature end by ‘mutual consent’ on November 2nd. Hamilton awaits a new teammate, while Alonso seeks a team. He will find one, but only on his terms. The warm, cosy Renault outfit awaits.

SPORT

College Tribune

13th November 2007

Students facing fight for survival UCD Marian are facing a fight for survival this season as they sit second from bottom in the Superleague’s North Conference League, a er they were trounced by Shamrock Rovers Hoops last Saturday in the Sports Centre. The home side’s David Ryan declared a er the game, “It was a tough game. It always is when you give away 100 points. Offensively we did pretty good but we need to step up in defence.” He spoke about the importance of the last quarter being on the players’ minds, “The difference in the game was in last quarter. We need to be hungrier than we were in the fourth. When the game was in the deciding moments we didn’t put away baskets and they did. That’s the story of the game.” UCD matched Hoops in the opening stages but were ground down by the sheer stamina and determination of Hoops’ captain Johnathon Reed in the last vital period. Ciaran Whyte opened the scoring with an inside basket. Reed found Bryce May for a spectacular over the top dunk mid way through the first quarter. The home team drove inside with James Clement and Kevin Foley to leave the score at 10-9 for the Hoops. More dunks followed from May and Ger Jago and a late three pointer by Joey Haastrup le Hoops in command at 19-14 at the end of the first. Haastrup started the quarter with another three, but David Ryan replied with a three

■ UCD MARIAN

■ SHAMROCK ROVERS

111

■ Jordan Daly pointer of his own, showing his superb skills in attack as well as defence. O’Boyle then counter-struck with yet another trademark three pointer. Conor Meany assisted and scored two inside baskets to narrow the difference to three points (29-26) for the Hoops. O’Boyle sunk a great bank shot but UCD retaliated with Pat Beilein dropping a nice finger roll inside. The Hoops Captain cut through the Marian defence to slide in a marvelous solo basket. Rovers proved a dominant force in the second and UCD could only attempt speedy counter attacks. One of these saw Barry Drumm pass to Ryan in space who floated in three points to li the roof off the UCD Sports Centre. The half ended with Hoops leading 44-42. James Clement struck early to tie the game at 44 points apiece. A further six points, including free throws, from O’Boyle kept the narrow lead of 54-52. Ciaran McEvilly drove inside and Haastrup nailed a two pointer as Hoops opened up a seven-point lead. UCD’s home crowd grew anxious. Foley and Clement tried to claw it back but O’Boyle and Reed were relentless. When Hoops needed him, Reed pulled a three pointer out of the

bag. The third ended 74-67 for the Hoops. The final quarter began with frantic scrambles around the UCD board. Clement hit a big three pointer and David Ryan scored inside to keep the opponents in sight. Quick baskets from O’Boyle, Reed and Ciaran Whyte killed off any hope of a home comeback midway through the last quarter. Edge hit two big three pointers late on. Reed once again showed blistering pace to steal, break through and dunk with three minutes to go. O’Boyle led from the freethrow line as the home team got frustrated at the end. Hoops made their shots from the line and finished with ease. The scoreboard, however, did not reflect the intensity of the contest. Hoops’ late addition Ciaran Whyte stressed the rebounds and leadership, “We were more determined to fight for the rebound towards the end. There was a timeout and Coach called for blocks to be made and for us to control the boards, that’s what we went out and did.” He praised Reed as being the best player for Hoops, “Every game we play our point guard, Reed is controling it, he’s doing real well. They had some good Americans. They shot the ball well and they were knocking down trees out there.” Reed himself spoke of the Hoops’ winning strategy, “We finished them out in the last quarter. That’s what we’re going for. Our team’s challenge, personally is to finish out games. We focused and got the result.”

■ Photo: Dan Hayden - Photosoc

Riding high Cyclist Louise Moriarty speaks to Eoghan Glynn about her aspirations for the future and the success of the High Performance Centre in developing UCD athletes It has been five years now since the High Performance Centre (HPC) at UCD was established in an effort to allow a select few the opportunity to fulfill their potential as athletes, and even give some an improved chance of participating in the Beijing or London Olympics. With sport science at the very core of the centre’s work, the HPC has worked with the men’s eircom Premier League of Ireland soccer squad, the AIL Rugby squad, the Women’s Soccer squad and many other athletes. Most notably, they have worked with Joanne Cuddihy, who became national champion in 2006 at both 400m and 200m and the National Junior 400m record holder after breaking a 25-year record.

Another such athlete is cyclist Louise Moriarty, who last February broke the Irish record in the Women’s 3,000 metre individual pursuit at the Track Cycling World Cup event in Manchester. It has been a year of highs and lows for Moriarty since then, but with the Olympics in Beijing and the World Championships in Manchester coming up next year, there is only one thing on this UCD student’s mind. “My main aim is to qualify for the World Championships in Manchester in March,” admits Moriarty, “Then if everything goes really well, I might be able to qualify for the Olympics in Beijing. That’s still a bit of a longshot though as only the cyclists at the very top level get into the Olympics.” Another possible reason for the record holder’s main priority being the World Championships could be due to the injury she suffered while racing in August. The architecture student has only recently returned to racing following a three-month break. “I broke my elbow at the start of August. My ﬁrst race back since then was last Friday at a track race in Manchester. My performance was pretty good but the standard wasn’t really great to be honest.”

One of the most difficult aspects of being an athlete of Moriarty’s calibre in the HPC is trying to balance the training and competitions with the academic aspect of UCD. The training is only one of the problems as she explains her training schedule, “I’d have to train about six times a week. These training sessions can range from a one-hour training session to sometimes even five-hour sessions.” The competitions, however, seem to take up slightly more time as Moriarty would o en have to go abroad for such competitions, “Well this year it’s especially hard because I have to take part in a lot of competitions. For instance, I’m going away to Sydney in two weeks for the first in a series of races in the qualification for the World Championships and Olympics. I also have four or five deadlines due around then.” Moriarty is not alone when it comes to having to give such commitment to her sport as many of the other athletes using the HPC must go through the same difficulties. However, there can be no doubt that if these athletes reach their goals, such as the World Championships or the Olympic Games for Moriarty, then such commitment will seem well worth it.

SPORT

College Tribune

13th November 2007

Yer auld one's biohazard ■ Eoghan Brophy This week, we look at the dark depths of Superleague’s Sunday Division One, where there were plenty of goals, action, and talking points. Dukes of Biohazard met Yer Auld One’s Box and it was an explosive affair as a fight broke out at the end of the game. This was all down to a very physical last ten or fi een minutes as Dukes frustrated Auld One’s by halting their quest for an equaliser. “They are a physical side, and we had to get physical as well. Usually, we play a bit of football though,” remarked Darragh O’ Connell, Auld One’s midfield dynamo. Cormac Taylor scored twice on Yer Auld One’s as Dukes went in at half time 3-0 up. With the late arrival of a couple of players, Auld One’s got back into it and played the better football in the second half. Goals from Barry Galligan and Colin Molloy weren’t enough as Dukes ran out 3-2 winners. AFC Belfield were unlucky to come up against a doggedly determined Finlay’s Atletico Victims side who gave their “best performance of the season” in the second half according to Captain James Doody. Finlay’s had pace down the wings and up front. They created a couple of half-chances in the

SUPER LEAGUE first half where Belfield could have closed the game off had their finishing been better. Finbarr Griffen, scorer of Belfield’s second goal said a er the game, “We just lacked composure in front of goal a er only playing together for five games. We are happy with a draw.” AFC have yet to familiarise themselves with one another and could frequently be heard asking each other what their names were during the match. Not one of Stoned Nuns Suit’s players realised that their game against league leaders Olympic Real had been moved forward to ten o’clock. They didn’t show up till twelve and now they might have to give a walkover. Nuns’ centre midfielder Neil Rudden stayed around a erwards and was annoyed that no one noticed the change, “We have won every game when we have had eleven players and we had a full squad for the first time this season. We felt we could have given them a game and possibly won it.” Seven games in now for most teams,

and players are starting to wander, not committed to the cause. Some teams are indeed struggling for players. Auld

One’s started their game last Sunday with nine men and have players miss-

ing through injury, holidays and hangovers. Let’s hope for improved turnouts in the second semester.

FOR PETE’S SAKE PETE MAHON WRITES EXCLUSIVELY FOR THE COLLEGE TRIBUNE A er the weekend’s games, I can’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. The disappointing thing for us is that we couldn’t ensure our Premier Division status for next season ourselves. We had to depend on somebody else, which was a new experience for me. I usually like to get things done, just worry about my own team, and let other sides get on with what they are doing. We were bailed out by the scoreless draw that Shamrock Rovers got against Waterford United at Tolka Park, meaning that it will be Waterford in the relegation play-off and not UCD thankfully. In fairness, we deserved at least a draw from Friday night’s game in Galway. We had two great late chances and I felt we could have got a point. But we didn’t and had to leave it down to Rovers. I don’t think our final league position is justified by how we played throughout the season. During the latter part of the season however, we just weren’t at our best at times. I mean six straight defeats (five in the league and one in the FAI Cup) speaks for itself. I think we got eight points in the last eleven games. Now, eight from a possible 33 is not great at all. When we came out of the Brandywell a few weeks ago with a draw against Derry City, we were eleven points ahead of Waterford. At that time, I felt we were safe. And maybe that sort of thinking filtered down to the players, I don’t know.

■ Thank you: It was left to Shamrock Rovers to ensure UCD’s survival We also used the excuse of having the distraction of a cup semi-ﬁnal on our minds. That could have been the case, but in my mind, it certainly didn’t distract me. So all in all, recent weeks have been disappointing for me but the important thing is that in the end of it, we

survived. Maybe the lads just felt they’d see the end of the season out and were in a bit of a comfort zone. I don’t know. I can’t put my finger on it, as it is hard to get into the minds’ of players sometimes. I am just glad the season is over now, to be honest. I won’t get much of a break, maybe a couple of days, but then it will be back to business. But there are always things going on with the other sides. For instance, I was out at the Under-21s League Cup semi-final between Galway United and ourselves on Saturday a ernoon. We won that one 2-0 and will now play the final against St. Patrick’s Athletic on Thursday, so I’m kept going. In regards to the senior side, we will need to recharge the batteries. I have never known a season like this. Even though we may have been a bit unrealistic with our targets at the start of the season, we still reached two different cup semi-finals. We also went to Drogheda and won, went to St. Pat’s and won, got the three points against Derry and beat Bohemians. The only top side we didn’t manage to beat this year were Cork City, so it wasn’t that we couldn’t match the big teams. If you look at last season, we ended up with 36 points, but this time we only picked up 31. Five years ago, we were relegated with 34 but that’s just how things pan out. There seems to be a mindset in this club traditionally that we have to be the underdogs in games. When it does occur that we are the favourites in matches, we shit ourselves. If you look at the results down through the years, they are the facts. But as I said, I’m just glad the season is finished now and we are still in the Premier Division.

College Tribune

13th November 2007

SPORT

WHY ALONSO GOT OUT DOWN THE LINE: PAGE 21

UCD BASKETBALL ON THE BRINK: PAGE 22 ■ Photo: Colin Scally - Photosoc

■ UCD

■ ST. MARY’S COLLEGE

Last-gasp kick snatches victory UCD recorded their first ever AIL League victory over St. Mary’s last Sunday a ernoon at the Belfield Bowl. There was near unbearable tension in the seconds before kick-off, but Mary’s fly half Jonathon Sexton got things underway. It didn’t take long for UCD to make their intentions known, as their first points came just four minutes in. It was good forward play that brought about the change in scoreline. As UCD scuppered a Mary’s lineout on the twenty-two, Mary’s struggled to hold onto possession, which resulted in them holding on the deck. Captain Michael Hastings showed experience and wisdom and signaled for the posts. Kicking duties were handed to Killian Lett. The kick had a lovely bit of le to right action on it as it sailed between the sticks. UCD lead three-nil. Despite their good start, UCD

■ Bryan Devlin could not increase their lead any further. Mary’s played it smart and kept the ball tied up in their forwards and stopped UCD spraying it wide to the likes of Cian Aherne and the veritable rocket that is Vasily Artemiev. Mary’s successfully slowed the game to walking pace with these tactics, which suited them, as they could not match the students’ youthful exuberance out wide. The students finally got a reward for their relentless defending when they stole another one of Mary’s lineouts, and flashed the ball through the backs for Vasily to show just how good he is at finishing. Unfortunately, Lett couldn’t convert from the corner. UCD led eight nil, and were riding high. Unfortunately, for all the students’ good work in the opening half hour, they now seemed content to cruise to half-time on a pillow of ridiculous

kicks out of hand, which in many cases failed to find touch. This is when Mary’s began to show their power up front, wrapping the ball up in good rolling mauls. Despite the mauls and the improved back-play, UCD’s defence held firm. Unfortunately, a silly penalty given away under the posts allowed to Sexton to put Mary’s on the scoreboard. UCD weathered the storm and only conceded three points, but there was a sense of relief amongst the students when the break finally arrived. Memories of the shaky end to the first half were soon forgotten when, straight from their own kick-off, UCD sprayed it wide for Matt Nagle on the wing who crashed over in the corner to increase the lead by a further five points. Again, the wind pulled Lett’s conversion wide of the posts. Straight from the restart, UCD did the unthinkable, and gave away a penalty under the posts for slowing the ball. Sexton easily slotted over

the penalty to bring the scoreline to 13-6. More or less immediately a er the penalty, UCD saw Flanker Sean O’Brien binned for continuously killing the ball at the break down. This temporary dismissal heralded the beginning of a purple patch for Mary’s. Not only did Sexton slot the resulting penalty over, but also for the ten minutes that O’Brien was in the bin, UCD failed to get out of their own half. Indeed, gaps began to appear in the line as Sexton skipped by the defence with ease. Indiscipline from the UCD line resulted in yet another penalty, which was again converted to bring the visitors to within a point. With twenty minutes to go, a one point lead and Mary’s in the ascendancy made UCD look a long way from home. Despite the return of O’Brien, Mary’s’ momentum was unstoppable and yet another penalty from

Sexton saw the visitors take the lead for the first time. It was a time for spirit and fight and the students did not disappoint. They dug deep and crawled their way up the right wing. Uncertainty began to creep into the Mary’s psyche as they pulled down a rolling maul just short of the line; the penalty was launched into touch. Instead of attempting to drive over from the lineout, it was sprayed wide to Michael Hastings who took it into contact; it was then popped back to Andy Cummiskey in the pocket who slotted over a fantastic drop goal. This was the final nail in the Mary’s coffin, who, having already come back once, had nothing le in the tank, and went through the motions for the remaining five minutes. A er the game, the UCD management declared, “The team showed great spirit to get up the pitch a er Mary’s good patch in the second half.”