Nobody ever likes being woken up by a phone call – but when you’re picking the people who you’d least like to hear you sounding groggy and underslept, influential businesspeople are probably somewhere at the top of the list. Therefore, it’s a strange and bloody frightening feeling being woken up on the stroke of 9am by a phone call from someone from Dragons’ Den.

Thankfully, when Gavin Duffy calls – literally at the same second the clock radio starts to blare the 9am news – he’s merely arranging the details for an interview later that day, and isn’t expecting me to be able to interview him from bed, without as much as pen to take notes. As it transpires, when I get to chat to him again later that day (after, I hasten to add, a lot of coffee), I begin to get the sense that admitting my utter unprofessionalism might not have been as suicidal as I’d feared – because despite the preconceptions one might have about a mega-successful business and media magnate like Duffy, the Drogheda man is an extremely approachable and affable person.

Duffy is familiar to most of us as one of the five tough-talking venture capitalists from RTÉ One’s Thursday night show Dragons’ Den, but what most people our age might not cop is that Duffy began life – and still holds a burning passion – as a breakfast DJ on a local radio station in Dundalk. More true to the usual entrepreneurial stereotype is the fact that Duffy got into the world of business quite early, taking the DJing job at the tender age of 17.

“I remember finishing a breakfast show one morning in the summer of 1977 and driving back up to Drogheda, and helping in the family pub and going down to change a keg in the basement,” Duffy reminisces. “We had a radio on down there, and I heard the radio who had just taken over from me – and here I was listening from over 20 miles away in the basement. That just made me go, ‘Wow, this is some medium. How does it actually work?’” It was this curiosity – coupled with a genuine passion for journalism and community radio (“I would prefer to be involved with a Newstalk rather than a Spin in today’s context”, he suggests) – that led him to campaign for a licensed local radio station for the northeast, and ultimately to set up Ireland’s first commercial local station, LMFM.

“I don’t know whether that was a good career move or not,” Duffy surprisingly concedes, though, “because I really liked talking to a wall – I loved radio and the intimacy of the medium and all that… In the mid 80s I started working on Morning Ireland and to my great surprise, I think it was in 1987, RTÉ asked me to present their first television business programme called Marketplace… They’d been very good to me, but I still had this hankering that if I was to get real legal local radio, I had this ambition about doing it. Critically the station [LMFM] was, as local radios go, quite successful and began to do very well. It was well received and critically acclaimed.” So well, in fact, that UTV took the station off his hands in 2004 for €11m.

Nowadays the day job for Duffy is his Dorland media consultancy firm – again, a business that proved more lucrative than he had expected. “One of the things that worked out well for me was that we went around to a lot of the larger companies in Ireland from about 1999 onward, saying to them, ‘You’ve got a big brand, consider your reputation and risk management… If something ever untoward happens, you have our expertise 24/7’,” he reveals. “It was a type of insurance nearly that the large corporates were taking out with us. We probably oversold it – because since 2008 all of our clients have all, simultaneously, had huge problems because of the economic meltdown… It has paid me very handsomely and continues to over the years. I suppose I should be very lucky to say I’m in a recession-proof business, if we look at the media end of it.”

It was also through his work with Dorland that he became first involved in the seed investments that have seen him gain more prominence in the intervening years – as often, he would take a more hands-on management role in companies seeking his advice on media relations. “One of the things that started to happen from the dotcom boom is that I would, once or twice a week, have these dotcom hopefuls saying, ‘Will you help us make our presentation because we’re going to a bank for finance.’ After a while I said, ‘I think you need more than that,’ and I would get involved with some of them. Instead of charging a fee, I would take a very small slice – anything from 2.5 to 5 per cent.

“That’s why when RTE and Shinawil [the producers of the Irish Dragons’ Den] started asking around Enterprise Ireland as to who might be a Dragon or not, my name was the one name that came up most frequently.”

It’s through his work in the Den that he’s become most widely known: as perhaps the least outwardly vocal of the Dragons, Gavin’s selective nuggets of wisdom tend to pack bigger punches than those of his colleagues. It’s also, he reveals, offered some useful get-out clauses at awkward social situations. “There’s a fantastic bonus for someone doing Dragons’ Den – for someone like me who’s been dragged up in pubs… we were trained from an early age to be nice to people, and it sounds awful but I’ve been nice to people all my life.

“Now, as a result of Dragons’ Den, I have a licence to be rude, and that becomes very effective! It happens to all of us. When I’m stuck at a Chamber of Commerce thing or a drinks party – we all get stuck in the corner with an incredible bore – what I do now is say, ‘Excuse me, I’m not interested, I’m out,’ and I just walk away. And I can hear the bore turning to their next victim, laughing, ‘That Gavin Duffy’s a great guy! Did you hear what he just said?’ It’s fantastic! It was worth doing the programme for that alone.”

Not, of course, that this is the sole benefit – aside from being given a chance to make significant money, the Dragons’ Den experience also seems to be great fun. “My best friend in the Den is undoubtedly Sean Gallagher – it’s not just that we share a dressing room … the other three think they’re D4 sophisticates, and it rubs me up the wrong way sometimes! We’re the two culchies and they’re the city kids. Niall [O’Farrell] is incredibly funny in the Den,” he adds. “Niall is just great fun, he’s just great company! He’s always got a yarn, always got a story. Whether it’s true or not doesn’t matter.”

I quickly ask Duffy what he thinks might get Ireland’s economy moving again, and – perhaps unsurprisingly – a media-based explanation is not far away. Ireland’s political system, he believes, needs total reform. “The Church in Ireland have lost all credibility, the judiciary is just moving too slow. The fourth estate, the media, has taken over, and I don’t think that’s a good thing. It’s not that we have poor leaders, it’s just that we have people who don’t want to be led by their strategies. I’d argue for a national government, and the media doesn’t call for that because it’d spoil their fun… We should have five years of national government with the three main parties, rotating Taoiseach every twenty months.”

Duffy’s time at present, however, is being occupied by slightly more humanitarian matters, as a judge for the Vodafone Foundation’s ‘World of Difference’ programme. An unusually charitable programme, the competition offers four young people the chance to work for any charity they want – while Vodafone pay them a wage of €40,000 for the year. Crucially, though, entrants have to compile a pitch for what charity they’d like to work for, and how their work would benefit their causes and their communities.

“For a large corporation to be spending money in this sort of way is something I’m impressed with,” Duffy reveals. “It really does make a difference – instead of giving the money to an organisation, they’re saying, ‘Listen, if you have something that you really think will make a difference and if we have to pay the person would deliver that, what difference would it make?’”

And given his experience in seeing pitches in the Den, what makes a good pitch? “From a judging point of view we’re looking for dynamic people who are driven and passionate about what they want to do in the community. The standard of people who come in – and how difficult it is to select the top four – makes it a very challenging job when you’re sitting there as a judge. Somebody coming in with an idea that really is scalable, that could make a big difference – that’s what always impresses me and that’s what I would give the nod to.

“There’s no pressure whatsoever on us to pick one type of project over another one,” the Dragon concludes. “There’s no corporate considerations of things like that. I like the independence of this, the integrity of it. That impresses me.”

The Vodafone Foundation’s ‘World of Difference’ programme offers four people the chance to work for a charity of their choice, with Vodafone footing the bill. More details of the programme can be found at http://www.vodafone.ie/worldofdifference or at the programme’s Facebook page.

Final year Veterinary Science student, Susan Connolly has become a published author at 24, while still in university. Connolly explains that her first novel, Damsel, is a neo-fairy tale, which was written while on a year off from college, two years ago.

“I was a receptionist in this office; there’s not really much you can do to entertain yourself while you’re answering phones. I couldn’t read a book or a magazine or go on the internet, so [I] decided that since I couldn’t read a story I would write my own one,” says Connolly.

What began as an effort to alleviate boredom recently elevated Connolly into the ranks of published authors, but she maintains that this was not her intention. “I really just wrote it for myself, I wasn’t intending for it to turn into a real, proper book.”

This is, however, exactly what happened. Connolly describes hers as an “unorthodox publishing process” in that she met Eoin Persil, later to become Commissioning Editor for Children’s books at Mercier publishing house, while enduring “one of those awkward LUAS conversations”.

The book itself is aimed at children aged 8 to 12, but the author cannot deny adding some more adult themes into the mix: “It’s kinda secretly feminist for children,” she intimates. Damsel tells the story of Annie Brave, a damsel in the traditional sense of the word, who finds herself in the position to save her father (the greatest hero of them all), when no other hero is available.

Connolly was inspired by her irritation at finding out traditional fairy tales had been restricted by historical and sociological context and altered by the powers that be. Connolly joked, “The French aristocracy [of the 18th century] were like ‘what are these stories our children are reading? Girls being independent, good lord, we can’t be having this!’ They rewrote [fairy tales] to teach children to be what they thought children should be… we should teach children what we think, which is not [to be] passive and stupid.”

Connolly takes a realistic view of characters’ motivations and aspirations in this work. This is explored with the conflict between the book’s main protagonist, the clever and cool Annie Brave and Roger of Rockfield, the little boy that leaves Annie in her time of need when she faces the dragon. More importantly, to the story however, he comes back. Connolly wanted the message to come across that “it’s okay to be afraid and it’s okay to make mistakes as long as you make it up later.” This is one of the book’s moral messages.

It comes as no surprise that the author of a fantasy novel is an advocate of allowing children to dream the impossible as part of their childhood experience. “Childhood is all about escapism. When you’re seven you should be thinking about things like, ‘when I grow up I want to be a fire truck… or a wizard’. I think a little wonder at the world is always valuable.”

Connolly goes on to explain that it is often through the more fictional of fiction that lessons are learned. “You can read a book about someone battling personal demons or you can read a book about someone battling actual demons, which makes it a little more real despite the fact that it’s obviously fantastical.”

Connolly has a practical view of the fiction business. “The Stephanie Meyers of the world get a half a million dollar advance… but 80 per cent of writers get less than $5000 advances, for as long as your book is in print you’re going to get a cheque so it’s more of a long term small amount of cash flow, than it is a once-off big cheque.”

The bonus arrives in the form of gained prestige. Connolly explained that ‘published author’ is more a credential than a title, and a valuable one at that. In a competitive market like modern Ireland, any advantage is played and ‘the author card’ can open doors.

“It’s difficult to make a career out of writing but I think writing can help you towards another career. Also most writers aren’t full time,” she clarified. Like the aforementioned Stephanie Meyer, whose Twilight franchise exploded in 2008 to near cult status, and JK Rowling before her, fiction has its shining examples of literary superstars. Connolly, the self professed maths nerd, understands the statistical improbability of such success, “not saying that anyone who writes a book couldn’t be the next big thing but there can really only be one next big thing, so you shouldn’t count on it.”

While some can, and have, made careers out of fiction writing, the sheer volume of writers who disappear after one novel, is a testament to the hardships of professional authorship. S. E. Connolly (as she appears on Damsel’s cover) has a more ‘never say never’ attitude. “I wouldn’t give up veterinary science to do writing, but I also wouldn’t give up the writing to do vet. I’m a very much have your cake and eat it type person. I generally get my way, so I want to do both.”

So in conclusion, writing a novel is not easy, especially not during college but in the words of a neo-fairy tale teller and feminist maths-nerd, “I don’t think you shouldn’t do something you want to do simply because you’re in college but having said that, probably the time to work on your new chapter is not the day before your essay is due”.

A similar lesson I’m sure we’ve all learned, most likely the hard way.

US President, Barack Obama has said recently that he sees “glimmers of hope” for the American economy, but has stressed that there was still “a lot of work to do.” The American economy is well on its way to recovery with calm assurances from their steadfast President, resolute in his determination at re-establishing confidence in the country.

Resonating Obama’s attempts to restoring trust and hope on an international scale, Finance Minister, Brian Lenihan recently announced an emergency budget which included the establishment of the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA).

This so-called toxic bank will purchase up to €90 billion of decaying property and development loans in a dramatic measure to renovate the banking sector in Ireland. The Government has stressed that not all of these loans are irrecoverable, emphasising that once the market recovers, properties that were used as collateral for these loans will be sold off and losses recuperated.

With the conception of this new management agency, Irish banks which, until now have largely been hiding the extent of their bad debts, will have to disclose this almost guaranteed disturbing information. Analysts reckon that further capital injections from the Government will be requisite, ontop of the €7 billion already injected in both AIB and Bank of Ireland.

Dr Peter Bacon, special advisor to the National Treasury Management Agency, is largely responsible for the creation of NAMA. Bacon, who recently defended his solution to the crisis in a recent interview on Prime Time, “I’m an economist, not a moralist, so let’s deal with economic issues”, is no stranger to both solving and highlighting the financial woes to the Irish economy.

Ironic that that the very chap who advised the Government on how to keep the property boom under control, advice which was to the detriment of our worrying financial condition not heeded, is now being sought after and listened to.

“Unlike Barack Obama’s stalwart plans for recovery, NAMA doesn’t seem to be receiving an overwhelmingly confident response”

Having foreseen and warned against the property bubble more than a decade ago; placing the acclaimed economist at the helm of our beleaguered financial sector should provide us with the much needed confidence for the future of our economy. However unlike Barack Obama’s stalwart plans for recovery, NAMA doesn’t seem to be receiving an overwhelmingly confident response.

Brokers said that the jury was still out on the creation on NAMA, highlighting that it “was a matter of opinion about whether the new assets management agency will be positive or negative.” Credit ratings agency, Moody’s downgraded its ratings on twelve Irish banks after the announcement of the ‘toxic bank’ in the budget.

The rating agencies lack of confidence in the Irish banking system stemmed from their belief of an unrelenting decline in housing prices, and the increased probability of corporate defaults. “We belief that these losses are likely to significantly weaken the capital positions of most Irish banks building societies over the next two years”, Ross Abercromby, lead analyst at Moody’s for Irish banks said in a statement.

Also speaking to Prime Time, Eddie Hobbs, most noted for his Rip off Republic series on RTÉ and largely recognised for his straight talking, candid approach to finance, described the plan as “poxy… but at least it’s a plan.”

Financial commentators and analysts have become unresolved and are symptomatic of taking a ‘wait and see’ approach. The media has repeatedly reported that the bad debts are estimated to be between €80 to €90 billion, which is at best vague and ambiguous.

Speaking in relation to the plan, Mr Lenihan stressed the need to “restore our reputation abroad. We must show the world that our financial system is soundly based and governed by the highest standards of regulation.”

The confidence that Lenihan craves isn’t going to be established on these unclear estimations, nor will it be based on our budget deficit, which is reportedly the worst in the 16 nation euro zone.

Purchasing tens of billions of debt, which the Government has tried to assure us isn’t all bad, and putting our trust in Mr Lenihan, who was voted the second worst Finance Minister in Europe by the Financial Times, the plan seems to be one of crossing our fingers and hoping for the best, but echoing the Cork financial guru “at least it’s a plan!”

What is your Masters degree?
I am completing a Masters of Accounting in Smurfit in Blackrock.

What does your course involve?
The course involves basically studying for two sets of accounting exams, which are covered during the course. I am in college from 8.30 am and I have lectures until 2.30 pm. They are just lectures for the exams such as lectures in tax, management accounting, company law, special accounting, a lot of auditing and a lot of training on computers to train you up for when you go into the offices one day.

We also do a lot of group projects. In fact, we had to do a project on our own recently and it felt strange without a group to bounce ideas off.

What will you have accomplished by the end of your Masters?
I will have covered the first two sets of accounting exams but I will still have to sit my final accounting exams (FAEs). Usually you do a Masters and then you do three years training and then you are a qualified accountant. During these years you sit the rest of the exams.

How does the financing of the degree work?
The Masters in Smurfit obviously aren’t cheap, but last year, the economic situation was completely different and the major accountancy and business firms were handing out sponsorship for masters courses. This year, there aren’t as many sponsorships going around, so it looks likely that the numbers for the course will be down next year. I got a sponsorship with KPMG, but the degree costs somewhere in the region of five figures.

What was your undergraduate degree?
I did a Bachelor of Commerce in UCD where I specialised in accounting.

Was your undergraduate degree helpful for your Masters?
My undergraduate degree was very helpful. The Masters is changing next year to only cover set two of the accountancy exams. In Commerce, we covered set one and in Masters we covered one and two of the exams, so it will be essential to have completed a Commerce degree before doing this.

Also, a Commerce degree well prepares you for the kind of group work you will be doing in a Masters like this.

How do you compare your undergraduate and postgraduate experiences?
I prefer Blackrock to Belfield. The business school in Belfield is less academic, Smurfit just feels more business orientated. Also there is a nice atmosphere here, there is a bigger community and it feels like you know more people.

Who would you recommend this degree to?
Any one who is interested in business or who might be interested in business, not just people who want to do accountancy. I don’t really intend on being an accountant in the long term, it’s just a really good business qualification to have. You can really go places with it. It is a very stable career path.

What’s next?
Well I have a three-year contract with the Accountancy firm, KPMG.

Will this prepare you for the world of business?
It will definitely help anyway. Nothing can prepare you for the world of business apart form practical experience in the field.

WITH AN IMPRESSIVE array of designs showcased at this year’s Nokia Young Fashion Designer Awards in Dublin, the future of Irish fashion appears bright. For the winner, Aoife Gallagher, a student attending Limerick Senior College who received €5000 and a work placement with House of Frasier, it marks the beginning of a budding career in the fashion industry.

However, like many other industries, the fashion world has not escaped the current economic crisis. Consequently, emerging young designers such as Gallagher will now find it harder than ever to forge themselves a career in the sector. Fashion has always been notoriously competitive, and the current recession only serves to exacerbate this competitiveness.

In recent months, a string of large scale retailers have collapsed due to financial losses. Sasha, a store exclusive to Ireland, recently announced that its 42 stores are to close, resulting in a loss of approximately 300 jobs.

The successful British chain, Principles, has also went into liquidation with the announcement that its 66 stores will close. Its parent company Mosaic Fashions has gone into administration and have sold off their numerous other brands to the company Aurora, which include Oasis, Karen Millan, Warehouse and Coast.

The situation is not much better for the stores that are still in business, as they are seeing large decreases in their profits. Next’s profit’s have fallen by 14 per cent this year while FCUK (French Connection United Kingdom) have incurred a troubling £17.4 million loss, a stark contrast to the profit sum of £3.1 million which they made last year. A clear indication of the severity of the economic crisis is witnessed in the closing of seven retailers in Dublin’s Grafton Street during the last few months, an area renowned for its array of designer high street stores.

“It is clear that consumers are no longer willing to spend the same amount of money on fashion as they were in the thriving era of the Celtic Tiger”

Among those affected are Warehouse, Jack and Jones, and Korky’s shoe stores. If such reputable successful businesses as these are buckling under financial pressure, just how will small fashion designers boutiques ensure their survival? From the closing of these numerous stores, it is clear that consumers are no longer willing to spend the same amount of money on fashion as they were in the thriving era of the Celtic Tiger.

A staff member from Havana Boutique in Donnybrook states they are still selling reasonably well despite the economic downturn, but admits there has been a change in the demographic of their customers. They are now attracting the majority of their customers “from the more recession-proof professions”, who are now opting for classic fabrics and well cut pieces that have longevity, to ensure value for money.

An increase in the sale of accessories reflects how customers are adding to pieces they already own. These trends highlight how members of the public have become more conscientious of their spending with regards to fashion.

However, for those setting out in the fashion and retail industry, they may not be so fortunate. While the high street is being emptied of customers, online fashion sites are capitalising on this as their profits have soared. More affordable clothes are often to be found on such websites as e-bay and Asos. Irish customers are also taking advantage of the value of the euro against the sterling, by buying from UK sites, thus saving significantly.

Indeed, the online fashion retailer Asos has reported a staggering 108 per cent sales rise in the past nine months, with 1.2 million customers logging on in the past six months to purchase from them. Sites such as these are putting tremendous pressure on those retailers who are struggling to keep their businesses afloat. The realm of online fashion is now the fastest growing on the web and is predicted to be worth 6.6 billion by next year.

Other retailers, such as Tescos are catching on to this lucrative market, and they are to introduce an online fashion store to promote their own clothing brand. There is no doubt that Irish designers are on a par with their international counterparts regarding talent and originality.

Designers such as Louise Kennedy, Paul Costello, and Philip Treacy have represented Irish fashion extremely successfully, many of them having their wares modelled by celebrity clientele.

Emerging designers are now having to contend with the many celebrities who are turning their hand to fashion lines, such as Victoria Beckham and Kate Moss. With such fierce competition as this, coupled with the economic problems, making a mark in the fashion world is very much a daunting task.

As talented as Ireland’s aspiring fashion designers are, the next five years will give them little opportunity to prosper, as even the fashion bigwigs will be struggling to survive.

THE BERNARD MADOFF CASE made the news again recently after a US hedge fund, Fairfield Greenwich was charged with fraud after placing nearly $7 billion of its clients’ money into Madoff’s fraudulent investment scheme without proper checks on the nature of the investment activities.

This hedge fund is among the first of the ‘feeder funds’ that pumped billions of dollars to fund Madoff’s corrupt investment system to be charged with fraud. The fund involved in the scandal is run by Walter Noel, a Connecticut high-profile socialite who allegedly acted as a mediator for Madoff since 1989, a reverse modern day financial savvy Robin Hood, robbing from the middle to upper classes and giving to the uber-rich Madoff.

Through a 1 per cent commission from the transactions, Fairfield Greenwich earned a handsome $100 million a year. The fund is accused of lying to its investors, pretending it had comprehensive access to Madoff’s accounts. In a statement Fairfield Greenwich denied the allegations, stressing that the claims were “false and misleading.”

It also pointed out it wasn’t the sole casualty of the fraud, with the Securities and Exchange Commission and hundreds of investors falling victim to the international fraudster.

“Madoff’s targets varied from members of the US Jewish community to celebrities such as Steven Spielberg and Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe”

As the quote from the 1980s cinematic depiction of the financial world, Wall Street goes, “greed, for want of a better word, is good”, this mantra has leaked from the big screen out into the real world leaving a trial of destruction and financial ruin for some in its path.

$65 billion fraud, moral and financial corruption, and the greatest conman this century has ever seen, it was the stuff of Oscar-winning films. But sadly for the case of hundreds of enraged investors there was nothing imaginary or award-winning about it. Madoff’s targets varied from members of the US Jewish community to charities and well known celebrities such as Steven Spielberg and Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe.

The 70-year-old, who faces a sentence of up to 150 years, deceived and exploited the trust of the investors and used the money to finance his lavish lifestyle that included four homes, six boats, four cars, and a host of extravagant assets such as a $39,000 piano and $65,000 worth of silverware.

This mass deception of investors and extensive corruption has stretched to our shores with a number of funds listed on the Irish Stock Exchange badly scarred from losses caused by the $65 billion Madoff fraud. Two such funds linked to this reportedly gave money to the Irish leg of HSBC, which in turn gave the money to Bernard Madoff to invest.

The fraudster, who admitted that no authentic investments had been made on behalf of the investors in over two decades, had assets of more than $100 million in assets seized by US prosecutors in an effort to repay deceived investors.

While the leaders of the G20 countries met to discuss possible solutions to alleviate the financial crisis, tighter regulation is once again suggested as the panacea to impede the spread of corruption and fraud in the financial sector. However, this case is intrinsically a matter of ethics and moral conscience, something which cannot be enforced.

What are you studying?

I’m doing a Phd in Particle Physics as part of a group here in UCD that’s working in conjunction the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (or ‘CERN’) on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments. I’ve been over at CERN [on the Franco- Swiss border] there a few times now. I’m moving there at the end of May and I’ll be there for about six months or a year. We will be working where the experiments take place.

Will that finish your Phd?

I don’t think so, we’ll have to wait for data to come and there was an accident about a year ago. After start-up, one of the magnets exploded, so they’re waiting to get all that fixed before they can start taking data again. We’ll have to wait until there’s enough data and when there’s enough data then we’ll probably get a thesis out and finish it up.

What is your third-level education?

I did my degree in NUI Galway in Experimental Physics, and this is my second year in UCD.

Has your undergraduate degree been helpful for this?

We do a lot of computer programming here, so that was one good thing about going to NUIG, as it definitely prepared me for that. I didn’t do as much theory in Galway however, but that didn’t hold me back as when I came here we had seven months of theory courses, so that brought me up to the level that I needed to be at.

What does your course entail?

In our first year we had seven months of live-streamed lectures with the University of Liverpool, and we went over there once or twice for more lectures. Now we’re doing research all the time, but we still go away to courses for a week or two every year to keep the theory fresh. Also, as I have mentioned, I’ve also been over to CERN [on the Franco-Swiss border] a number of times and I’m moving there at the end of May.

What does this course require from the student?

The most important thing is hard work. You can be as smart as you like, but if you don’t work hard, you’re not going to get anywhere. There’s a lot of times when you’re stuck with a problem and you have to work hard and figure it out for yourself.

Are you still having lectures?

No, we’re just doing research the whole time now.

Who would you recommend this Phd to?
Any Physics student with any interest in the LHC experiment at CERN.

What’s next for you?

I don’t really know. Right now I’d like to maybe get a post-docterate position somewhere that’s still involved with the LHC and keep that work going, but I don’t know how I’ll feel in a year or two when I’m finished here. I’ll have to see!

A recent news story paints a grim picture of the jobs market confronting this year’s college graduates: architects, accountants and bankers were among hundreds who applied for a job at a soon-to-be-opened McDonald’s restaurant in Ennis, Co. Clare. This is a particularly bad sign for students in these fields, although with cutbacks in seemingly every sector in Ireland, is there anything to look forward to in life after university?

What seems to be a particular problem at the moment is a lack of foresight; in the construction sector especially it is impossible to move forward without knowing whether the banks will provide funding to good businesses. Dean of Architecture, Jim Murphy explains that architects are being left in a state of limbo.

“The work has gone down, a lot of people have been let go and people are not able to project into the future – a lot of jobs have been held up and people don’t know whether to proceed or not so there’s a particular difficulty about that.”

However, Murphy is quick to calm any panic among students about a jobless future.

“I suppose the thing to remember about Architecture is that it’s always gone in cycles; our employment has always been cyclical and very often when there is a downturn it’s an opportunity to travel, to get experience outside the country, to do other things like to go into further education or to diversify a bit first to get the experience and then, following on from that when things pick up again, going into mainstream architecture.”

The key point is that there are many options which students overlook when planning their future – trying to find your ideal job directly after your degree in your home country is limiting and much easier said than done.

One option is to find a job which is completely outside of your degree area, as is being considered by people applying for a job in the McDonald’s in Ennis.

This can lead to surprising outcomes – some people find their new job actually suits them and choose to pursue this alternative career path. Tan Qing Jian, store manager at the McDonald’s on the Kylemore road, is one of the success stories, having found McDonald’s to be the right place for him after going through McDonald’s’ training programs. He is keen to point out how many people stay:

“A lot of people here [found it suits them]. I started my career in McDonalds under the training manager – we have 3 and 6 month training programs to suit different individuals”.

According to Eanan Strain of the UCD Career Development Centre, finding a job outside of your degree area can sometimes be a worthy option. “It’s not something that you would automatically think of. I would notice even myself; people come in, you tell them ‘you don’t particularly have to stick to the area that you did your degree in’. Employers are recruiting from all degree areas; it’s your actual academic scores they’re looking for”.

“It’s all about transferable skills at the end of the day. Employers want the skills – they look at your degree, your score, but not so much at your actual discipline.”

Emigration is also an option; while it appears that we are in a global downturn, the downturn is not uniform and jobs are to be found elsewhere. Canada has been suggested as possible haven of jobs, and although construction in Dubai has slowed significantly, it appears that the economy there is merely normalising itself after years of unrestrained development.

The situation in Ireland though is not as bad as it appears on the surface; Strain points out that the lack of jobs advertisements can be misleading, and in reality there are more jobs out there:

“The obvious [difficulty] is just that there are not that many jobs being advertised, so therefore it’s very competitive for anything that is. But, again, they’re just the ones being advertised, and that’s only a percentage of the job market out there. If I was to give people a message [it would be] that that’s just the advertised jobs, there are more jobs going but you have to source them yourself”.

With only a percentage of jobs being advertised, students will be competing for jobs against a lot of people with, in many cases, more experience. A transferable and diverse skills set, a masters in your subject and experience abroad will all make students more employable, but most importantly, it is clear that persistence and drive will be key to the success of this year’s graduates.

What are you studying?
I am studying an MA in Creative Writing in UCD, which is a year long course.

Was your undergraduate degree in English helpful for this MA?
My undergraduate degree was completely different to this. I didn’t really enjoy my Arts degree, in the sense of hundreds of people going to lectures, and mainly focusing on critical theory. My masters is the opposite of that. There is only about six people in most of my classes, with only twelve in the year, and it’s all very creative, and interactive. It allows you so much freedom. Working in small groups is hugely beneficial. One of our lecturers said to us that we would learn in one year what would take us five years on our own. There’s very little steering, a lot of it is editing and refining your initial drafts.

What does your course entail?
It’s only six hours of lectures a week, but with every lecture, there is an assignment to do, so you are constantly writing short stories, essays, readings or various assignments, depending on the class. You do a lot of working yourself. The lectures are very small, so a lot of the time you are just sitting around a table, with the lecturer directing a discussion of your work and editing it. At the end of the year, you must produce a portfolio, which is about 15,000 words, for which we have about three months to complete. There are no exams in this course, it’s all continuous assessment, with fifty credits going for your portfolio.

What does this course require from the student?
I think 85 people applied for the course and only twelve where successful, so when applying you have to show huge enthusiasm for writing. That is what they want to see more than anything really. They want to see a real dedication to writing. The whole point of the year is to improve your writing.

Who would you recommend this masters to?
I would recommend this to anyone who is serious about creative writing, be it poetry, fiction or drama, but also to those interested in publishing or editing. It really is a dream year. You will see such a drastic improvement in your work by the end of the year. I wince reading the stuff I wrote to get into the course! The course really looks at all aspects of your writing, from microscopically dissecting it to examining the literary genre. Writing is a craft, and although imagination is obviously involved, the craft does need to be harnessed.

What’s next?
I applied for an associate programme in a New York publishing house, where you spend four months in each department of the publishing house. I am also applying for a creative writing PhD in East Anglia, which I’m leaning towards at the minute.

The latest €7 billion recapitalisation plan of Irish banks proposed recently by the Government adds to the long list of measures designed to safeguard and protect our beleaguered financial institutions.

The stimulus plan, aimed at recapitalising Allied Irish Bank and Bank of Ireland, further endeavours the Government’s plan to increase confidence and stability in the banking sector in Ireland. Brian Lenihan, recently voted the second worst finance minister in Europe by the Financial Times, has stressed that the problem facing Irish banks is a liquidity issue, and not a solvency crisis.

“Everyone knows that we are facing a battle for financial stability,” Minister Lenihan said in defence of the plan, “This isn’t a question of bailing out the banks.” Instead the Government has highlighted that the recapitalisation scheme would improve the cash flow in the economy, by protecting and ensuring the longterm sustainability of the financial institutions in Ireland.

The National Reserve Pension Fund (NRPF), established to cater for public sector pensions, is now being considered a likely source of finance for the Government’s initiative to recapitalise Irish banks. The fund, which mainly invests in tobacco companies, has been targeted as a potential method of financing their €7 billion plan to recapitalise Allied Irish Bank and Bank of Ireland.

The value of the NRPF, which has experienced positive returns since the losses experienced after the dotcom collapse in 2002, has deteriorated substantially due to the global economic downturn. The Irish pensions fund decreased in value on average by almost six per cent in February, a dramatic increase in the loss of 1.9 per cent that was experienced in January.

A fund of €140 billion in 2025 will only provide for 25-30 per cent of the Irish public pension costs. With the aging population growing at a significant rate in Ireland, questions must be raised regarding the Government’s ability to financially provide for the elderly in the future.

“Questions must be raised regarding the Government’s ability to provide for the elderly in the future”

Currently there are four people in employment for every single retired person. This figure is expected to worsen by 2025, in which analysts are predicting a situation of three people working for each retired person. These distressing statistics only serve to highlight the vulnerability of the financial condition of the pension system in Ireland, and undoubtedly trigger questions regarding the practicality of using a source that is diminishing in value to fund our banking sector.

The Government has come under increased attack by the opposition after announcing plans to use €4 billion worth of savings in the National Reserve Pension Fund. Sinn Féin Finance spokesperson Arthur Morgan has expressed his disgust at the suggested strategy, declaring that the Government was effectively pumping money into these flagging institutions without experiencing sufficient return. Morgan emphasised that the plan gave the Minister for Finance “a carte blanche to raid the pension fund whenever and however he wants provided it is for his pals in the banking sector.”

Using the funds designed to protect one of the most vulnerable groups in our society to support banks which have been greedy and reckless with depositors’ money is at best questionable.

The Government’s raid on their rainy day fund, the value of which has already sharply declined, in an attempt to protect the financial institutions has worrying implications. The extent of bad debts among the Irish banks has yet to be revealed, and since a significant proportion of their loans are based on the now dwindling property market, the decision to use the National Reserve Pension Fund as a source of finance for these banks is risky and problematic.

The Government is playing a game of Russian roulette with tax payer’s money and if this stimulus plan turns out to be insufficient at recapitalising the banks, it will be ultimately be those who are already in a susceptible position who will suffer the consequences.