UCD Marian were crowned Dublin Senior Champions in Inchicore last Sunday, writes Colm Lakes

Final Score: Eanna 66 – UCD Marian 70

UCD Marian were crowned Senior Dublin Cup Division 1 Champions last Sunday evening in Inchicore, in a game which saw a last-minute brace from Gary Edge to secure the game for UCD. They faced off against Eanna, a team who were right on their tails at the top of the league, and both knew it would prove to be a tight affair.

Missing key man Barry Glover added an extra hurdle in UCD’s path to glory. Eanna started the game the better of the two teams, with a high tempo that UCD struggled to cope with. Paddy Young contributed the bulk of Marian’s scores early on, as UCD tried hard just to stay in touch. Gary Edge was relatively anonymous in the first half as he battled with Eanna player/coach Ciaran MacEvilly.  Eanna looked to Philip Reynolds for their scores, his size and mobility proving to be very difficult for Marian to handle. Despite their dominant start, Eanna were unable to put points on the board and the first quarter ended level 16-16.

UCD made a few changes to begin the second quarter, while Eanna remained unchanged. This may have been the reason for Eanna’s 8-0 run early in the second, while Marian struggled to find cohesion. However, the National Cup finalists were not disheartened and began to claw their way back into the game. Eanna made their first substitution of the match halfway through the second quarter, a tactical error which led to key players being tired and getting into foul trouble early. As the quarter wound down, the momentum began to switch to UCD and they closed the gap to six, with Gary Edge contributing multiple assists. Mark Ryan and Ciaran Dunne were the main scorers as the half time score was 37-31 in favour of Eanna.

Marian knew they would have to step up their efforts to avoid a second defeat in a final in two weeks. They came out firing early and drew level within the first few minutes of the second half. Midway through the third quarter, UCD increased their defensive pressure, pressing their opposition up the court in a zonal trap, which the tired Eanna struggled to cope with. However, through the quality of Ciaran MacEvilly, Eanna found a lifeline in the form of three straight three-pointers as the UCD crowd fell silent. Robert Keane then hit a buzzer-beater three-pointer to break the deadlock at the end of the third, the score 57-54, but the momentum was with UCD Marian.

As crunch time approached, UCD set the benchmark for the fourth quarter with two quick scores. The game was tit for tat from then on out, with UCD scoring threes from Edge and Mark Byrne while Eanna looked to Keane, MacEvilly and their Under-20 stars Ian and Neil Lynch for their outside threat. The latter of the twins was fouled on a three-point attempt, allowing him three shots from the free throw line in a huge play for Eanna.

Both teams had key players fouled out in crucial moments of the game, but UCD had enough depth on the bench to cope, while Eanna suffered heavily with the loss of Reynolds. The final minutes were tight, with the scores frequently separated by just one point. The game changer came in the final thirty seconds.

UCD had a one-point lead and possession; they held on to the ball and as the shot clock ran down, they misfired but Gary Edge managed to secure the loose ball. Eanna fouled him to send him to the line, and with only eleven seconds on the clock Gary Edge scored both of his free throws to put Marian up by three. Eanna pushed down the court in search of an open three-pointer. However, UCD’s stellar defence kept them searching. Neil Lynch could not find a pass to either MacEvilly or Keane, and when he tried himself Gary Edge showed his class and experience, coming up with a big steal. He was fouled and sent to the line with a chance to put the game out of reach, which is exactly what he did, burying the disappointment of their National Cup final with it.

UCD impressed throughout, despite being behind for most of the game. The most notable performances were from Edge, Byrne and Under-17 player Mark Ryan, who contributed twenty points, a very impressive performance from a player who looks set to have a successful career in basketball ahead of him. The game finished 66-70, as UCD Marian celebrated claiming another trophy for their increasingly impressive cabinet.

Title: Martha Marcy May Marlene

Director: Sean Durkin

Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, John Hawkes, Brady Corbet, Sarah Paulson

Release Date: Out Now

Martha Marcy May Marlene is a brilliantly executed film by first-time feature director Sean Durkin.  Following the efforts of a young woman to adjust to ordinary life after escaping a cult, it is told through flashbacks that continually increase in intensity, and expertly visualises her mind slowly unravelling as a result of trauma and manipulation.

Starring as the titular character, Martha, is played by Elizabeth Olsen, better known to most as a result of her famous siblings rather than her considerable acting prowess. Often when an actor attempts to break out of a shadow created by former child stardom (or in this case, the shadow of being a sibling to former child stars), there is a temptation to choose deliberately controversial roles portraying gratuitous sex and drug abuse, which leads to heavy handed, cringe-worthy indie efforts such as those of Mysterious Skin or Havoc. Luckily, this has not been the case for Olsen, and with her quiet and tragic performance, she manages to hold up this delicately handled film. Other notable performances come from Sarah Paulson and John Hawkes, who play her sister Lucy and cult leader Patrick respectively. Hawkes, in particular, creates a deeply sinister character, whose presence on screen is instantly unsettling.

however if there is one major criticism to be made of this film, it is that it is never made very clear why Martha joined the cult in the first place. Although it is hinted that there is an absence of any real family in her life, she never really comes off as vulnerable enough to discover such a cult or to even come to embrace it. The ending is also a little anticlimactic and unworthy of the suspense the film has masterfully created.

That being said, the film remains beautifully shot and is brilliantly paced, with remarkable performances from the entire cast.  Martha Marcy May Marlene runs the opposing worlds of ordinary and cult life side by side in a way that sometimes makes them hard to tell apart, creating the mental portrait of a tormented young woman who is trapped between two opposing systems.

In a Nutshell: A quiet, eerie film which teases itself out slowly with a strong cast and a title you won’t be able to say ten times quickly.

We are in the golden age of the geek. After decades of being the butt of high school movie jokes – laughing at their interest in games and lack of interest in matching attire – suddenly the geek is king. Games and technology have gone mainstream, and giant glasses and Pokémon references are not the preserve of the socially awkward, but rather the socially pretentious. Our TV heroes have also gone the way of the geek; the tough, gruff “solve the problem with punching” protagonists have made way for the TV genius: someone who unravels the riddle and saves the world with intellectual might. Two of the highest rated shows in the UK feature such geek idols, and the geek behind the geeks is writer Steven Moffat, head writer of Doctor Who and co-creator of Sherlock, the recent TV adaptation of the Arthur Conan Doyle series.

Doctor Who, for the uninitiated, is a show featuring an “eleven-hundred-and-three-year-old” alien who travels through space and time in a police box (called the TARDIS – Time and Relative Dimension in Space), fighting monsters and finding friends to take along with him, only ninety per cent of which have been very attractive women. Having run from 1963 to 1989, the show had been on a seemingly permanent hiatus until a reboot headed by Russell T. Davis aired in 2005. A fan since childhood, Moffat jumped at the chance to write his childhood hero. “Back in 2004, when we were approaching that first series … it felt sort of magical and strange that Doctor Who was coming back. It felt impossible that we were actually doing it and could go to the set and see the police box. It hadn’t been on for fifteen years; it was so incredibly exciting, and I remember sitting down for the first time and thinking ‘Bloody hell, I’m actually writing Doctor Who’. That never completely wears off, to be honest, I’m always very excited about writing Doctor Who, but it’s now harder for me to recapture the feeling of it being entirely a novelty.

“It’s hard to remember Doctor Who as a show I wasn’t involved with, as opposed to a couple of words I’m having stapled into the middle of my name. It’s really hard to remember I just used to be watching, and will be again someday. That’s become odd. But very exciting, very, very exciting.”

One cliché of Doctor Who, and both a point of ridicule by non-fans and fond nostalgia by those who watched as children, is the cheesy special effects and alien antagonists. The new series has a more impressive budget and use of CGI than the original, but the writers are keen to stick to their memory of the show. Unlike most British series, which have few episodes and a single writer, each episode of the Doctor Who has a different writer, with Moffat writing key episodes and overseeing the story lines. This can lead to very different tones, from humorous to chilling. “Gareth Roberts, one of my fellow writers on Doctor Who, had a theory that you write the Doctor Who you remember.” Moffat explains. “He tended to remember the funny ones, so he writes funny Doctor Who, and I remember just being terrified over it, so I tend to write the scary Doctor Who. Neither memory is more accurate, it’s all kind of nonsense, but I do like the sort of weird sense of transgression of it being slightly wrong to have a television show whose mission statement is to petrify kids. Try pitching that and getting it made today!

“With Doctor Who, I’m thinking of how I can get people to be scared, I suppose; what’s the monster this week, what’s the adventure, what’s the fastest way we can start the story, how soon can I get Matt Smith [the actor behind the current Doctor] running is probably the focus there.”

“Sherlock is different, because Mark [Gatiss, co-creator of Sherlock] and I sit around wondering which one are we going to do this year, which bits of the original haven’t been touched, and there’s quite a lot of Sherlock Holmes that hasn’t been touched. We’ve had considerable success just by mining the bits people don’t usually do … I mean, we got such credit for having the first time we see Sherlock Holmes he’s flogging a corpse, and people said how amazing and clever we were but the truth is the first time Sherlock Holmes is mentioned in the first Sherlock Holmes story that’s exactly what he’s doing. We just nicked it from the original.”

Though he started his writing career making children’s television shows with Press Gang, a series based around a school newspaper, Steven Moffat has plenty of experience writing things aimed more at the adult market. He followed up the success of Press Gang with Joking Apart and Coupling, sitcoms about divorce, relationships and sex. However, he doesn’t feel there to be much difference in writing for different age groups. “I’ve never even thought about it. I really, really don’t, I don’t have to think about it, which possibly says something about my immaturity!”

“I think Sherlock is really loved by kids as well actually. I’m not absolutely certain that the Doctor Who audience and the Sherlock audience are as different as people might like to imagine. I was alarmed when they moved back the last episode to nine o’clock, because that’s slightly too late for kids to watch it, and, while we don’t make it for them, it’s obviously more adult than Doctor Who, at the same time I’m always careful not to include anything, you know, you can push the envelope a bit, but you don’t make it unwatchable by kids. There’s nothing my kids wouldn’t watch in it.”

Coupling is an exception to this rule. Featuring the classic sitcom lineup of three guys, three girls and a heap of misunderstandings, it is very much of the bawdy side of the genre. “The kids in Press Gang, my show years ago, were far more grown up than the ones in Coupling. It is very much in the adult camp, but compared to my children’s shows, so much more immature.

“I love Coupling, but you’ve got more licence, I suppose, when you’re talking to adults, but if I had my time again, I think I would have made Coupling more mainstream, because there’s a lot of episodes that kids can’t watch. ‘The Man with Two Legs’ was a very funny episode, my son would love it, I’m sure, but it’s just a bit too naughty. With just a little bit more inventiveness and a little bit of cover phrasing you could make that show for a mainstream audience as opposed to a niche audience”

The lines are also often blurred between comedy and drama, a feature of Moffat’s writing being the move between tense, emotional drama and tension-breaking jokes several times within an episode. “I honestly don’t change the approach very much at all; the difference is, when you’re doing a sitcom, you’re actually thinking ‘they’ve got to be laughing on this page and this page and this page’. I don’t think there’s any excuse really, unless you’re making people cry then you should be making them laugh. I wrote comedy before I officially wrote comedy, because Press Gang was always funny.”

The dramatic elements can also increase the humour. Comedy often comes from the subversion of expectation and the breaking of tension, allowing the two sides to play off against each other. “Comedy sits better in a drama, the way its sits in life really, but then successful comedies can come from dramatic elements. The line can be blurred, because comedy is an artificial distinction unless you’re actually talking about a comedian. If you’re talking about narrative comedy then it is just story telling.”

Steven Moffat’s latest hit has been Sherlock, an adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novels, whose second series recently aired to great acclaim. Sherlock sets itself apart from most adaptations with its setting in modern-day London. The show fully incorporates modern attitudes and technology, which Moffat feels is a natural progression for the original character of Holmes. “We just decided we were going to update him properly; he’d be a modern man because he’s a modern man in the Victorian version, he’s always using newfangled things, like telegrams. He’s someone who appreciates and enjoys technology; he’s a bit of a science boffin, he’s a geek, he would do all those things. I just think it’s fun, I don’t think all the fantastic tech we’ve got limits the storytelling, I think you can use it in all sorts of ways.”

Many people have commented on the similarities between the characters of the Doctor and Sherlock, down to their respective series finales, in which both characters faked their deaths. “We always knew we were going to have to do Reichenbach, and yes, indeed, I did have the Doctor faking his own death – though by slightly more elaborate means! The problem is, I’m in charge of both shows, and what I can’t ever do is not do something in one show because I did it in the other. Ninety-nine per cent of the audience haven’t a clue who I am or know that I work on both of them, so you just ignore things like that. They are two swashbuckling geniuses; they’re always going to be doing similar things.”

So what next for the man with the golden pen? Following the climatic end of ‘The Reichenbach Fall’, the final episode of the latest series of Sherlock, it was revealed to much delight that a third series has been commissioned. There is also a seventh series of Doctor Who currently in production, so it seems there will be no rest for Moffat in the near future. “We just had our official day commencing pre-production on Doctor Who, so as for knowing when it’s actually going to be shown is a little bit optimistic. But we’ll definitely show it, and I’m pretty sure it will be the autumn.”

Details of the upcoming series are vague, but it seems that the Doctor’s companions of the last two series, Amy Pond and Rory Williams, played by Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill, will be leaving the show. “I’m writing that right now, the big Rory and Amy heartbreaking finale. It will be quite heartbreaking” Moffat teases, “I think you’ll be in trouble watching it.”

The first UCD Students’ Union General Meeting to be held in twenty-four years, held tonight in the Astra Hall, has failed to reach quorum. The assembly, which was called to decide the motion ‘Should the Union General Meeting overturn the decision by the Union to close the Print Bureau (SU General Office) in the Library/Arts Tunnel?’, was open to all member of the Students’ Union, and required five per cent of the student body (approximately 1,000 students) to vote in order to be constitutionally binding.

The Meeting achieved a total of 157 votes, 156 of which were valid, leaving the Meeting over 800 votes short of achieving quorum. The total cost of the Meeting, including twelve staff members and the printing of ballot papers, is estimated to come to over €3,000.

Of the votes cast, eighty-seven voted in proposition of the motion, while sixty-nine voted in opposition. As such, the Returning Officer Morgan Shelley announced that the motion was inquorate, and therefore invalid. Less than one per cent of the student body partook in the vote.

Regarding the low turnout for the vote, the final speaker for the Proposition, Elizabeth Coote commented, “I’m disappointed on that, because let’s be honest, 23,000 students – how many actually elect the Students’ Union? Very few students within the college go for election. We got 3,000 [signatures] in seven to eight days.”

UCD SU President Pat de Brún commented, “Reaching quorum was extremely unlikely. I think that was clear for everyone from the start, including the proposer, with the full knowledge of what the cost would be to the Union, so to be honest, I think the end result is quite counter-productive compared to what the intended result behind the petition was.”

The first speaker for the Opposition, UCD SU Campaigns and Communications Officer Brendan Lacey stated his concern about the cost of the event, remarking, “No democratic process of the Union could be considered a waste of money, but it’s unfortunate that in a year where we’ve endeavoured to make huge savings across the board … to see it struck out with what turned out be a measure that wasn’t promoted well, and really won’t have any binding effect on the Union… I’m disappointed.”

When asked whether this result would end the campaign to overturn the decision made by the SU, the proposer of the motion, Karl Gill stated, “We’ll have to stick our heads together, but chances are, if the two women [Jacqueline Carey and Anne Dunne, both made redundant before Christmas] aren’t willing to do much more after this then we will have to call it a day, if that’s the case. However, I still think the campaign proved a lot of reasonable points, that there is a frivolous attitude when it comes to finances in the Union, that there is a tendancy towards Ents and less of a tendancy towards educational services. I think, if we get anything out of it, it’s that student activism is still alive and is still fighting for the genuine, real things that are on students’ minds today.”

Photography by Dave Nowak, Chief Photographer.

Is living on the dole a nightmare or a holiday? Sean O’Grady looks at what being on social welfare in Ireland means today.

The 1^st of February saw the publication of an article in the Irish Independent in which a Polish woman identified only as ‘Magda’ spoke of the easiness of living her life on social welfare. Originally having been written for a Polish newspaper, the English translation contained several quotes from Magda (later revealed as not being her real name).  ‘What’s my life like? Wonderful. I can grow as a person, I can breathe. I get a welfare payment; €188 per week plus €59 for rent,’ and ‘Work for the minimum wage? It’s not worth it,’ and, most disparagingly, even compared living on welfare to a ‘Hawaiian massage’. Rightly so, the article, as well as the woman in question, drew harsh criticism from the media and the general public. Soon afterwards however, it was discovered that the original Polish article had been severely mistranslated and much of what Magda was quoted as saying had been taken out of context. As it turns out, she does not believe drawing the dole is a holiday she can exploit, and later stated she is currently seeking employment. Nevertheless, the article does raise inevitable questions about the current state of social welfare as it stands in Ireland today.

There often seems to  be a general consensus among many Irish people that those on welfare were simply ‘lazy’ good for nothings who are taking tax payers’ money. However, when you factor in the mass unemployment that Ireland faces today, how true can this really be anymore? The most recent unemployment rate statistics, released last November, show that a massive 14.6 per cent of Irish citizens are currently jobless, and 100 people on average emigrate every day. While the stereotype of the perceived laziness of those in the dole queue may have carried a degree more weight during Celtic Tiger times, nowadays, even the most qualified of college graduates can find themselves on welfare.

Most unfortunately, at a time in which recipients are their most vulnerable, welfare budgets are slowly decreasing. In 2007, Ireland’s unemployment benefits for those who were jobless long term, in several different categories, was the third highest in the OECD. However, with the announcement of the new budget cuts in 2012, €475 million has been taken out of social welfare. While not the highest number that was expected, this is still a very significant change.

To put it in more individual terms, €8 will be cut from the dole and €10 for each child benefit. There is also talk of reducing the eligibility of those on Lone Parents Allowance. Although when put into those terms, the cuts in social welfare may not sound very significant, for those it affects directly, they feel the significance of it all too well. For many, that €8 will be the difference between having a dinner one evening and nothing the next, or going from a warm house to one which has no heating since they just cannot afford it.

This, however, presents only one side of social welfare. There is another side that people have a problem with. While many believe that people who are on welfare receive too much, as discussed, they generally do not. Still, there are rare cases were those who live on benefits earn more than those with paid jobs. Late 2011 saw the release of a story of a Bosnian family with four children living in Ireland who receive up to €90,000 per year in benefits. While having four children certainly makes the case for needing additional aid from the welfare office, to give that amount to people who do not make a living is ridiculous. Many couples who are both employed will not make that much in a year, and it is a wonder how things like this are let happen. The move for a decrease in the welfare budget seems to coincide with this view, that benefits should be given a cap so as not to let another case such as this Bosnian family happen again.

One of the key arguments espoused by those opposing purportedly ‘extravagant’ benefits to disadvantaged families is because it may lead to the creation of the so-called ‘welfare class’, a group of people who welfare opponents believe will be encouraged to become lazy and apathetic when it comes to seeking employment. After all, when being given a wage every week without having to do anything for it, why work?

But we must not forget all the good that social welfare can do. Lower income students can afford college, newly unemployed people can still support their families. It seems the best option would be to implicate a strict cap on the amount of benefits given; not only will people be able to get by in difficult times, they will also be that more determined to better their lives.

Title: Young Adult

Director: Jason Reitman

Starring: Charlize Theron, Patrick Wilson

Release Date: Out now

Charlize Theron (Monster) gives an extremely convincing performance as thirty-seven-year-old ghost writer of a series of young adult fiction novels, Mavis Gary, who clings to delusional teenage fantasies and obsesses over her younger years, in particular her old flame Buddy Slade (Patrick Wilson). After she learns that Buddy has recently become a father for the first time, Mavis returns to her hometown of Mercury, Minnesota with the intention of rekindling the flame between her and her former beau, under the pretext that she is overseeing a real estate deal.

Theron gives a smart, snappy performance, which is complimented by her excellent comedic timing. Mavis is described by her peers as a “psychotic prom queen bitch” and Theron illustrates this effortlessly. Mavis is selfish, spoiled and very much remains trapped in the mind set of a high school narcissistic beauty queen. Her fluffy dog, reality TV and constant boozing appear to be the only stable and consistent parts in her daily life. Mavis sees no fault in her behaviour and, despite Buddy having a wife and newborn child, has no qualms in bringing down everyone around her in her attempt to win him over.

Mavis’ inability to grow up, let go of the past and accept the harsh realities of life is echoed in the film’s soundtrack, which has a distinctly nineties vibe. Dinosaur Jr, Pearl Jam and The Lemonheads are among the bands that are featured, while ‘The Concept’ by nineties rockers Teenage Fanclub becomes something of an anthem, and is used by Mavis to revisit her younger years and also to remind Buddy of the passion they once shared.

Young Adult is undeniably a Diablo Cody film. It possesses the same charm and clever wit as Juno, her previous collaboration with director Jason Reitman. Unlike the romantic comedies that have become the norm for cinema-goers, Young Adult is almost uncomfortably true to life, portraying even the most unsavoury and humiliating aspects of Mavis’ endeavours. In essence, the film is quite cynical, with the protagonist being anything but likeable, yet Cody’s witty dialogue and clever characterisation ensure things don’t get too heavy for the viewer, and the next laugh is never too far away.

Although she may not be the most likeable leading lady to grace our screens, Mavis Gary does gain our sympathy and however cringe-worthy her train-wreck attempt is, it is certainly enjoyable to watch.

In a Nutshell: An impressive comedic performance from Charlize Theron in a smart and witty film from the accomplished Diablo Cody.

The Maccabees guitarist Felix White chats to Greg Talbot about developments in the studio, the joys of travel and his own sartorial regrets.

The Maccabees have started the year on a high after their much awaited third album, Given to the Wild, has been well received and reviewed. The group, who are from the south London area, formed back in 2003 and have become one of the most successful acts to survive the dark days of landfill indie. In conversation with Otwo, guitarist and vocalist Felix White recalls how much the band has grown and developed from their initial beginnings, when they had nothing more than a “pipe dream of sorts,” to the current day, where the band is in the middle of their European tour, which began last month. Despite possessing great talent, Felix speaks with an air of humility and modesty when remembering the band’s younger years. “We always did work, and we are honest and very openly a bit naïve to things, but that’s what bands starting out are, and I wouldn’t change any of that to be honest, because that’s how we got this point.”

Released in early January, Given to the Wild is different in numerous ways from the band’s previous albums, Colour it in and Wall of Arms. “We knew from the very start before we worked with anyone that we wanted it to be a different record.” The process that the members engaged in was new territory, but this did not stop the Maccabees from producing an evidently outstanding album. “It’s totally different in the way it was constructed, because everything else that the Maccabees had done to that point was started in the rehearsal room and working it out together and playing it live, and very often what you heard was how we worked it out in that room, plus brass or whatever that was done in production at the last moment. This one is kind of worked out the total opposite way. We started things just with little loops and stuff on computers and sending back and forth to each other. It was done away from rehearsal room, so that is a totally different way for the Maccabees to make music.”

The album offers songs which are heavier emotionally in comparison to their previous endeavours. However, this new feel to their music did not occur by mistake. “We just realised that, maybe, some songs had been quite restrained, which is great, but we wanted to do something which had a bit more momentum.” White states on a few occasions how they strived to make a “different” record, and how they wanted it to “hold much more of an atmosphere to it than anything [they] worked on before, for it not to sound like a band that has two guitars, drums and a bass.” He elaborates that they “wanted it to have more mystique than that and for it just to have different eccentricities and things going on within in it.”

Given to the Wild had a team of three producers, but did this mean that The Maccabees suffered from creative constraints? “I think we were allowed to make the record sound how we wanted it to. Like, literally for the first time, we had that much hands-on, and that much ownership of it.” Aside from these factors, the group’s core methodology remained the same. “It’s more about when you write something, it kind of happens accidentally and the trick is to more realise when something is good and capture it and go with it.”

As talk turns to the band’s European tour, White explains what he will enjoy the most over the coming months. “I look forward to waking up in a different European city every morning and enjoying my job being in a band, that’s pretty cool.” Again, in the same vein as the record, the tour is going to offer something new to previous appearances. “Well, we’ve got three records to play from now,” White explains, so they’re different shows to what Maccabees shows would’ve been before.” In retrospective contemplation, the guitarist and vocalist highlights where he believes the band made their biggest mistakes in the past. “I think more than anything the first few Maccabee gigs had a few too many fashion faux-pas to be honest,” happy to single out his wish that he could advise his younger self to not wear a certain “green and yellow and black Jamaican peaked hat.”

The band plan on touring for most of the year, appearing at as many festivals as they can along the way, as well as returning to Ireland in early March. Notwithstanding all the hard work that they are committing themselves to, White maintains that the Maccabees have a lot to give in the future. “I’d just like to keep making a lot more music, and I think we’ve done well to this point and the best thing about it’s that there is still much more in us.”

The Maccabees play The Academy on March 3rd, tickets are priced at €25. Given to the Wild is out now.

Students’ Union Returning Officer Morgan Shelley today confirmed that an SU General Meeting would be held next Monday, at 7pm, in the Astra Hall. The motion to be put to the Union concerns “whether to overturn the decision made by the Union to close the Print Bureau”, says Shelley, continuing, “I understand [the last time such a general meeting took place] was in 1988 … There certainly hasn’t been one in UCD in my time, which is since 2001.”

In order for the motion to pass, a quorum of five per cent of the UCD’s student body must vote for the meeting to be valid. Shelley explains, “Five per cent of the members of the Union have to vote at the meeting. Hopefully, I’ll be able to ascertain on Monday the exact number that that is. So, it’s not the attendance of the meeting, it’s the number of people who vote. So you could have a situation where a quorum of people attend the meeting, but not enough of them vote.”

While a total cost of the Meeting is yet to be confirmed, eight stewards and four security guards will need to be hired, as well the cost incurred from a minimum of 1,200 ballot papers being printed. UCD SU Campaigns and Communications Officer Brendan Lacey commented “I think we have tried to clear up with the student body the facts, as opposed to misinformation, surrounding this issue. We will continue to do so at the UGM, my only hope is that it doesn’t prove to be too large a further cost to the Union.”

Regarding the cost, the motion’s proposer, Karl Gill, stated “I just discussed it with the returning officer  – he was saying it could easily be three thousand euro, considering for staff and ballot papers and stuff like that … I know that is a big cost, in particular with the climate of the Union, but in the grand scheme of things it isn’t actually that big of a deal considering that we’re saving the only educational service provided by the Union.”

Should the vote pass, the Union decision to close the Copy Bureau will be overturned, subject only to a referendum. A campus-wide referendum may be called to supercede a decision made at a Union General Meeting.

Security measures will be in place to ensure that only UCD students can participate in the Meeting, with Lacey stating, “Student cards will be checked on the way into the venue, it’s important to uphold the democratic nature of a UGM by ensuring only UCD students are in attendance.”

Photograph by Caoimhe McDonnell.

-       UCD prepared to support SU in “addressing the resourcing issues”

-       Seconder of motion to rehire Copy Bureau employees withdraws support

-       Protest described as “more like a riot” by member of Student Centre staff

-       De Brún confirms that Copy Bureau will not re-open

Students’ Union President Pat de Brún has confirmed that the SU Copy Bureau will not be re-opening, despite a protest being held on January 25^th against its closure. “This was not something that was done flippantly, it was nothing but a last resort.”

Auditor of the Socialist Workers Student Society, Karl Gill was pleased with the turnout and level of interest at the protest, estimating there to have been up to 300 people present, “it was fantastic to see that people were angry and wanting answers.”

A motion was put to Union Council two weeks ago regarding rehiring the recently let go Copy Bureau employees, but was rejected by a vast majority. The motion was put forward by Gill and seconded by Auditor of the Inclusion, Participation, Awareness (IPA) Society and second year Social Science Class Rep, Brian O’Brien.

O’Brien has since withdrawn his support from the cause after viewing a YouTube video of de Brún and Campaigns and Communications Officer Brendan Lacey being “pulled out of their offices and heckled and being made speak in front of two to three hundred people.”

O’Brien maintained that “it was a good protest, it got people out but you cannot drag people out of their offices and make them speak … Pat shouldn’t have gotten the abuse he did, no-one should abuse someone for taking a decision – he has to make hard decisions and that’s his job.”

De Brún confirmed the extreme behaviour, stating, “I was disappointed by a small minority who resorted to verbal abuse and name calling. I don’t think there is a place for that in the University and I think it undermined their protest.”

An anonymous employee of the Student Centre described the protest as being “more like a riot … it was something I’ve never experienced before, what I heard was … swearing. I was a little bit scared, it just all suddenly happened. I heard all the loud yelling and the swearing and I wouldn’t expect a protest to be like that.”

Following the protest, De Brún released an open letter to UCD students detailing the reasons behind the decision and information about the Union’s current €1 million debt.

De Brún explained his reasons for releasing the letter, “I felt that it was time to engage a bit more directly with students on the ground about the current financial situation because I’ve become very concerned that that campaign was spreading quite a bit of misinformation and exaggeration. I think that students deserve to be told exactly what the facts of the financial situation are and I wanted to lay it out in plain and simple terms, and ensure that it reached as many people as possible.”

The protesters suggested that the Union approach the University for financial support, an idea that was dismissed by de Brún in his letter. However, when asked whether the University would be willing to consider bailing out the debt, a UCD spokesperson stated, “the University has been, and intends to be, fully supportive of the Students’ Union in addressing the resourcing issues, and providing input to the work which has been undertaken by the firm of professional accountants.”

The Residences Harry Potter themed Ball, which was set to take place on February 1st, has been cancelled.

According to Students’ Union Welfare Officer Rachel Breslin, the event was cancelled due to slow ticket sales, “tickets had been on sale for a few days and it was coming to the point where we had to confirm acts and pay for acts, we would have had to pay for the dinner, so we were coming to the point where our costs were increasing significantly. We just didn’t want to run an event that wouldn’t break even.” Forty tickets had been sold and deposits were held for twenty.

The ball was originally expected to take place before Christmas but according to Breslin there had not been sufficient time to advertise the event.

The purpose of the ball was to allow students living on campus to have an event to go to together as a house or apartment, “so they would have an event that they would remember together because a lot of the time, and I know myself, I wouldn’t really see the people I lived with in first year anymore, even though I got on really well with them. It’s something that you could remember that you did together as a house, particularly for international students who don’t have a faculty ball, because a lot of their friends would be living on residence with them. We thought there would be a market there and tried to see if it was feasible and we didn’t want to run it at a loss.”

Breslin expressed disappointment that the event had to be cancelled, but maintained that another event aimed at students living on campus would be organised instead, “I would have loved to have seen it happen, but it just means we’ll do something else that’s residences orientated instead … I think we did try our best but the interest just wasn’t there.”

Students who purchased tickets will receive a full refund.