Fable Fever Ella Parry spoke to Elyse Clarke and Kate O’Sullivan about the friendship that took them from a cookery course to founding Fable Bakery
IN FOCUS
OPINION
The Future of Irish Families
Lecture Recordings
Ella Sexton speaks to the National Women’s Council about the March referendum in features, page 11 »
László Molnárfi says that students and staff must unite in calling for lecture recordings in opinion, page 18 »
Magazine Matthew Keeley asks whether the lack of Irish actresses in the zeitgeist is concerning or coincidental.
The University Times universitytimes.ie
Volume XV, Issue V
Monday 26 February, 2024
Protesters Disrupt Senator Bernie Sanders’ Discussion of the Personal in the Political Sáoirse Goes DEPUTY EDITOR
The Hist Debate the New Name of the Berkeley (X) Eliora Abramson SOCIETIES EDITOR
T
he Hist held a debate on the renaming of The X Library, formerly known as the Berkeley Library, with ten speakers each arguing for their own proposed name. The debate featured five students, Ben Kieran Glennon, Malika Maniar, Brian Lennon, Clare Tobin and Méabh Scahill. The students were joined by five additional guests: Micheline Sheehy Skeffington, Professor James Smyth, Mary McAuliffe, Brian Lennon and Reverend Gordon Linney. The renaming of The X Library comes after Trinity’s Board decided in April of 2023 to dename the
United States Senator”, a job which, in his view, has “increasingly more sorrows than joys”. Sanders further expressed his desire to shed light on the structural issues facing the United States and the world, stressing that “the more important an issue is, the less it is discussed”. He stated that the United States and the global economy are moving rapidly towards an oligarchic form of society: “Today on this planet, the top 1 per cent own more wealth than the bottom 90 per cent”. This means that the working class is falling further behind as the growth of oligarchy accelerates. Sanders also noted that “the staCONTINUED ON PAGE 2
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tus quo is working phenomenally well for the people on top”. Crediting this increasingly apparent disparity to the growth of right-wing extremism, Sanders lamented this “distrust in democracy”. Speaking to the growing urgency of climate change, the Senator mentioned that his home state of Vermont experienced its “worst natural disaster in a hundred years”, with devastating flooding. Sanders noted that “the challenge is that America and Ireland alone cannot solve the climate crisis, every country in the world is going to have to transform their energy system”. Sanders also touched on the growth of artificial intelligence which, in his view, “gives an unprec-
edented opportunity to make life a lot better for ordinary people”. The challenge rests in the question of who will benefit from this explosion of technology. Sanders had to cancel a number of events to vote against a US national security bill in the Senate, which allocates around $14 billion in military aid to Israel. Although the bill passed by 70 votes to 29, Sanders acknowledged that it was “not an easy vote”. While the bill provided support to Ukraine and provisions for humanitarian aid, Sanders explicitly opposed the direct funding of Netanyahu’s government.
PHOTO BY ADAM RAINBOLT FOR THE COLLEGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
U
nited States Senator Bernie Sanders sat down with Irish Times journalist Fintan O’Toole on Friday evening to discuss the personal aspects of his political life, his journey from Vermont to Washington, and the vision underpinning his work. A partnership with the Ireland.New York Project (I.NY), Catapult and the Sanders Institute, the event was held in the Exam Hall in Trinity College in anticipation of the release of Sanders’ new book, entitled It’s OK
to be Angry About Capitalism. As a long queue of guests formed through and beyond Front Square on Friday evening, protestors gathered outside the Exam Hall asking those attending the event to question the Senator about the current situation in Gaza. Protesters’ chants included “Bernie Sanders you can’t hide, you’re denying genocide”, and urged those queueing to attend the National Demonstration, starting at the Garden of Remembrance in Parnell Square at 1pm on Saturday. The event began with a speech from Sanders, wherein the Senator expressed his desire to see better relationships between the United States and Ireland. Sanders spoke of the “joys and sorrows of being a
TCDSU Sabbatical Elections: Candidates Diverge on their Policies, Promises and Personal Motivations
library as its namesake George Berkeley held a sordid history of slave-ownership. The Trinity Legacies Review Working Group will be advising Trinity’s Provost on a new name for the library. This debate came with a disclaimer that the new name would not be decided that night, but the debate was instead a forum for public opinion to be voiced preceding the official renaming. Alternating between students and guest speakers, Brian Lennon began the debate in favor of the name Oscar Wilde, after the prolific Irish poet and playwright, and former Trinity student. Lennon, a third-year Classics student and Scholar, encouraged the audience CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
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PHOTO BY BRIDGET MCBRUISER FOR THE UNIVERSITY TIMES
Your one-stop guide to the Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) sabbatical elections, featuring comprehensive analysis of our poll results and in-depth interviews with each candidate. For the definitive resource for informed decision-making, read our Election Supplement, inside »
NEWS
B2 SPORT
B16 FILM & TV
R15
FEATURES
B11 ART
R2 LITERATURE
R3
OPINION
B12 FASHION
R4 MUSIC
R5
EDITORIAL
B12 FOOD
R6 THEATRE
R9
Editor: Clara Roche Volume XV, Issue V ISSN: 2013-261X Phone: (01) 646 8431 Email: info@universitytimes.ie Website: universitytimes.ie
This newspaper is produced with the financial support of Trinity College Students’ Union, but maintains a mutually agreed policy of editorial independence.
To contact UT, write to: The Editor, The University Times, 6 Trinity College Dublin 2
Concerns Raised Over Government Green Paper on Disability Reform Clara Roche EDITOR
A
t the fifth Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) council of the year on Tuesday, February 6th, a motion to oppose the government’s Green Paper on Disability Reform shone a spotlight on
the potential repercussions of the proposed reforms. TCDSU is one of 20 groups to have joined the ‘Scrap the Green Paper’ coalition, which calls upon the Department of Social Protection to reconsider the reforms in light of the scrutiny they have received. The goal of the Green Paper, a document designed to encourage public consultation on
the restructuring of long-term disability payments, is ostensibly to “encourage a higher level of employment for people with disabilities”, and “to better insulate disabled people who cannot work from poverty and deprivation”. The proposed reforms would remodel the structure of disability payments to establish a three-tiered system to assess eligibility for disability payments,
and to standardise the approach to supporting people with disabilities “with regard to access, assessment, payment rates and employment supports”. However, critics of the proposed reforms have described the planned categorisation of disabled people into different tiers as “dehumanising”, and CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
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