Review: Dropkick Murphys - Going Out in Style

With St. Patrick’s Day just around over, it seems fitting that the undisputed kings of Celtic rock would release a fitting homage to Irish traditional music and their inspirations such as Stiff Little Fingers and The Pogues.

With cameo appearances from none other than Bruce Springsteen and NOFX’s Fat Mike the entire album is a blast, with the type of face paced frantic performances that one would expect from the DK’s. The music itself is indistinguishable from that of their last number of albums, yet this is no bad thing. Blending modern punk music together with traditional instruments such as bagpipes and mandolins gives their music a uniqueness which few can match. The album is perfectly paced, with a few tributes to traditional Irish ballads interspersed in the mass of wonderfully energetic Celtic punk which characterises the DK’s.

Undoubtedly this album can be considered amongst their best, matching the standard of 2007’s The Meanest of Times, and it  provided a perfect background for manySt Patrick’s Day parties this year.  

Petty politics mars council meeting

In the first SU Council meeting in the wake of the elections a number of constitutional amendments were passed as well as the inclusion of two new societies. The meeting also featured a heated debate between a number of councillors over an emergency motion relating to the upcoming UCU strikes on the 21^st and 24^th March.

The first issue of business of the meeting was the unanimous decision to send a wreath to the funeral of the family member of Dominic Doherty, QUB SU Deputy General Manager, who was unable to attend the meeting and so was replaced by Damien ??????. In addition it was announced Councillor Ryan Cushley would be stepping down from his position in Council.

The first new society to be proposed was the QUB Rotaract Society, a fundraising body who have already raised money for such diverse causes as leukaemia research and the Simon community. The second proposed new society was the formation of QUB Labour Students. The group was proposed by current council speaker Joe Corina, and so for the duration of the proposal councillor Sarah Wright acted in the role of speaker. Both societies were ratified unanimously by council.

The majority of the constitutional reforms on the agenda for the meeting were proposed by VP Community Jay Downs. The first issue was to delete the constitutional clause which required amendments to be ratified by Union General Meeting or by Referendum prior to submission to the Senate. The motion was opposed by VP Education Nathan Anderson on the grounds that to say referendums and general meetings were unnecessary was against the democratic principles of the university. However the amendment was carried by 38 votes to 21. The second amendment was to change the process by which referendums happen so as to make it easier for them to garner enough support to get over the lower threshold for ratification (10% turnout needed). Despite the fact this amendment was passed unanimously, a number of senior councillors were unhappy with these two proposals, calling them a contradiction of interests. As the first amendment called for a severe reduction in the number of referendums at Queen’s, the second was designed to make these easier and more workable tools for the Union’s disposal, therefore making the decision to largely remove referendums as “stupid” according to one councillor.

A further amendment was to make all questions directed at the sabbatical officers or any senior member of the SU as being ‘professionally relevant’. This was passed unanimously without much serious debate. The next amendment proposed regarded the introduction of anonymous questions directed towards the Sabbatical officers. This amendment may have been in response to the fact that so far this academic year there have been no questions directed at the Sabbatical officers from council and therefore they have not been held to account as well as they should. The amendment was passed with only two opposing it, although one of these was Jason O’Neill who had stated that this set a “dangerous precedent” for future years. O’Neill also opposed the introduction of an amendment which would lead the way to performance related pay being introduced for next year’s Sabbatical team. Saying that it would “open Pandora’s Box”, O’Neill expressed concerns that it could lead to future animosities being expressed in council. The motion however was passed by 46 votes to 4, though the fact that O’Neill will be in charge of the distribution of PRP next year may yet be an issue.

The final amendment of the evening was universally well received, and that was the introduction of end of year reports by Sabbatical officers to aid in the transfer between various years’ teams. This vote was unanimous in its approval.

The final major issue of the evening saw an emergency motion proposed by Lorcan Mullen being passed after a significant and heated debate between certain members of council. The emergency motion regarded the forthcoming UCU strikes, and it called for the SU to take solidarity with the UCU and support their strikes by urging students not to attend classes. At one point of the debate a councillor accused the motion of being “pure socialism”, and also Jay Downs revealed that if fees do not increase then the university will cut 400 jobs and that this is why we need to show solidarity with the unions, but after two proposed changes regarding a paragraph referring to Tory cuts and the rhetoric used to describe this, the motion was eventually carried with only 4 opposing it.

Controversy reigns after SU elections

In the wake of a number of disputes arising from the recent SU elections including several official complaints and a referral to the election court, there have been fresh calls for wide encompassing reforms to the election process.

The calls have been led by former SU President Shane Brogan who, in an email obtained by The Gown, has called for greater transparency in the election process. Brogan calls for a greater level of investigation into the alleged rule breaking which occurred during the election, including a summary of all complaints received by the Returning Officer, and the action taken in response to each of these, including both formal and informal complaints, as well as a summary of all cases where candidates were found to have broken rules, who these candidates were and any action taken or formal or informal warnings issued.

Brogan also appeals for a breakdown of turnout by School, gender, age bracket, and at hourly intervals during the election days in order to provide a comparison to the turnout in recent years. It would also help identify any irregular voting patterns throughout the course of the election days.

In response to this a union insider said the ideas put forth were not a full constitutional reform, but more a practical reform which is much more widely needed. Brogan’s email should be viewed as an inquiry to provoke debate rather than attack on the system itself. Furthermore councillors may not have known they had the power to request reports/reviews from the sabbatical officers, and hopefully this will improve the democratic process in the union. With councillors more aware of their role, hopefully they should be able to better respond to any issues which arise in the future.

Brogan’s requests follow the decision by current VP Clubs & Societies Niall Bole to challenge the result of his election defeat to Niall McShane by 1823 votes to 1459. Bole has claimed that some candidates have flouted the rules which all candidates must adhere to, and that behaviour such as ‘helping’ people to vote has left a bitter taste in the mouths of many students who are disgusted by how the election campaign had gone.

Bole claims there have been flaws in the system since online voting was introduced now that every computer is a polling station. Although going back to polling booths would certainly drive down turnout, there is a need to "reassess the system" to make it suitable for "the current state of play".

Although he accepts some may accuse him of being a sore loser, Bole hopes that by approaching the election court he can “highlight holes which have been exploited” not just this year but in previous years also. Unless these problems are tackled now, they will simply be swept under the rug for another year.

McShane’s victory over Bole was part of an extremely successful night for the Law/GAA with Jason O’Neill winning President, Aidan Hughes being elected VP Community and Treasa Harkin comfortably taking the position of VP Equality & Diversity. The other victorious candidates were Nuala McAdams for VP Education, and Adam McGibbon and Fiona Kidd who both ran unopposed being returned as VP Welfare and VP Campaigns & Communications respectively.