1. Tuesday 10th February 2015TRINITY NEWS
SciTech p. 20Features p. 7 Comment p. 14
Matthew
Mulligan:
My bare ass
was suddenly
splashed
across the
news feeds of
546 Facebook
users.
IBEYI DISCUSS YORUBA
CULTURE AND THEIR
UPCOMING DEBUT, IRA
SACHS TALKS ABOUT THE
POWER OF MULTI-
GENERATIONAL
STORYTELLING, AND WE
EXPLORE THE FUTURE OF
ENTERTAINMENT THROUGH
THE OCULUS RIFT.
SU-hired entertainer ‘hypnotised’ female
students into lap dancing - claims
Trinity College Dublin Students’
Union (TCDSU) president,
Domhnall McGlacken-Byrne,
received a lap dance from one of
several allegedly hypnotised fe-
male students at a class rep train-
ing weekend at the beginning of
this academic year, Trinity News
has learned. The incident oc-
curred during a hypnosis show
performed by entertainer James
McCoy - who SU Ents officer,
Finn Murphy, says was hired on
the recommendation of sabbati-
cal officers in other universities
- on October 18th.
Trinity News understands
that the student in question,
a 19-year-old class rep in her
first year of college, brought
McGlacken-Byrne to a chair
in front of the function room
stage in Crowne Plaza, Dundalk,
where the training weekend was
held, after she and other “hyp-
notised” female students were
asked by the entertainer to pick
a male observer out of the au-
dience, sit on their knees and
dance provocatively.
The student told Trinity News
that she was awarded the prize
of “best lap dance” by SU edu-
cation officer, Katie Byrne, dur-
ing a mock award ceremony the
next morning, though this has
been denied by both McGlack-
en-Byrne and Murphy, who say
that the award was in fact for
“Domhnall’s biggest fan”.
The student also told Trinity
News that she did not feel fully
lucid during the incident, which
she said lasted for “about a min-
ute”. Unlike other hypnotised
students, though, she said she
clearly remembers her actions.
“I knew that I was there, but I
felt like I had to do what I was
being asked to do [by the hyp-
notist],” she said. “I knew what
I was doing, but I felt like I had
to do these things.” However, she
said that she found the episode
“quite funny” and added that
the SU sabbatical officers have
always been “really nice” to her.
McGlacken-Byrne, who some
sources have said looked uncom-
fortable during the incident, this
weekend confirmed that he took
part in the performance. “People
were laughing,” he said. “Your
one and I laughed about it af-
terwards. I didn’t really care.” He
told Trinity News that he made
sure to check up on the student
after, but added that he felt she
had enjoyed it and that the inci-
dent was one of several uncom-
fortable portions of the show.
One segment that had par-
ticularly worried him, he said,
involved the hypnotist asking
people to imagine that they were
watching a film that he eventu-
ally tried to convince them was a
pornographic video. Participants
were then asked to convey their
thoughts on the imagined film
to the crowd. McGlacken-Byrne
feared that someone was “go-
ing to reveal that they were gay,
who hadn’t perhaps done that
[before].” He said he watched
the event “with a ‘worst case
scenario’ hat on from beginning
to end” because he understood
that “it’s the sort of thing where
everything is your fault if it goes
wrong.”
The hypnotist was also booked
to perform at an event during
TCDSU Mental Health Week the
following week. He was asked
to “tone down” this routine af-
ter his performance at the class
rep training weekend, however,
according to McGlacken-Byrne,
who claims to have told him:
“You didn’t go there last week
and it went well, but I felt like
at times last week it could have
gone wrong, so could you temper
it a bit?”
In a statement to Trinity News,
Finn Murphy added: “The prob-
lem at the end of the day was that
the hypnosis seemed ‘too real’
and I think in general people are
uncomfortable with the idea of
another person having control
over their actions, which is to-
tally fair. To be honest, before it
started I didn’t think it was going
to work at all. Then when people
started doing things it shocked
us and we then had to tell the
hypnotist to calm it down.”
When contacted, James McCoy
claimed that he has “no recollec-
tion” of many of the sections of
that night’s show that have come
under criticism. He said that he
had only asked female students
to “sit on [male audience mem-
bers’] knees” and that this seg-
ment was for “comic value”. He
denied that asking someone, al-
legedly under hypnosis, to dance
provocatively on someone’s knee
amounted to inappropriate con-
duct. “Santa Claus asked people
to sit on his knees - it doesn’t
get more family orientated than
that,” he said.
However, other attendees at
the training weekend have since
described being disturbed by the
hypnotist’s set. “I think it was
horrifically inappropriate,” one
audience member told Trinity
News. “He didn’t consider that
there might be people of sexual
orientations that weren’t hetero-
sexual among the crowd or that
some of us may be in relation-
ships. He also didn’t make the
male ‘volunteers’ display any
such openly sexual behaviour.”
Others were more unsettled by
the hypnotists’ jokes about audi-
ence members’ physical appear-
ances, which included inappro-
priate remarks about one class
rep’s weight.
The hypnotist had allegedly
said at the beginning of the show
that audience members would
still be in control of their actions
when hypnotised. However, this
has been disputed by several of
the female students who par-
ticipated in the set. One partici-
pant said: “The only thing I can
compare it to is sleep paralysis,
where you’re aware of what’s go-
ing on but you have no control
over your body.”
Two other sources have report-
ed suffering memory loss imme-
diately after allegedly being hyp-
notised. One class rep, who said
she had “barely touched a drop”
before the event, claimed to not
remember “a single moment of
[the show]”. The participant add-
ed: “My initial feelings [after the
event] were ones of anxiousness,
then embarrassment as details
of what ‘I’ had done emerged.”
Another participant claiming to
have suffered memory loss com-
mented: “I do remember about
60% of things but I couldn’t re-
member what order they came
in. I could remember dancing on
more than four or five boys dur-
ing one song anyway, but I could
only point out two at most.”
Sport p. 24
Polling opened in Trinity Hall yesterday and will close at 4pm in the Hamilton and Arts Block on Thursday. Photo: Kevin O’Rourke
Finding solace in sport
#LeadTCD Students head to polling stations across campus
Conall Monaghan
Staff Writer
>>
Inside
>>
• Sabbatical officer among several male audience members to participate in
performance at class rep training
• First-year student allegedly received mock award for ‘best lap dance’
“
Deconstructing
the Trinity hack:
Has the word ‘hack’
been reclaimed or
is it pejorative? If
so, who can use it?
Moral dilemma of animal
testing in Trinity
Election head-
to-head: Should
the SU be seeking
more commercial
sponsorship?
Tuesday 20th January 2015TRINITY NEWS
Inside
SciTech pp. 21 - 22Features p.9 Comment p.14
TCDSU
elections:
What are
the key
issues
at stake?
IRISH ILLUSTRATOR
FUCHSIA MACAREE TAKES
OVER TN2’S COVER, ANU
PRODUCTIONS’ BREFFNI
HOLOHAN DISCUSSES SMALL
AUDIENCE THEATRE, AND
WE LOOK AT THE RISE OF
VEGANISM AND CLEAN
LIVING IN DUBLIN.
One in four female TCD students
sexually assaulted - survey
• Soon-to-be released study finds 42% of female students have been stalked or
subject to obsessive behaviour
One in four female students at
Trinity College who responded
to a students’ union survey has
had a non-consensual sexual
experience. The soon-to-be-
released study, which surveyed
1,038 male and female students
online between December 8th
and 13th, found that 25% of
women and 5% of men have
been subjected to unwanted
sexual contact.
Just under a third (31%) of
women who took part in the
survey said they have experi-
enced unwanted physical con-
tact while studying at Trinity
or in a Trinity social setting,
compared with 8% for men.
One in 13 respondents - 8% of
women and 7% of men - re-
ported having been stalked or
subject to obsessive behaviour.
42% of female students and 8%
of male students said that they
had experienced verbal harass-
ment, while one in 20 respond-
ents said they have been physi-
cally mistreated by a partner.
The study also reveals a worry-
ing lack of awareness about the
issue of sexual consent, with
only 31% of women and 32% of
men saying they had heard of
any consent campaigns before.
In a statement to Trinity
News last night, Ian Mooney,
SU welfare officer, said the
figures point to the need for
student education on the issue
of sexual consent. “Although
phrases such as ‘non-consen-
sual sexual experience’ may
be somewhat ambiguous in
meaning, the fact that such a
large number of people feel
that they have had one speaks
volumes on an issue that’s not
commonly discussed,” he said.
Speaking to Trinity News,
Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop, CEO
of the Dublin Rape Crisis Cen-
tre said she was shocked by the
figures. “They certainly seem
to mirror what is happening in
American universities.”
Mandatory consent
workshops
Trinity News understands that
Mooney is now seeking to in-
troduce mandatory sexual con-
sent workshops for students.
In an agenda sent around to
class representatives on Sun-
day ahead of tonight’s SU
council meeting, he reports
having consulted Oxford and
Cambridge representatives
about their own compulsory
workshops. “They’ve told me
what’s been good and what’s
been bad, the troubles they
faced,” he says. “The ultimate
goal here for the year would be
to introduce something simi-
lar for Trinity and hopefully
avoid the troubles that they
faced.” Mooney is also meeting
officials from the Free Legal
Advice Centre (FLAC) and the
Dublin Rape Crisis Centre to
discuss the study’s findings and
the possibility of collaborating
on a sexual assault booklet or
campaign.
First comprehensive TCD
study
His survey is the first ever
comprehensive study of stu-
dents’ experiences of sexual as-
sault and harassment in Trinity
College. It follows a landmark
study, “Say Something”, pub-
lished by the Union of Students
in Ireland (USI) in September
2013, which found that 16%
of students - and one in five
women - in Irish third-level
institutions have experienced
some form of unwanted sexual
experience, with only 3% of
victims having reported it to
gardaí. While 14% of non-LGB
students recording having an
unwanted sexual experience,
the figure rose to 25% for LGB
students. Most perpetrators of
sexual assault were acquaint-
ances of the victim. Three
out of 10 women experienced
comments with a sexual over-
tone that made them feel un-
comfortable. The USI survey,
which polled 2,750 third-level
students, also found that one in
10 female respondents and 5%
of male respondents said they
had been the victim of obses-
sive behaviour.
USI president, Laura Har-
mon, who was USI vice-pres-
ident for equality and citizen-
ship at the time of the release
of its “Say Something” survey,
last night told Trinity News
that the Trinity figures were
“broadly in line” with its own
findings. She is said there is a
need for Irish universities to
improve its protocols when it
comes to dealing with sexual
assault. “There is no stand-
ardised policy for higher-ed-
ucation institutions,” she said.
“There should be standard
procedures for when students
report incidents to staff.” Har-
mon added that it is an issue
she is currently working with
minister for education Jan
O’Sullivan on.
College had not responded
to a request for comment at the
time of writing.
If you have been affected by
any of the issues raised in this
article, you can get in contact
with Ian Mooney (welfare@
tcdsu.org), the Trinity stu-
dent counselling service (01-
8961407) or the Dublin Rape
Crisis Centre’s 24-hour hel-
pline (1800 778 888).
Sport p. 24
Candidates for SU president, announced yesterday, from left to right: Gabriel Adewusi, Conor O’Meara, Lynn Ruane, Nessan Harper and Adam Colton. Photo: Kevin O’Rourke
Will Foley:
Studying
philosophy
has taught
me nothing
expect how
to survive
misery.
Alicia Lloyd
talks to former
Trinity wing
Niyi Adeolokun
about life with
Connacht
Rugby.
Dylan Lynch talks solar flares
with the Trinity physicist leading
a space forecasting project just
awarded €2.5m in EU funding.
Brian Conlon, one of the
microbiologists behind the recent
discovery of the world’s first anti-
biotic in 30 years, tells us about its
implications for the treatment of
antibiotic-resistant diseases.
Five potential presidents SU election candidates announced
Catherine Healy
Editor
• SU welfare officer in talks to introduce compulsory sexual consent workshops
By
numbers:
1,038
Number of polled
students
42%
Women have
experienced
verbal harassment
1in13
Respondents have
been stalked or
subject to obsessive
behaviour
1in20
Respondents have
been physically
mistreated by a
partner
>>
Tuesday 9th December 2014TRINITY NEWS
SciTech p.19Features p.7 Comment p.13
Bláithín
Sheil
meets
John
McLean
and Trinny
the cat.
Photo: Samuel Verbi
TN2 GOES BACKSTAGE WITH
TINKERBELL AT THE PANTO;
IRELAND’S LEADING
CHOCOLATIERS SPILL THE
COCOA BEANS; AND WE
DELVE DEEP INTO INDEPEN-
DENT DUBLIN BOOKSHOPS.
Major breach of college network
went undetected for months
The School of Computer Science and Statistics has confirmed that the
eight-month-long breach was the action of an individual student.
The School of Computer Sci-
ence and Statistics (SCSS)
is investigating a breach of
its network after a student-
created webpage facilitated
access to Webcat, a restricted
site used by computer science
students to submit course-
work online, Trinity News
has learned. The webpage,
hosted on a server run by to
the Dublin University Inter-
net Society (Netsoc), had al-
lowed students to circumvent
a departmental ban on access
to the site outside of Trinity
for eight months until it was
discovered by SCSS adminis-
tration on November 30th. It
was visited over 20,000 times
by 487 individual users, ac-
cording to site statistics at-
tained by this paper.
The breach of Webcat, a
software package used by stu-
dents of its CS2010 module,
Algorithms and Data Struc-
tures I, was first reported by
Dr. Vasileios Koutavas, assis-
tant professor at the School
of Computer Science. “I rely
on [Webcat] heavily to mark
and manage multiple assign-
ments in CS2010, offered to
about 135 students each year,”
he told Trinity News in a
statement. “Thus the security
incident […] only affected one
module but it exposed very
critical infrastructure for the
operation of this module, as
well as student information
and coursework marks.”
In contrast to TCD Black-
board, from which computer
science students receive no
immediate feedback, Webcat
provides students with an
automated mark, generated
comments and highlighted
areas of problematic code.
Furthermore, unlike most of
College’s other websites, such
as my.tcd.ie, which are avail-
able on the public web, Web-
cat runs solely as software on
SCSS servers, operating from
within the college network.
Although Webcat is intended
to be used only on campus,
other services on the public
web that can access it pro-
vided a loophole that could
be manipulated to under-
mine the limited access. This
meant that anyone with an in-
ternet connection and access
to the webpage could have
accessed the Webcat login
page. The process is often
metaphorically compared to
piggybacking, allowing any-
one to climb onto the back of
services running from within
the college network and be
carried across the bridge to
the restricted site.
Exposure
In opening the service to the
outer network, zachd.netsoc.
ie exposed Webcat to poten-
tially malicious visitors. With-
in a closed network, denial-
of-service attacks from single
or distributed sources, among
other common hacking tech-
niques, are restricted. Allow-
ing access to Webcat only on
campus was a precaution-
ary measure that allowed Dr.
Koutavas to limit site visitors
to the software installed on
college machines, or on de-
vices connected to TCD wifi.
A connected device would
relay the college username of
someone, should they launch
an attack, to ISS. In the open,
Webcat could have been
bombarded with visits from
multiple computers, running
programmes specializing in
purposely repetitious tasks.
If an attack succeeded and
revealed site infrastructure
or student information, the
perpetrator would likely be
untraceable, as hackers of-
ten use IP rerouting software
and web browsers tailored for
anonymity – none of which
are installed on college com-
puters.
Investigation
Trinity News understands
that the third-year computer
science student behind the
webpage was contacted by
SCSS shortly after it had been
discovered. Gerry O’Brien,
the SCSS systems manager,
confirmed in a statement to
Trinity News that the breach
was the action of a single stu-
dent and that access to the
site was blocked at 11:45pm
on November 30th, three
hours after Dr. Koutavas con-
tacted SCSS administration.
“[Webcat] was password pro-
tected and was not compro-
mised,” O’Brien said. “The
lecturer did not want his site
available externally.” Netsoc,
he told Trinity News, “im-
mediately shut down the site
that was providing the exter-
nal access” and College’s se-
curity officer was informed
of the breach. “All potential
security matters are taken
seriously by the School and
thoroughly investigated,” he
added, saying that the School
“are happy with the co-oper-
ation which [it has] received
from NetSoc.”
E-mail and e-commerce
services – like the ones Trin-
ity and other universities use
– trust the strength of their
security on the public web.
As Dr. Koutavas and SCSS
administration have not been
able to, or have chosen not
to, establish the necessary
security precautions without
limiting access to Webcat,
students unable to access ser-
vices like VPN are required
to submit digital assignments
on campus.
In a statement to Trinity
News, Netsoc stated, “[Our]
system administrators re-
sponded by immediately
disabling this website and
analysing the source code to
determine its function and
potential security risk. It was
concluded that this website
did circumvent security re-
strictions imposed by SCSS
on their network and, as
such, was in breach of the
Codes of Conduct for having
websites hosted in College.
Netsoc system administrators
contacted [SCSS] to relay the
conclusions of their analysis.”
In 2011, a Trinity student
received national media at-
tention for allegedly compro-
mising an FBI computer and
HB Gary Inc. servers. How-
ever, the student implicated
in this investigation made
no attempt to conceal zachd.
netsoc.ie and advertised the
service to fellow students on
at least one occasion.
Seán Healy
Staff Writer
Sport p. 24
Photo: Kevin O’Rourke
Photo: Samuel Verbi
Inside
Will Earle
A’Hern
dissects
Trinity’s
culture of
cuts.
Alicia
Lloyd
talks to
Stephanie
Roche
about that
goal.
Dylan
Lynch
looks at
the
science
behind
birth
control.
“In opening the
service to the
outer network,
zachd.netsoc.ie
exposed Webcat
to potentially
malicious visitors.
Volume 122 • Issue 1 • November 2014
The Gender Issue(s)
Alumni Dinner, 20th March 2015

2. TrinityNewshasbroughtindependentnewsand
analysistocampuscorridors,studentresidences
and beyond as a digital-first student newsroom
this year. Our dedicated online editors work
with a large team of reporters to break stories as
they happen, and incorporate multimedia into
daily coverage on web and social media plat-
forms, while our monthly print issue focuses
on more in-depth, less time-sensitive content.
This year, again, we have sought to encourage a
culture of continuous development among our
writers with practical workshops and an open-
door policy. Our ultimate aim, to hold staff and
students in positions of power to account, takes
the paper’s proud tradition as its inspiration.
tn2 is Trinity’s foremost culture and arts mag-
azine. Since its foundation as a newsprint sup-
plement to Trinity News it has grown into a
fully editorially independent 36 page month-
ly publication with an accompanying website
updated daily. This year the magazine fea-
tured interviews with actor Rosamund Pike,
novelist David Mitchell, rapper Mykki Blan-
co, musical duo Ibeyi and many more. tn2
was awarded Best Design and Layout at the
2014 Smedias, and prides itself on presenta-
tion that is as innovative as its written content.
Ireland’s only student run financial newspa-
per enjoyed a highly successful fourth year in
publication. A redesign under the talented di-
rection of Jordan Boyd has given The Bull a
fresh new look for 2014/15. With a print run
of 1,500 the paper has a wide readership not
just limited to the Economics and Business
Schools. This expansion has been aided by a
special Tech supplement in our third edition.
A new focus was also placed on economic is-
sues directly facing students, the highlight of
which was an exclusive interview with the in-
coming SU President. With a talented pool
of writers The Bull hopes to continue its rap-
id expansion into the new academic year.

3. Trinity Film Review is a magazine that al-
lows students to write reviews, features and
opinion pieces on both contemporary film
and the films that matter most to them.
This year we decided to go back to the pub-
lication’s roots by reintroducing themed is-
sues, basing each volume around a differ-
ent concept. By combining elements of the
magazine that have been around since its
inception with new content, we hoped to
create a magazine that respects the publi-
cations history but also attempts to push it
forward. We also put a lot of time and ef-
fort into the creation of a brand new web-
site that allowed us to showcase our writers
work to an ever increasing online audience.
The Piranha is Trinity’s foremost pub-
lication for biting satire, comical anal-
ysis of student life, vicious attacks on
undeserving bystanders, settling petty
personal grudges and pooor spelling.
Trinity Miscellany was founded in 1895,
and based its title on the defunct Kot-
tabos: A College Miscellany. The mag-
azine produces three issues a year, and
has begun to focus on the arts. Each is-
sue has a theme, which, although it is
not strictly adhered to, gives the mag-
azine some structure and direction.
Icarus publishes poetry, drama, short
fiction and literary essays three times
each academic year. Over the years, it
has featured original work by everyone
from Louis MacNeice to William S. Bur-
roughs, as well as launching the careers
of former student contributors such as
Michael Longley and Eavan Boland.
ICARUS

4. We were delighted to recieve you at tonight’s
Trinity Publications Alumni Dinner.
To insure that you are the first to know about future
Alumni events and news, please leave your contact details with
any member of Committee and we will add them to our internal
Alumni Database.