Freshers Week 2009 at DkITFreshers Week 2009 at DkIT——Clubs and Societies DayClubs and Societies Day
A good news story!! Are you the good Samaritan? DkITimes is happy to assist one of our students who has recently arrived from China. He mislaid his wallet and was harbouring no hopes of its return, when someone in DkIT found it and handed it in. Read the thank you message from the relieved student on page 6.
Newstalk 106-108fm Student Enterprise Competition
The Newstalk 106-108fm Student Enterprise Competition is designed to foster a spirit of enterprise in students attending Ireland's Institutes of Technology and the National College of Ireland. The competition uses a case study format, allowing participating teams to research real-life companies, giving students the opportunity to learn about real-life business challenges and solutions. Since its launch in September 2006 the competition has generated huge interest amongst both students and lecturers in the colleges. Over 330 teams from the 16 participating colleges entered the competition last year. Last year’s winning team were from the National College of Ireland. As a result, the 2009/2010 Semi-Final and National Final will be held at their campus in early 2010. The competition is open to all faculties and each team must comprise of 3 or 4, full-time undergraduate level students. Cross faculty teams are encouraged as they bring together a wide range of expertise. The overall prize for the winning team and its Team Coach is a trip to mobile telecommunications operator Digicel Group's offices in the Caribbean.
This years launch will take place in the Whitaker Theatre on Thursday the 24th of September at 1pm with Mary Sherry, Competition manager attending.
All are welcome.
Communities Connect launches unique International exhibition. Innovative and inspiring Finding our Voices launch and series.
Communities Connect, Dundalk Institute of Technology is delighted to announce the launch of a short series entitled Finding our Voices – the power of arpilleras and other forms of expression. The launch of the exhibition will be held on Tuesday 29th September 2009 at 6.30pm in the Dundalk Institute of Technology and will unveil a world famous Arpillera / quilt exhibition, a thought-provoking photographic exhibit, a rare art exhibition and a local, cross-community and International musical extravaganza. This fascinating and unusual arpillera / quilt exhibition looks at the political repression in Chile and Peru through the eyes of Women – the sisters, wives, daughters and mothers of the ‘disappeared’ and how they stitched a message to the world whereby “the needle and thread became mightier than the gun”. This is a unique opportunity to see these quilts which have been exhibited around the world and meet some of the quilters at the launch evening. To celebrate forms of expression by people living in the Cross Border region, the photographic material to be unveiled has been taken by two photographers from Northern Ireland and ranges from photographs of Eastern European Romany communities through to homeless people and various marginalised groups. The exhibit highlights how two people from different communities, who lived with the ‘Troubles’ as a backdrop to their lives, found their voice and a form of positive expression through photography. The exhibition also offers a rare opportunity to experience artistic pieces of expression created by people from Protestant / Loyalist and Catholic / Nationalist traditions whilst serving prison sentences during the “Troubles” for their involvement in the conflict. The Communities Connect Finding our Voices launch will lead into a short series of interconnected talks and workshops from 30th September – 8th October 2009 in the Dundalk Institute of Technology. The series will kick off with a talk and photographic display by Bill Rolston on the Murals in the north of Ireland and will follow on with workshops on Men and conflict, youTHink; an interactive youth day, an evening of Diversity whereby refugees haling from Nigeria, Cameroon, Togo, Kurdistan and Iran tell their stories through Drama and DVD, the launch of a disability awareness short film, the screening of a DVD of stories of families who lived through the “Troubles” in Belfast, a street theatre feast and an arpillera making workshop to name but a few of the exciting and innovative events of the series. Communities Connect invites you to come along, hear others’ voices and find your voice. All events are free thanks to our funders. Communities Connect is a Peace III funded peace building project based in the Dundalk Institute of Technology. For further information or to book a place on any of the events including the launch night, please contact the Communities Connect team at: 042 938 1734 / 087 9796130 / [email protected] A project supported by Peace III programme managed for the Special EU Programmes body by the Community Relations Council / Pobal consortium.
PaperClip ChallengePaperClip Challenge
Meet Kyle MacDonald, the budding entrepreneur who traded one red paperclip for a house. He started with one red paperclip on July 12 2005 and 14 trades later, on July 12, 2006 he traded with the Town of Kipling Saskatchewan for a house located at 503 Main Street. Kyle began trading July 14
th 2005 and completed his trading on July 5
th 2006.
Check out the list of Kyle’s trades below: 1. Went to Vancouver and traded the paperclip for a fish-shaped pen. 2. He then traded the pen the same day for a hand-sculpted doorknob from Seattle Wash-ington which he nicknamed "Knob-T". 3. He then traveled to Amherst, Massachusetts with a friend to trade the ‘Knob-T’ for a Coleman camp stove (with fuel). 4. Traveled to San Clemente, California to trade the camp stove for a Honda generator, from a U.S. Marine 5. The generator was confiscated by the New York City Fire Department) in Maspeth, Queens, so he traded it for an "instant party": an empty keg, an IOU for filling the keg with the beer of the holder's choice, and a neon Budweiser sign. 6. Next he traded the "instant party" to Quebec comedian and radio personality Michel Bar-rette for a Ski-doo snowmobile. 7. Within a week of that, he traded the snowmobile for a two-person trip to Yahk, British Columbia. 8. Then a cube van was traded for the privilege of the trip to Yahk. 9. He then traded the cube van for a recording contract with Metal Works in Toronto, Can-ada. 10. The recording contract soon became a year's rent in Phoenix, Arizona. 11. Next he traded the one year's rent in Phoenix, Arizona, for one afternoon with Alice Coo-per 12. Amazingly he traded the one afternoon with Alice Cooper for a KISS motorized snow globe. 13. He traded the KISS motorized snow globe with Corbin Bernsen for a role in the film Donna on Demand. Finally, he traded the movie role for a two-story farmhouse in Kipling, Saskatchewan
Paperclip Rules: • One paperclip per person • Only the previously received good(s) can be traded • N o m o n e t a r y e x c h a n g e s (with the exception of collector coins) • Trade diary must be submitted on the final day (Tuesday September 29
th by 2pm)
• All exchanges must be ethical and legal
PaperClip Challenge-Trade Diary As part of the Challenge, you must document 'Your PaperClip Story' below and submit this trade
sheet at the competition deadline. Sell 'Your PaperClip Story' to the panel to win!!
Student Name: www.studententerprisedkit.ie
Student Number: www.younoodle.com/groups/enterprisedkit
Deadline: Tuesday September 29th @2pm (Outside Whitaker Theatre)
Paperclip Final: Thursday October 1st (Time & Venue Details TBC)
Date Starting Trade Item ie Paper Clip- Brief Trade Story & Details of Trade Success
A good news story!! Are you the good Samaritan? DkITimes is happy to assist one of our students who has recently arrived from China. He misaid his wallet and was harbouring no hopes of its return, when someone in DkIT found it and and handed it in a wallet to the International Office last week. It belonged to one of the new students recently arrived from China. If you are that person, please contact the editor with your details. He wrote the following, I welcome the opportunity to write to the readers of the DkIT Times and hopefully find the person who found my wallet and handed it in to the International Office. Losing my wallet could have caused me many problems. But instead, I felt both happiness and good fortune that a thoughtful, unselfish person had helped me out. This kind act made a very strong impression on me and I would love to thank you face to face. It would give me great pleasure to give you a small, Chinese gift to show my thanks.
EARLY PERSPECTIVES EARLY PERSPECTIVES
by Seamus Bellewby Seamus Bellew
SEAN REDAHAN
ENJOYING THE JUST DESSERTS
Bill Mac serenades his friends
Early Perspectives: Dorothy O’BoyleEarly Perspectives: Dorothy O’Boyle Dorothy O’Boyle kindly agreed to recollect her time at the college. Born in Donegal and with strong Leitrim connections, her roots are firmly in the North West. However the family moved to Co Wicklow before Dorothy finished in primary school. Then it was off to Carrickmacross to the St Louis Sisters for secondary school fol-lowed by a year at Haddington Road, Dublin on what was then a secretarial course. Her first job was with the NUI at Merrion Square, Dorothy was the first non- graduate to be employed there and remained there for seven years. While working in NUI she enrolled in UCD to pursue a B. Comm. degree at night, graduating in 1966. Those were different times, and graduates in these disciplines were widely sought and Dorothy was invited by the Meath VEC to attend for interview for a teaching position in Navan, was successful at interview and subsequently spent seven great years there. While there she made time to travel to Maynooth in the evenings and was conferred with her H. Dip. Ed. in 1971. The story continues in Dorothy’s own words - The curriculum for Vocational School students at that time was different from what it is now. It was arranged around particular interest/ability areas - Home Economics, Woodwork/Metalwork, Commerce, and General (which catered for subjects such as History, Geography, Irish, English, French etc), with the Group Certificate Examination at the end. I believe that in the rush to go down the Inter Cert/Leaving Cert road something worthwhile was diminished, if not lost altogether. Was “the baby thrown out with the bathwater”? I think maybe so. No doubt others have different opinions! During my seven years in Navan, friendships were forged with the staff from the RTC in Dundalk. Brugha McDevitt, Principal of the Vocational School at Navan and Sean McDonagh Principal of RTC Dundalk (as the College was then known) were instrumental in organising an annual “football game” between both staffs, home advantage applying every second year. There was ‘great craic’’, both teams were accompanied by a band of enthusiastic supporters and the “match” was just the prelude to a great evening/night of entertain-ment. In 1973 an advertisement for a ‘Class III teacher for Senior Cycle at Dundalk appeared and I decided to ‘give it a go’. To my great surprise I was successful and was offered the job. Panic stations! I applied out of curiosity only, had no notion of leaving Navan and here I was in a fine mess!! I decided to ‘go for it’ - the rest is history! The letter of appointment requested me “to report for duty at 9 am” on Monday (the first Monday in Sep, as usual). I duly arrived and after some time, decided I was in the wrong place!! Nobody around, no cars, and the building wasn’t even finished – or so I thought!! (Have I got this all wrong, what have I done! Panic!! Then a knight in shining armour in the form of Pat Kearney came along and enquired if I was looking for someone, and when I explained about 9 o’clock etc he remarked with a smile “ah they’ll start coming in af-ter a while!”. And they did – people like Marie Guilfoyle, Frances Ruane, Mary Heffernan, Dolores Whelan, Helen Buckley, Cyril Toman, Eamon Kinch, Ted Hyland, Johnny Gallagher, Frank Carney, Pat Herr, College chaplain Barry Kehoe – and many, many more and soon it was “coffee time”. Things were looking up!! From the beginning my teaching time was shared between Business Studies and Senior Cycle – Shorthand and Typing in Business Studies and Accountancy and Business Organization in Senior Cycle. Senior Cycle was in the College on a temporary basis at that time and it took up a good part of my timetable. Most of the staff involved with Leaving Cert were located in an office on the right hand side of the East corridor, (now a drawing room I believe). The group included Mairead Ni Ciosog, Marie Guilfoyle, Frances Ruane, Cyril To-man, Brian Earls, Mary Heffernan, Eamon Kinch, Pat Clinton and additional others from time to time. Other people involved with Senior Cycle were to be found in Science and/or Engineering departments – I think of Marie Fennell, Dolores Whelan, Tom Sharkey, John Doherty, Vincent Duffy – and again apologies for any omissions! Frank Carney and his able Deputy Pat Herr looked after the leaving cert programmes. In the early years of the college large numbers of Students availed of second-chance education, and the College provided a range of Leaving Cert subjects at night. The College took on a different “persona” altogether in the evening. A wide range of subjects was offered and availed of. Mrs Malone managed the Canteen and she and her team kept a bit of life and soul in the building and hot meals were available from 5.30 or thereabouts so many evening students came direct from work and got a meal, before class. Usually students took two/three subjects in the year and accumulated the required subjects for Matriculation if that was their goal. Many just took subjects out of personal interest. TO BE CONTINUED…
Mature student sets volunteering record! Mature student sets volunteering record!
Andrew McKeon, mature student in DkiT and chairman of the Mature Student Society has achieved a record in volunteering this year. He has taken part in three work camps with Volunteer Services International - Ireland under SCI-Italy. Two of the camps were at a Bird Sanctuary at Isola Delle Fammine near Pallermo. He worked with young volunteers from all over Europe making pathways and building stone walls on this very small island for a total of four weeks. The other work camp was based in Pallermo itself with Caritas, helping adults and children with disabilities. He spent a total of seven weeks volunteering. Asked about the experience Andrew said "The work itself and the conditions were hard but I made so any friends and interacted with loads of young students so i felt it was well worth it, I would encourage more students from DkiT to join VSI in the future. It's a great organisation".
Lisbon Treaty Information SessionLisbon Treaty Information Session
A group of staff in DkIT have come together to organise a discussion on the Lisbon Treaty on the 24th September, and would like to invite the other staff ,students and members of the public to be part of it.
Ann Cleary had this to say: "As you know we have about 5,000 students and over 250 staff on campus each week. In organising the event we have identified a few questions we think are critical. In order for us to learn and talk about these we may use a World Cafe format. At the end we will enable those who want to convince us of what choice to make in the Referendum a short time to make your case."
The questions to be explored are:
* What does Lisbon mean for us? -as citizens, as people who are in Louth and for DkIT?
* What is the relevance of Lisbon for me?
* In what way is the Lisbon Referendum a watershed?
Time and Date: 24 Sep 13:15 - 14:00
Venue: N111 Nursing Building DkIT
If you have any queries please email [email protected]
A former student of DKiT's Music Department, Mark Duffy is the drummer in new Irish band 'Frantic Jack'. They kick off an Irish tour upstairs in Brubakers Park St. Dundalk on Friday 25th September. This tour takes in Whelans and Eamon Dorans in Dublin, McHughs in Drogheda to name but a few. They are launching their debut self titled EP at their gig in Brubakers on September 25th. Check out their EP trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eR8wUNo8Cg Their first single taken from the EP is called Firefly and was featured on Balcony TV will be released Oct 23 h t tp : / /www.balconytv.com/Video-Arch ive/Video-Arch ive-page/09-09-08/FRANTIC_JACK.aspx Upcoming Shows 25 Sep 2009 21:00 Brubakers Dundalk, Louth 26 Sep 2009 21:00 Four Sons, Edenderry, Offaly Edenderry, Offaly 24 Oct 2009 21:30 Loughreys Tullamore, Offaly 30 Oct 2009 21:00 Brubakers Dundalk, Louth 31 Oct 2009 22:00 4 Sons Edenderry, Offaly 1 Nov 2009 20:00 May Kearneys Ennis, Clare 4 Nov 2009 20:00 Eamon Dorans Dublin, Dublin 6 Nov 2009 20:00 McHughs Venue Drogheda, Louth 7 Nov 2009 16:00 MusicMaker Live Dublin, Dublin 7 Nov 2009 22:00 The Village Pump Rathangan, Kildare 11 Nov 2009 20:00 Whelens Dublin, Dublin 12 Nov 2009 22:00 Cellar Bar Galway, Galway 13 Nov 2009 22:00 The Crossbar Mullingar, Westmeath 14 Nov 2009 22:00 Hamlet Venue Johnstown Bridge, Kildare 27 Nov 2009 20:00 Club 38 Venue Edenderry, Offaly 19 Dec 2009 21:00 Carmodys Monastrevin, Kildare
Caption Competition.Caption Competition.
Serena Williams
And this weeks…
Send in your suggestions to [email protected] and the winning
entry will be printed in the next issue of DklTimes
"You put your right leg in ,
your right leg out, you do the hockey cockey and you complain a lot.."
Pat McCormick, DkIT
