It has been not quite three months since I posted about the swans at Maynooth and, since I passed the family on the way in to work today I thought I’d give an update. Here they are on the left, compared with what they looked like in May.
July, at the harbourMay, at the harbour
You’ll notice two main differences.
One is that the cygnets are so much bigger, almost full size, although they still have their brownish colouring. They grow very quickly!
The other difference is that there are only six cygnets in the recent picture, while there were seven originally. It’s not unusual for one or two to fall by the wayside, but what happened in this case is that one of them had a damaged tail, and the others seemed to be bullying it. The wildlife people therefore decided that it was best to take it away, fix its injuries, and find it a home elsewhere. That was a few weeks ago. As far as I know, it survived.
Until a few weeks ago, accountant Christine Moran (pictured above) was a prominent member of the Governing Authority of Maynooth University. She is still listed described as such here.
Then she suddenly resigned her position. A statement from the University to this effect can be found here:
Maynooth University Governing Authority member, Christine Moran, has resigned from her position on the Authority with immediate effect and will no longer work with the university in any capacity.
While Ms Moran’s reasons for resigning are not linked to Maynooth University or her role with the organisation, she is resigning her position to best serve the interests of the university.
Maynooth University Website, retrieved 18th July 2023
All other mention of Christine Moran has been removed from the University website. I must have missed the communication to all staff of the University explaining the reasons for this sudden departure, so can only speculate.
Perhaps it was due to this story about someone who allegedly requested a payment of €225,000 not to block a housing development in Dublin?
Shouldn’t we be told the reason? Shouldn’t a public-funded institution adopt the principles of openness and transparency about its governance?
And what does this case imply about the confidence we can have in the procedures involved in selecting members of Maynooth’s Governing Authority?
Maynooth University plugged these items in on the “Maynooth in the News” feed on its main webpage, along with many other items that show the University in a good light.
Conspicuous by its absence from that feed, however, is the biggest story surrounding Maynooth University in recent days, namely the appalling decision by the President to scrap elections to the Governing Authority of the University in favour of having representatives chosen only by the President. This is just one example of the increasingly intransigent and authoritarian management of the University. Can anyone justify the complete disenfranchisement of the staff of the University from the Governance of the university? Or that an Executive body should select the Board to which it is supposed to be accountable?
I know I’m not the only person employed by this University who thinks this decision is a terrible one – my Union, IFUT is strongly opposed- but it has been already been imposed and now we have no say. At least you can read about, e.g. here in the Times Higher.
One story you can’t read about however concerns the outcomes of Maynooth University’s “Staff Climate and Culture Survey” which was carried out in 2022 with the promise made to participants that results would be published in early 2023. No such results were ever communicated to staff and all mention of this survey has been wiped off the University’s web pages. I don’t know why this happened, but I venture to suggest that if the results had been good the Maynooth publicity team would not have hesitated to publish them.
Since the Management of Maynooth University has chosen to close off any internal channels by which academic and other staff can communicate their views, it seems that the only means of communication open to us is via the external media. Perhaps the Times Higher will run a story on the Curious Case of the Missing Staff Survey?
How do you like the AI-generated image for new corporate branding of the Department of Theoretical Physics at Maynooth University?
I quite like it, as it accurately portrays the friendly and welcoming atmosphere of the Department, but it’s a bit misleading because the sinister-looking men in the picture are wearing ties.
I made it back to Maynooth from Cardiff last night after a relatively uneventful journey, although sitting next to a hen party on a RyanAir flight en route to Dublin wasn’t exactly the most peaceful experience and I was quite tired when I got home.
Among the many things that have changed over the last few years is how much quieter Cardiff Airport is. When I arrived there at about 6pm yesterday there were only two flights on the departure screen. One of them (a KLM flight to Amsterdam) was then cancelled, so all the intending passengers had to leave the departure lounge and collect their checked luggage. My flight was on time, however, and was very full.
In a previous pre-pandemic existence I spent half my time in Cardiff and half in Maynooth so had to cross the Irish Sea twice a week. The airline I used in those days, FlyBe, went bust just before the pandemic. RyanAir has taken the Cardiff-Dublin route, deploying a Boeing which is much bigger than the Embraer used by FlyBe, but there is only one flight a day. The other routes previously operated by FlyBe from Cardiff (e.g. to Edinburgh) no longer exist. Bristol is relatively easy to get to from Cardiff so I suppose people go that way nowadays if they have to fly.
A consequence of the small number of flights from Cardiff Airport is that the shuttle bus to Cardiff City Centre no longer runs. That was the method I used to get to and from the airport in my previous existence when I had to cross the Irish Sea twice a week. That no longer being available, I travelled to the airport by train and bus transfer. It’s a lot less convenient than the old bus, and a bit more expensive, but went off without any hitches.
Anyway, it’s nice to be home. I plan to spend the day chilling and watching the hurling semi-final between Limerick and Galway. UPDATE: Defending Champions Limerick beat Galway by 2-24 to 1-18 and thus get to the final yet again. The other semi-final, between Clare and Kilkenny, is tomorrow.
P.S. I forgot to mention that the good folk of Cardiff gave me a mug advertising CHART – Cardiff Hub for Astrophysics Research and Technology – which is new since my day.
Euclid being launched on a Falcon 9 rocket on 1st July 2023
The media activity surrounding the launch of Euclid on Saturday continues. Yesterday a piece by yours truly appeared on RTÉ Brainstorm with the title All you need to know about Euclid’s six year space mission. It subsequently got picked up by the main RTÉ News website on their News Lens panel, although it’s in second place after a story about a hot-dog eating competition:
P.S. There is also piece in siliconrepublic based on an interview with me here.
While I remember, here’s another plug for our new MSc course in Theoretical Physics & Mathematics, further details of which may be found here. Maynooth University offers Taught Masters Scholarships for high-flying applicants but you need to apply by 30th June to get one, which is why I’m advertising this one more time.
The new postgraduate course will be run jointly between the Departments of Theoretical Physics and Mathematics & Statistics, with each contributing about half the material. The duration is one calendar year (full-time) or two years (part-time) and consists of 90 credits in the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). This will be split into 60 credits of taught material (split roughly 50-50 between Theoretical Physics and Mathematics) and a research project of 30 credits, supervised by a member of staff in a relevant area from either Department.
This new course is a kind of follow-up to the existing undergraduate BSc Theoretical Physics & Mathematics at Maynooth, also run jointly. We think the postgraduate course will appeal to many of the students on that programme who wish to continue their education to postgraduate level, though applications are very welcome from suitably qualified candidates who did their first degree elsewhere.
Postgraduate admissions in Ireland operate differently from the UK, in that there is a central system in Ireland (called PAC) that is similar to the undergraduate admissions system; in the UK PG courses are dealt with by individual institutions. You will need to apply online via PAC after the following the instructions here. The requisite PAC code for the full-time version of the course is MHQ56.
I’m back on Maynooth University campus after a very busy but enjoyable week in Copenhagen. I spent the morning catching up on a few things, including a bit of OJAp business and a visit to Maynooth University Library Cat.
Tomorrow (Tuesday) I have to Chair a PhD viva (for a candidate in another Department). It’s interesting that viva voce examinations at Maynooth follow a similar practice to those at Cardiff University, my previous institution, in that each viva has a Chair as well as the internal and external examiners. The Chair is really present to ensure fair play and that proper procedure is followed, and is rarely (if ever) called upon to intervene in practice. I chaired a quite a few such examinations in Cardiff, but this will be my first in Maynooth.
On Wednesday there is the official handover of the position of Chair of the Euclid Consortium Diversity Committee during which I’ll be briefed about various ongoing matters, as well as generally being given the keys to the kingdom in terms of access to documents, websites and other paraphernalia.
There is a big announcement scheduled for Thursday by the NANOGrav collaboration. I don’t know what is on the agenda, but I suspect it may be the detection of a stochastic gravitational wave background using pulsar timing measurements. I may of course be quite wrong about that, but will blog about it anyway.
Then on Friday I have to prepare for another trip, a short one this time, to attend part of the UK National Astronomy Meeting in Cardiff.
Alongside those other things I have to make sure my repeat examinations are ready to be printed ahead of the examination session in August. Students received their final grades last week (while I was away). I don’t know how many will need to take repeat examinations, but there will undoubtedly be some.
Anyway, I have an article I really want to finish by the end of today, so I’ll stop there and get on with it.
Just a short post passing on the information that we have a fixed-term job available in the Department of Theoretical Physics at Maynooth University. You can find further details here.
The position is for 10 months, starting in September 2023, and is to provide teaching cover for Professor Peter Coles (Who He? Ed.) who will be on sabbatical leave next academic year.
I know it is a relatively short appointment, but it seems to me that it would provide a good opportunity for an early-career academic, perhaps someone straight out of a PhD, to gain some teaching experience.
The deadline for applications is 23.30 on Sunday July 9th and you should apply through the jobs portal here.
Please feel free to pass this on to anyone who may be interested!
P.S. I’m not involved in the recruitment process, just passing this on for information.
Following the recent spell of very warm weather in Maynooth, and perhaps encouraged by heavy overnight rain, the Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera Japonica) in my garden has now started to bloom. Each flower only lasts a few days – starting white, turning yellow, then gold, then dying – but new ones keep coming, so for a while you can see all the different stages of evolution. In among the white and yellow tones there are many buds that are yet to open. The colours of the flowers are not the best part of a honeysuckle, though: that’s the richly perfumed aroma they give off, especially in the evening. As Tennyson put it “the woodbine* spices are wafted abroad…”. The weather isn’t always warm enough to sit out in the garden when mine flowers, but it is now and it’s very lovely.
*woodbine is another name for honeysuckle, in case you didn’t know…
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In the Dark 