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Barcelona Bound!

Posted in Barcelona, Biographical, Maynooth, Rugby with tags , , on September 24, 2023 by telescoper

At long last I’m ready to go. In fact I’m in the lounge at Dublin Airport Terminal 2 with plenty of time before my flight to Barcelona to sample the freebies in the Aer Lingus Business Class lounge. I spent most of the morning packing and sorting things last-minute things out. As always on such occasions I’m certain that I’ve forgotten something but I’m sure I’ll survive.

On the way through the airport I had a chat with a very friendly chap at the Fast Track security channel, about last night’s epic rugby match between South Africa and Ireland. I was fairly confident beforehand that South Africa would prove too strong for Ireland, and that’s the way it looked for the first 15 minutes, but that turned out not to be the case at the end. It’s true that the Springboks had chances to win, missing four kicks, but if you don’t take your chances at this level you can’t complain that you don’t win as a result.

The second half wasn’t pretty to watch but was in its own way very compelling. Ireland looked to have nicked it at 13-8 with a few minutes to go, but they conceded a penalty that led to a line-out close to their own try line. The resulting South African maul gathered ominously and threatened to roll forward, but stern Irish defence somehow held it up and, with the clock past 80 minutes the move faltered. With the Springboks having failed to “use it” it was inevitable that they would “lose it”. The resulting scrum was awarded to Ireland but there was no time to take it and the game was over.

It was a tense affair between two excellent teams and, although it was a low-scoring game, a marvellous piece of sporting theatre (if not for faint hearts). Watching that match was quite a way to spend my last night in Ireland for a while…

Back to the present, it’s a grey afternoon in Dublin with squally showers blowing in. With lectures starting in Maynooth tomorrow, the nights drawing in, and rainy weather on the way, I can’t say I’m sorry to be departing!

Update: my light was on time and I got safely to the hotel in which I’ll be staying until I get a longer-term arrangement sorted out. It’s a nice place and my room is spacious and comfortable. I took a couple of pictures on the flight, the first showing an interesting sunset over the clouds south of Ireland and the second a clear view down over Barcelona as we made our approach.

I was in Row 1 so got out quickly when we landed and the airport wasn’t busy so the only delay was waiting for my checked luggage to arrive. I usually travel only with cabin baggage, but I’m staying a bit too long for that this time!

P.S. Miraculously, I don’t think I have forgotten anything important!

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Times of Offers

Posted in Education, Maynooth with tags , , , , on August 31, 2023 by telescoper

It’s that time of year again when I break with the self-imposed tradition of not buying a newspaper during the week. I don’t usually buy a newspaper during the week but today is the day the full set of CAO points required for different courses across the land are published in the print edition of the Irish Times, about ten days earlier than last year. This is of course just the first round of offers so things may change over the next week or two.

Students now have to decide whether to accept their first-round offer or try to change course. Departments won’t know how many new students they have for a while yet.

The official low-tech results for Maynooth (in the lower right of the page shown above) are here. Minimum points required for Maynooth’s most important course, MH206 Theoretical Physics and Mathematics, are 494 this year, down a little from 510 last year. MH201 General Science is 350 this year compared to 400 last year; MH204 Physics with Astrophysics is 376 this year, down from 423 last year. MH101 General Arts – the most popular course at Maynooth and indeed in all Ireland – has a first round offer of 310 this year, down from 338 last year.

In fact, most courses I have looked at, not only at Maynooth, have lower first-round offers this year than last year. This is confirmed by this news item which says:

In more good news for this year’s applicants, there has been a fall in the points requirement for more than 60% of Level 8 courses.

This is interesting because it contrasts with news stories about grade inflation at the Leaving Certificate. How does one reconcile the fact that a majority of courses are asking for lower points, when the average points are going up? I think part of the answer lies in the fact that the CAO points needed for a course is largely about demand versus capacity rather than academic performance. For the last few years Maynooth University has been recruiting more and more students, putting pressure on accommodation, teaching loads and campus space. It seems likely that the desire to keep this trend going is at least part of the reason for the large falls in CAO points here. This is probably happening to some extent across the sector, though Maynooth has a more urgent need for more students – to pay for the legions of new managers it has appointed.

Another part of the answer is that one subject in which grades have fallen this year is Mathematics, specifically Higher Mathematics. Mathematics is a core subject for the Leaving Certificate and it therefore has the potential to have an effect across the board. A fall in the top grades at Higher Maths will propagate downwards through many subjects.

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Go Corcaigh!

Posted in Biographical with tags , , , on August 23, 2023 by telescoper

So here I am, on an intercity train to Cork from Dublin Heuston Station, en route to the 2023 Irish National Astronomy Meeting (INAM 2023).

I’ve never been to Cork before, so I’ve been looking forward to this trip. I’ve never even been in Heuston Station before, actually. A terminus that serves the West and South, it is rather like a smaller version of London Paddington. At any rate, it’s rather nicer than Connolly in that it is more spacious and has a far better selection of places to get something to eat and/or drink.

I got to Heuston on the 115 bus from Maynooth. It’s the first time I’ve been on that bus too. I’m sure to be using that service much more in the future as it’s very convenient. It’s also very quick – just 25 minutes – and the bus I got was brand new. It was full of kids when I got on, but they all got off at Liffey Valley.

Anyway, it’s not a long journey and the train, though full, is very comfortable, so I think I’ll chill and read my book and refrain from updating until we get to our destination.

UPDATE: I arrived in Cork on time and found my hotel without difficulty. It’s sunnier and warmer here than Maynooth was this morning, so I think I’ll take a walk before finding a bite to eat.

My hotel is not as awful as its name might suggest:

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Maynooth University Library Cat Update

Posted in Maynooth with tags , on August 23, 2023 by telescoper
Catatonic

A few people have asked me about Maynooth University Library Cat (or Séamus as some people call him). I paid said feline a visit just yesterday, actually, but I could see he was busy, so I didn’t disturb him.

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A Dublin Metro?

Posted in Biographical, Maynooth with tags , , on August 21, 2023 by telescoper

I have to do a bit of travelling in the second half of this week so I spent a bit of time today planning the trip, the easiest and quickest route seeming to be a bus from Maynooth to Heuston Station in Dublin and then a train from there. The only alternative, given that I don’t have a car, would have been a train to Connolly and a coach from Busáras, which would be cheaper but far slower.

Thinking about travelling it occurred to me that if I’d still been living in Cardiff I would have qualified for a free bus pass by now. I’ll have to wait until I’m 66 to get one here.

Coincidentally, when I got home I saw a news item that a team had been assembled to oversee the construction of the Dublin Metrolink. There’s nothing to get too excited about this news, as the project hasn’t yet got planning permission, and will take “6-8 years” to complete if and when it does. I’d be surprised if it’s done by 2035, actually. The question is whether it will really be a useful complement to the Irish Rail, DART, LUAS and bus services that exist already.

However, this is what it will look like:

As you can see, it’s basically North-South. The one obvious advantage is that it will at last provide a proper public transport link from the city to the airport, the lack of which is a national embarrassment.

Another thing of personal interest is the proposed new Glasnevin Station:

The Glasnevin MetroLink station is one of the most significant stations on the route. It is situated beside Cross Gunns Bridge and the Royal Canal, with a new Irish Rail station serving the Maynooth, Sligo and Kildare lines and BusConnects will also have stops close by.The complexity of the construction of this station is formidable as the aim will be to minimise the impact on Irish Rail services which is a vital part of the national rail network.

Oh dear. I sense years of rail replacement bus services and/or other disruptions if it goes ahead, and that there will be many planning objections before it even starts. If it does come to construction work, I suppose it will be easier for me to get the bus into Dublin while all that is going on. On the other hand, a link from the Maynooth line via MetroLink to St Stephen’s Green will be handy for concerts at the National Concert Hall. All of which assumes that I’m still around when this is finished, of course.

This reminds me of my trip to Copenhagen earlier this year, where I found their much more complex Metro system finished. I don’t remember how long I’ve been visiting that city and see extensive building work to do with the Metro, especially at Kongens Nytorv.

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Winding Up

Posted in Biographical, Education, Maynooth with tags , , , on August 16, 2023 by telescoper

This morning, we held the last meeting this academic year of the Departmental Examination Board to look over the results of the recent repeat examinations ahead of the final upload this afternoon. That having been satisfactorily completed, I have now finished my teaching-related duties for this academic year. I start a year’s sabbatical on 1st September, so I won’t be attending more Exam Boards for a while!

Another loose end to be dealt with was the Departmental Twitter account, which I have been running. Twitter is really terrible these days and I have decided to deactivate my own personal account entirely on 31st August. The departmental account probably should stay open, so this afternoon I transferred its controls to our Departmental Adminstrator. Just before doing so, I realised that the password was a bit rude, so I quickly changed it to something more presentable before handing it over to avoid embarrassment.

If you want to follow that account, by the way, you can!

All I have left to do now is remove a few personal things from my office for whoever uses it next academic year. I’ve got plenty of time to do that, although I will be away for part of next week (way down South, in Cork).

Tonight, however, although it’s a school night, I think I’ll celebrate by having a little drink and watching the Super Cup Final between Man City and Sevilla the telly box. Cheers!

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An Garda Síochána

Posted in Biographical, Maynooth with tags , , on August 4, 2023 by telescoper

I’m a bit late getting around to posting today as I’ve been busy all day sending off for documents and filling in forms connected with my forthcoming sabbatical. My relocation is a little more complicated than I initially thought as although Ireland is in the European Union, it is not in the Schengen area, so a visit for longer than 90 days requires a bit of paperwork. In fact I am applying for what is called a “non-lucrative residence permit”. It seems to be strange to be applying for non-lucrative status, as that’s what I seem to have had all my life, but there you go.

Anyway, as part of the bureaucratic process I have to acquire a Police Certificate, a document that states that I have no criminal record over the last five years. To get this in Ireland one has to visit a Garda station. There is one in Maynooth, but unfortunately there is rarely anyone staffing it, so I decided to go instead to Leixlip, where the station is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It’s also just a short bus trip from Maynooth.

So this morning I downloaded the requisite form from the Garda website, collected the documents listed there, and off I went to Leixlip. I had to wait a little bit of time because there were a couple of people needing things. One was inquiring about a court summons for something he claimed he had paid already but didn’t have a receipt. Eventually he left, though he wasn’t happy about having to attend court. The next chap just had to sign some sort of register. He might have been on probation or had to check in with the Gardaí to fulfil some other conditions.

I always feel a bit sorry for people working at the front desk in a place like a Garda station. They must often be confronted by people who are not having a very good day, and probably have to deal with a bit of aggravation from time to time.

Then it was my turn. The officer at the desk was very friendly but when I explained what I needed he produced a form that stated I needed additional documents not listed on the website, including a copy of my birth certificate, a document explaining what I needed the certificate for, and a stamped addressed envelope to receive the certificate. I was a bit annoyed, but had no alternative but to go back to Maynooth and collect the missing papers. Bureaucracy is bureaucracy and there’s no point letting it get to you.

After returning in due course with the gaps in my documents filled, I found the waiting area at Garda station empty and I was able to hand over my documents which I was assured were now sufficient. I just have to wait a bit to get the certificate in the post.

On the bus home after the second trip to Leixlip it struck me that today was the first time I’ve been in a Garda station, and the second time…

Now that’s out of the way, it’s wine o’clock and the bank holiday weekend beckons.

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Defend Democracy at Maynooth University

Posted in Education, Maynooth with tags , on August 3, 2023 by telescoper

A few weeks ago I mentioned on this blog 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 Management. This contempt for democratic processes is just one example of the increasingly authoritarian administration 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 itself select the board to which it is supposed to be accountable?

Within the last week, an article appeared in the Independent that contained the following:

A university spokeswoman said the governing authority “is reflecting on the recent feedback from some staff about the process for establishing a new governing authority”. The new governing body was to be put in place later this year. “The governing authority is scheduled to meet on August 22 to consider the most appropriate way forward on this issue,” she added.​

Independent, Sunday 30th July.

Note the use of an “anonymous spokeswoman”. I have no idea who this person is, nor who gives her authority to speak on behalf of the governing authority. This state of affairs is symptomatic of the complete detachment of The Management from the rest of us at the University. The story suggests that the University is going to consider different options for appointments to the new Governing Authority. Perhaps it should have considered a bit more before trying to ram through a massively unpopular process that has brought the management into such disrepute that its poor governance is now appearing regularly in the news media?

Anyway, in my opinion the only sensible approach is to restore elections to the Governing Authority. I’m not the only one to think this. In fact there is a petition raised by the Union IFUT:

We call on Maynooth University to reverse their decision to instigate selection and to restore the democratic election process for all five staff representatives on the Governing Authority.

It goes on to say

The decision by MU’s Governing Authority and senior management to replace democratic elections with a selection process, whereby they assume, with the assistance of a private recruitment firm, the responsibility of handpicking staff representatives, is an attack on basic principles of democracy and good governance.

I agree with this wholeheartedly, and have signed the petition. I encourage you to do likewise. You can sign it here. And please spread the news of the petition as widely as you can. This is a battle we can’t afford to lose, as experience suggests it is the thin end of a very sinister wedge.

I’ll just add a more general point. If The Management thinks that the deliberate alienation of its staff is a recipe for a successful high education institution then it has another think coming. Perhaps it should consider working with its academics rather than against them?

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Swan Update

Posted in Maynooth with tags , , on July 24, 2023 by telescoper

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 harbour
May, 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.

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Back to Maynooth

Posted in Biographical, Cardiff, GAA, Maynooth with tags , , , on July 8, 2023 by telescoper

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.

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