This year, we mark the seventy-fifth anniversary of Batman’s first appearance in what has literally been a lifetime of adventures. The best batman stories have themes of power and its use, of strength and virtue, of madness and chaos, of tragedy and the hope of redemption. However, you would be hard pressed to find a batman tale which asked the simple question: Why bats? The answer seems obvious, as Bruce Wayne has clearly stated. The intent is to strike fear in suspicious and cowardly criminals by becoming something black and terrible. This is unsurprising, as in Western culture, depictions of devils, daemons, dragons and other denizens of hell are shown to have bat-like wings as they were thought to shun light. They are also commonly associated with witches such as during Halloween. The first Spanish explorers found three species of new world bat. These creatures fed on blood and European colonists were quick to associate them with folk legends of vampires. This connection remains to this day Interestingly, in Chinese culture bats are not feared, as they are in the West. Conversely, the bat is seen as a symbol of luck. They are also said to be very wise: it is said that the grand weight of a bat’s brain is what forces it to roost upside down. Additionally, being the only flying animal to suckle its young, it is sometimes shown as a devoted caregiver and its ability to navigate without light makes it a perfect guide through the darkness. Why, then, are bats used as a symbol of fear? Bats are relatively harmless creatures! Perhaps the answer is that bats are viewed as being somewhat creepy and unnatural: a creature of contradictions, is it a bird or a rodent? Being “blind as...

Mercier Press History Award 2014 in association with UCC School of History. To enter the competition the student must submit an essay/ project of 1500-2000 words on a historical subject from one of the topics below: 1. Local/ Regional/ National History: A person, event or attraction that is of historical significance to a particular town, county or Ireland as a whole. 2. Historical Biography: A biography of a historically important persons life covering the historic significance to the area or the country. 3. Women in History Award: The focus here is primarily on women in Irish History, particularly those who may be forgotten by the history books. 4. Illustrated History award: An illustrated guide to local or national history, including documents, photographs, etc. Students are encouraged to visit libraries, archives and relatives to dig out some old documents and combine them to form a historical narrative. Each category will have a winner. The overall winner will be announced on the night. there will be 5 prizes in total. Deadline: 21 March 2014 and an awards ceremony will be held in April. If you have any other queries please ask Ms Cahalane or Mr...

YE OLDE TAVERN BEING A SHORTE STORY TO MAKE YE THINKE, CONCERNING SOME CURIOUS GOINGS-ON It was raining. Heavily. The rain bounced off the uneven cobblestones of the narrow street, and gathered in murky puddles where cobblestones were missing. Slightly tilted stone and timber buildings loomed up on either side of the street, their upper stories protruding out and almost touching each other. The street was empty, except for one dark figure who was striding purposefully down it, but keeping to the shadows at the side of the street beneath the overhanging upper stories of buildings. He wore a saturated dark brown cloak. He had pulled the hood of this cloak up over his head, but not because he needed shelter from the rain. The wooden sign of the tavern, on a pole above the door, swung gently in the wind. The paint on the sign was flaking, but could still be seen – it displayed a brightly-clothed dancing man holding a tankard of ale, and the writing beneath the flagons went thusly: THE DRUNKEN JESTER The figure in the dark brown cloak stared at the wooden sign. He had come to the right place. The figure stopped outside the door to the tavern. He placed a tanned hand on the door and it opened with a creak; he then stepped inside swiftly to escape the rain, and shut the door behind him again. The tavern was dimly lit by candles on the low, wooden tables. The cold stone floor was rough and bumpy. A bar was situated by the left wall, behind which a man with long, scraggly hair and a stubbly chin was cleaning very grimy tankards with an even grimier cloth. On the wall behind the bar, a head of a deer was...

Hello readers, this week’s segment is domestic in origin for once. So back when I used to play loosehead prop for Ballincollig RFC’s U15 side, I was in the car with my coach and some team mates on the way to a match. Nothing unusual yet – it was just your average overcast Saturday morning – but as we neared Clonakilty what caught my eye? We were coming up to a junction with a left and right turn and a hill straight in front of us. There were two men working up on the hill, but that wasn’t the strange thing. Now I’d like to point out the absence of any form of infrastructure on this hill, so it was very surprising to see none other than a “men at work” sign in the middle of the field! I mean there was nothing there to warn: there weren’t any houses nearby or livestock either, just two lads digging a hole and a bright orange warning sign! I know it does good and all, but health and safety is going too far these days I think. That’s all for now:...

Yet again, an app has exploded into the lives of all smartphone users. Both Apple and Android! We have had addictive games in the past that have consumed perpetual lengths of time such as Angry Birds and Candy Crush but nobody expected the simple game, Flappy Bird, to sneak its way into our daily lives. Flappy Bird rocketed to the top of the charts. The infuriating, addictive game is set in a Super Mario type world in which you must navigate a bird in between two green tubes and for each tap of the screen the bird flaps a little higher but then recedes back down again. Although it seems like such an easy, boring game: BEWARE… Over the last week, I have seen a substantial amount of people in the school downloading the app and competing for the highest score. Most people can’t even manage to get one point on their first attempt but they strive to beat the top scoring people in transition year with over 200 points. It is proven that an app really can take over  your life! People play it on the bus, in the hallways, at lunch, in the mornings and basically anywhere and everywhere! I have no idea why we let apps consume our lives but I guess we must accept the fact that we have all adapted to relying on our smartphones for everything we...

Hello again readers. This week’s anecdote also comes from my most recent trip to Gran Canaria, but holds its genesis in a previous one. It all began last Easter when my parents and I discovered the local jamonal, a specialist ham and wine shop similar to a deli. We were greeted by a highly knowledgeable staff member who knew all about the products, from the fine Rioja wines to the Pata Negra ham costing €150 per kg. The man himself was very refined and cultured. But alas, times must have gotten tougher between my visits, as on my return at Christmas what did I see? Only the same guy busking with a cello, that’s what! It was a stark contrast to what I’d seen at Easter, and he even had the same t-shirt embroidered with the logo of the jamonal. Now I know there’s the old saying about “playing your violin” but this truly took the biscuit. That’s all for this week....

We’re missing the point.    So there’s this new thing all over Facebook called “neknominations.” For the uninitiated, it’s where someone drinks a pint of alcohol (a variation being a disgusting concoction of God knows what) and sometimes performs a stunt while doing so. It’s childish and asinine, but the media are quick to blame “the Irish attitude to alcohol” and the government are quick to remind us about the upcoming minimum unit pricing system for alcohol.    We must realise that this phenomenon is not the real problem, it is but a symptom.    The real problem here is social media. People these days are valued by the numbers of likes and shares they get on Facebook, retweets on Twitter, reposts on Instagram. The “like” button has become modern society’s universal arbiter, telling us how good we are based on how many others click it. People are only doing these “neknominations” for attention, and it’s not the first time this type of idiocy has manifested itself through media like Facebook.    Does anyone remember planking? It was where someone would prostrate themself somewhere dangerous or significant.  Of course some people got hurt and one man died after falling from a seventh floor balcony. Thankfully, this fad has since petered out and neknominating will soon follow the same course, but that’s not the point here.    The point is that social networking sites are allowing these stupid stunts to continue by giving an avenue for people to broadcast their actions in the hope of gaining their fifteen seconds of fame. Until we realise that the websites rather than the alcohol is the real issue here, nothing will change. I’m not even going to get into cyberbullying or how teenage suicide rates are skyrocketing since...

The 1970 Sessions featured the best That the British had; they threw it all at him. He was a big man, with shovel hands, Held the harmonica like it were a rare bird; They didn’t know quite how to play Little Red Rooster So he showed them with his acoustic. When he died they laid him out, His hands crossed on his breast. He looked like he’d pop out and scream: Even in death he was hollering – Howlin’ Wolf, from Chicago Illinois He’d so many friends there, Nothing could hurt him. R.H....

The Perks of Being a Wallflower received mixed opinions in 1999 when it was first published. It is renowned for being one of the most controversial books of the time. The novel deals with subjects such as alcohol, drugs, friendships, sexuality and death amongst teens. The writer Stephen Chbosky adapted the novel for the big screen in 2012. It starred many reputable stars such as Emma Watson. Although I have never seen the movie, I will be sure to add it to my bucket list! There is a lot of praise for the character development and how teens can relate to the characters throughout the novel. The novel is made up of letters written under the alias ‘Charlie’ beginning in August 1991. We follow Charlie through his first year of high school and through all his experiences created while growing up. His best friend Michael committed suicide months earlier without leaving a note. Michael’s girlfriend ignored Charlie throughout the first year of high school as she made a more ‘popular’ life for herself. Charlie was stuck within the depths of his depression until he met Sam and Patrick at a football game. They were three years older and introduced Charlie to a whole new world. He began to smoke all kinds of substances and drink at parties. They made him feel invincible and that’s all anyone could ask for in a friend. Charlie became friends with his English teacher, gained interest in new books and music and felt like he was at the peak of his adolescence, that is until his sister’s boyfriend began hitting her. He deceived the girl who liked him, his friends left for college and he found out the truth of his doctor visits. Oh, and was Aunt Helen really...