Another fleeting fortnight, another last-ditch scramble, and just like that – the final Byline of semester one is hot off the (digital) press. It’s truly, truly mad to think we’ve ploughed through seven of these – or six-and-a-half I suppose, thanks to the Freshers issue’s brevity – and found ourselves at the Christmas season already. …
On March 12th I was sitting at one of those triangular tables in the Hub, attempting to conclude an assignment on a question I wasn’t sure I ever got around to answering, with the Taoiseach’s address playing in another tab. The announcement of a global pandemic is one of the most surreal – but also…
Dear reader, Thank you. You have heard me say this before but you are a huge part of the reason that we put effort into each issue we share with you. To tell stories, to start a conversation, and to lift spirits and bring some happiness and normality into your lives each fortnight. You have…
Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about age. Just this past week, I turned twenty-two – an aggressively unremarkable milestone, if you’d even call it one. I joked with my family about dreading the day – “sure any year past twenty-one is a year over the hill” – but if I’m to be truly honest…
I am going to have to level with you: it is very difficult to have thoughts on/between/before a deadline, and it feels as if this last week has had a semester’s worth. The dark nights of November come as a surprise every year, and this year I am even more indignant – a global pandemic…
When I imagine the idea of trust I picture a glass, something that has taken time to construct; is sturdy in its own right; but has the capability of shattering into incoherent slivers if mishandled, an exact replica never possible if such an event comes to pass. Who we place this glass into the care…
If there was a single sentence that could sum up the way life has felt throughout just about the entirety of this year so far, I think it would have to be ‘keeping the show on the road’. It’s a humble phrase, one that implies a knowledge of what it feels like to endure, and…
My bookmarks bar fulfills the English-student stereotype, because slotted between Canvas and ‘UCC Library Home’ is a slowly-filling folder marked ‘Poetry.’ Mid-way through lockdown (the first), The Cut published an article by Matthew Schneider—’Now is the Perfect Time to Memorise a Poem’—detailing his self-conscious party-trick and grounding-technique of rote learning poems, alongside the prologue of…
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen” – Vladimir Lenin. You could associate that quote with any number of weeks over the past year or so but I was particularly reminded of it over the past fortnight. The past week in global politics will take their place in the…
A few issues back, I made somewhat of a promise that Byline would be a Covid-free publication for the 2020-21 academic year. As you will find out if you choose to keep reading, I am about to blatantly break that promise, and wanted to give you the option of skipping over this week’s Editorial if…