Tuesday, 18 June 2013, 11:50 pm

This year has been an interesting one in terms of media outlets in Ireland. The question of censorship is one that has been brought up by several incidents in recent weeks and it’s interesting to read about the various attitudes towards what can and can’t be published, whether in a physical format or online. Many people have heard of the recent spunout.ie controversy, in which attention was drawn to an article about threesomes. An article which was written around three years ago and was displayed on the spunout.ie website. The issue came to prominence when the Sunday independent pub...

  Imagine your friend breaks out in a rash. They go through feverish periods of restlessness and can’t sleep, they lose their appetite and can’t eat. They find it difficult to concentrate. They feel too ill to leave their bed or to complete the various tasks of everyday life. Sounds like a bad illness right? Take away the rash. Take away the external manifestation of their illness. Physically they look just fine, yet the effects are just the same. Mental illness is something that we don’t like to talk about, and yet it is a common and treatable condition which will a...

On a crisp Sunday morning in the regional town of Kingscourt, Co. Cavan, with nary a seat to be had in the handball alley viewing gallery, the packed crowd watched with bated breath before exploding into a cacophony of rapturous applause as University of Limerick student Catriona Casey compounded her status as the best young prospect in women’s handball by claiming back-to-back Open Colligate Singles titles. The first weekend in February offers a true feast for the handball enthusiast, with participants from all levels of play, from novice to senior, and from all third level instituti...

Following on from yesterdays’ report, An Focal reporters spoke to a member of staff from the HMV Crescent store. Having being told to cease trading on Wednesday, the 16th of January, staff have continued to stage their sit-in in both Limerick branches of HMV. However, staff of the HMV Crescent store managed to shut their doors before representatives of Deloitte, the appointed receiver, entered the premises, unlike the Cruises Street store which currently has two Deloitte representatives on site. The sit-in continues due to the fact that workers have not been paid for the previous mont...

What is a story without balance. Balance has never been so crucial to a story, as it is to the one of Savita Halappanavar. Balance between Praveen Halappanavar’s voice and the voice of the doctors at Galway University Hospital, balance between the significance of the foetus’ heartbeat and the significance of Savita’s heartbeat, balance between Savita’s right to life and her baby’s, balance between what’s wrong and what’s right. Savita Halappanavar’s death has transformed the Irish abortion debate. Men and women have turned out in their thousands to show their shock and o...

On the 15th of November the student levy referendum failed to pass as a 66% majority was not achieved. In the highest turnout in the SU’s history, 4281 students voted on the motion, ‘To extend and increase the Annual Student Levy to contribute to the development and maintenance of a New Student Centre, Arena Extension and the Redevelopment of Maguire Pitches?’ According to the ULSU constitution In order to pass the Referendum required a two thirds majority to vote in favour of the referendum. Translating in this case to 2,854 Yes votes. The number of students who voted yes was 2,626, ...

First taking to the stage in 1987, The Stunning released three studio albums, with two of which reaching number one, before parting ways in ’94. Now returning once more, The Stunning next month embark on their 25th Anniversary tour. An Focal chatted with legendary founder and frontman Steve Wall to hear about their big return, the Irish music scene and his new life as a thespian. While nowadays more active in the form of The Walls, with brother Joe, Steve always relishes the chance to assume his role in The Stunning. It may now be a quarter of a century since breaking on to the scene, but...

On the 28th of October 2012 Savita Halappanavar, a dentist originally from India, died in the University Hospital Galway (UHG) from septicaemia. Two investigations have been launched to determine how she contracted the serious life threatening bacterial infection. Mrs Halappanavar presented in UHG on the 21st of October with back pains. It was found that the 31 year old woman who was 17 weeks pregnant was miscarrying. The type of miscarriage that she was having was what is termed as an inevitable miscarriage, where the neck of the cervix is open and the pregnancy cannot continue to term, e...

This Thursday, you will be asked to vote in a referendum which, if passed, will mean an increase of the Student Levy (currently €72) to €130, increasing to €150 in three years time, and a 2% increase annually thereafter. The proposed increase is to part fund a large capital project which will cost an estimated €40 million, half of which will be sourced by the University, and half provided by this increase in the Student Levy. As a result, Maguire’s pitches will undergo a badly needed renovation, the Arena will receive an extension to accommodate more facilities for Clubs and ...

The University of Limerick is often regarded as Ireland’s sporting campus, and that may well be the case but it is due to the hard work of the University’s Clubs and Societies that this accolade can be attributed to the University.  However, the facilities that these Clubs and Societies have to work with are entirely inadequate and could well prove detrimental to the growth of the University's Clubs and Societies. This referendum gives the Students of this University a chance to vote on what they believe they deserve for their Union and their Clubs and Societies. If you take a look at ...