TCD hit by Brexit, Whitey Bulger, Student ‘wage theft’ in Australia

News, views and opinions from Student Hub contributors and Irish Times writers

Arrest mugshots of James “Whitey” Bulger, the late mobster who terrorised south Boston in the 1970s and 1980s. “Black Mass” and “The Departed” drew glamourous versions of his character. Donald Clarke looks at why cinema is obsessed with ‘Whitey’ Bulger and other criminal maniacs.
Arrest mugshots of James “Whitey” Bulger, the late mobster who terrorised south Boston in the 1970s and 1980s. “Black Mass” and “The Departed” drew glamourous versions of his character. Donald Clarke looks at why cinema is obsessed with ‘Whitey’ Bulger and other criminal maniacs.

Trinity College Dublin has seen a 20 per cent decline in applications from students in the North this year due to Brexit, it said an open letter published in the Financial Times. In the letter, the college said it was "devastated" by the decision of the UK to leave the European Union and called for "prudence, deliberation and foresight" on the part of those working on its exit strategy.Charlie Taylor reports.

In a better world, we'd eulogise only the virtuous. We'd make films about philanthropists, anti-poverty campaigners and people who rescue kittens from trees. Humans do that a bit. But they also exhibit an apparently unstoppable desire to celebrate criminal maniacs. Donald Clarke examines cinema's obsession with 'Whitey Bulger' and other criminal maniacs.

In Paris, May 1968, a student protest over university reform drew a heavy-handed response from the authorities, leading to widespread worker strikes. Indeed, the entire decade was a time of change and turmoil: in Pakistan, Poland, the US, Mexico, Czechoslovakia, Italy and the UK, students were in the vanguard of a movement demanding civil rights and radical social and political change. Peter McGuire reports.

A housing charity has been moving students into a senior-citizen flat complex in Dublin's north inner city, after asking elderly residents to move out so the building could be redeveloped, writes Olivia Kelly.

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Six of the best films to see at the cinema this week: Irish Times writers review Steve McQueen's Widows, Chris O'Dowd in Juliet Naked, Mike Leigh's Peterloo, and Mirai.

The most comprehensive study to date of wage theft and working conditions among international students, backpackers and other temporary migrants in Australia has found almost a third earned $12 (€7.50) per hour or less, about half the casual minimum wage. Read more here.

Éanna Ó Caollaí

Éanna Ó Caollaí

Iriseoir agus Eagarthóir Gaeilge An Irish Times. Éanna Ó Caollaí is The Irish Times' Irish Language Editor, editor of The Irish Times Student Hub, and Education Supplements editor.