SedaNews, June 13

20 students take Cambridge ESOL exam with SEDA

Manuel Martínz Araque was one of the twenty students who took the Cambridge test on May 31. “I decided to take the exam to test my knowl-edge of English and also to include the Cambridge certificate on my CV,” Manuel told SEDA News. “The test was very good. I really enjoyed the speaking exam in part 3, but in part 1 I didn’t have enough time to finish the last question because I spent too much time reading... The most difficult part for me was the listening test”.

Manuel added that extra prepara-tion classes and a mock exam organ-

ised by SEDA before the actual test were very helpful. “I think having this certificate will help me apply for jobs and continue my studies,” he said. “I would like to advance and do more ex-ams in future”.

Cambridge ESOL is one of the best-known English language exams in the world, and it is recognised by thousands of employers, universities and government bodies. The exams can only be taken in special centres authorised by Cambridge ESOL – the organisation administering the tests – and there are just two such open cen-

tres in Dublin. Cambridge ESOL ex-ams are available for every level – from elementary to proficiency. All courses at SEDA currently contain Cambridge ESOL preparation modules. The im-portance of taking these exams was highlighted by Carol Cregg, SEDA’s director of studies.

“Cambridge exams give you an in-ternational standard,” said Carol. “To go back to your home country with an internationally recognized certificate – there’s nothing like it. And that’s why I would urge all our students to take these exams”.

Another student who took the Cambridge exam last month, Juana Machado Navarro said: “I signed up for the exam to test me and also be-cause I want to apply for a good job. In 2003 I did the TOEFL exam and now I want to do the IELTS and possibly another level of the Cambridge ESOL test”.

Manuel, Juana and other SEDA students who took the test on May 31 will find out their results in approxi-mately 5 weeks.

SEDA News, Issue 19, June 2013. Copyright: SEDA College. www.news.sedacollege.com

All aboard! SEDA students and teacher Rosa prepare to head off to the Cambridge examination centre in UCD.

Twenty students took Cambridge ESOL exam with the support of SEDA College on May 31. The students had extra preparation classes in the weeks leading up to the test, and SEDA also organised transport to the examination centre, located in University College Dublin (UCD). Teacher Rosa accompanied the students to the exam.

WELCOME HOLLY!

Teacher Holly from

Greystones, County

Wicklow, joins SEDA’s

academic team

Page 2

YOUR STORYVenezuelan

students arrive in

Ireland with a suitcase

full of dreams

Page 6

INTERVIEWBarry

McCormack is a

renowned Dublin folk

singer-songwriter, and he also

teaches in SEDA! Page 7

INTERNSHIPSBienvenue à

SEDA! Digital

marketing intern

Rokaïna Larabi brings

a French flavour to

SEDA Page 4

2 NEWS

Welcome to the June edition of SEDA News!Summer is finally here and it’s as hot as it ever gets in Ireland, so you’d bet-ter not miss the great weather and get out of the house before it’s too late! If you don’t know where to go, hop on to one of the many tours be-ing organised by SEDA this month (see pages 10 & 11) – every week-end there’s a tour taking you to the Cliffs of Moher and Galway, Giant’s Causeway, Donegal, Kerry or Wick-low – you’ll have lots of fun!There will be plenty of things to do in Dublin as well over the month of June, with many summer festivals and exciting gigs coming up: we’ve got a comprehensive list on page 8. This month Dublin will host the LGBT pride festival which will cul-minate in the pride parade on June 29. It’s kind of similar to St Patrick’s Day parade, with tens of thousands of people marching, only expect to see lots of rainbows instead of sham-rocks and leprechaun hats! Depend-ing on what you’re into you may want to see the parade (and maybe even take part in it!) or stay away from Dublin city centre on the day. In any case it’s always best to be pre-pared, so check out the events pro-gramme on page 9.

This issue of SEDA News is special because it had the largest ever num-ber of people working on it! Last month there were a total of 7 (wow!) students writing stories, doing inter-views and taking pictures for your favourite student newspaper. It’s a great pleasure to name every one of these enthusiastic interns: Maina Chamusca, Lili Garzaro (aka Chat-terbox), Gaby Marcano, Leopoldo Carrasquero, Semy Monastier, Bi-anca Daga Cacace and – last, but not least – Guilherme Akio who wrote a wonderful interview with Barry Mc-Cormack. In case you didn’t know, Barry teaches at SEDA by day and writes and performs pioneering Irish folk songs by night – check out his story on page 7!It’s brilliant that we now have so many voices represented in the pa-per. If you feel inspired by the work of these students and would also like to leave your mark on Ireland’s first international student magazine, get in touch – send an email to [email protected]!

As usual, I wish you a very pleasant read and am awaiting all your com-ments, suggestions and criticism on [email protected].

SEDA News editorViktor Posudnevsky

A word from the editor

SEDA News: Ireland’s first newspaper for international students. Circulation: 1000 copies. SEDA College, 68-72 Capel Street, Dublin 1. Ph.: 01 473 4915; [email protected]; www.news.sedacollege.com; http://www.facebook.com/mySEDA.Ireland.

Teacher Holly joins SEDA’s academic team

Teacher Holly Wilson Byrne in Buddha Park in Laos

A total of 705 students from over 12 different countries enrolled to study in SEDA this year. According to statistics compiled by the school administration, the largest group of

students (246 or 35%) came from Spain. There were also many new stu-dents from Brazil (198) and Venezuela (141). Other countries from which SEDA students arrived in the period from January to May 2013 included France, Croatia, Portugal as well as Saudi Arabia, South Africa, China and Malawi! “SEDA keeps going after new markets and we continue to attract students from all over the world,” said the college’s marketing director Tiago Mascarenhas. “This way we can cre-ate a good mix of nationalities in our classes, and it contributes to the stu-dent experience: SEDA students can expect to make friends from all over the world!”

Register for City & Guilds exam to test your English!

SEDA’s academic team has a new member: Holly Wilson Byrne from Greystones, co Wicklow, started teach-ing in the college last month. She is currently working with Beginner and Upper Intermediate levels.

Holly originally started teaching English in Cambodia where she lived for almost a year, but decided to leave “after one too many near death experi-ences”, she says.

“I was very nervous when I started

at SEDA as the majority of my expe-rience has been with children,” Holly told SEDA News. “But I’ve found working with adults to be a whole new challenge and just as rewarding. I’ve met so many interesting people in such a short space of time since start-ing at SEDA, each day so far has been very enjoyable!”

Holly’s advice to students would be to take full advantage of learning in an English speaking country. “There is only so much that you can do in a

class room, the most beneficial thing to do is to go out and about, make new friends, chat to people, join classes and clubs, read local newspapers, watch the news; really immerse yourself in your surroundings!”

“It’s daunting at first, but you will very quickly notice a huge improve-ment in your English! And chat to your teachers, tell them all about the things you do outside of class, we love to listen!”

Registration is still ongoing for the upcoming City & Guilds exams, which will take place in SEDA in the coming weeks. The Upper Intermediate level test will be on June 14 and the Elemen-tary level exam is set for July 5.

Some 20 students have already signed up to take the tests, but spaces are still available. If you would like to test your English – and get an interna-tionally recognised certificate – talk to your teacher or Ashleigh now!

3 students from Eurocollege – a Dublin-based school of English that closed its doors last month – were ac-commodated by SEDA College. The students had paid for their courses in Eurocollege and arrived in Ireland only to learn that the school was no longer operational.

Eurocollege did not have ACELS or any other high level official accredi-tation, and last month it was taken off the Internalisation register (a register of courses which are recognised by Ireland’s Immigration service for stu-dent visa purposes).

The students started researching other courses of English in Dublin and eventually came into contact with SEDA’s student support team. They were offered a discount to transfer to SEDA and are now enrolled for cours-es in the college.

SEDA’s student support team would like to remind students that it is very important to always check if the school has ACELS and other impor-tant quality marks before deciding to

study there. In recent years a number of colleges in Dublin have been tak-en off the Internalisation register or closed their doors because they didn’t have proper accreditation.

Eurocollege closure highlights importance of ACELS quality mark

Students from over 12 countries enrol in SEDA this year

3NEWS

Pretty in pink: Jorge also has a girls’ team who train in pink kimonos

Jiu-jitsu classes to be taught in SEDA soon

A new Brazilian jiu-jitsu class will begin in SEDA this month. The classes will take place on the ground floor of the college every Friday and will be given by SEDA student and Irish Bra-zilian jiu-jitsu champion, BJJ black belt Jorge Santos. Jorge told SEDA News that he wants to set up and train SE-DA’s own jiu-jitsu team that will repre-sent the college at competitions across

Ireland and possibly internationally. Exact time of the classes as well as other details will be announced soon.

Jorge Santos is a well-known Bra-zilian jiu-jitsu coach in Ireland, and he won the Irish BJJ championship last year as well as many other competi-tions in Ireland and South America. He continues to compete regularly and will be taking part at the UK & Ireland

Premier BJJ championship in Cork on June 22. SEDA is a proud sponsor of the talented fighter and coach.

Jorge Santos’ gym is based at 37 Abbey St. Upper and he gives classes there from Monday to Saturday. Apart from Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Jorge also teaches self-defence and has a special BJJ for girls class. Many SEDA stu-dents as well as staff attend the classes

and enjoy training with Jorge. The BJJ coach offers a special discount to SEDA students: they can train for just 40 euro per month.

To find out more log on to: www.jorgesantosbjj.com or call Jorge on 087 356 8115.

Plain cig packets on

the way

Ireland is to introduce plain cigarette packets in an effort to stop its young population from taking up smoking. Under proposed leg-islation tobacco manufacturers will be forced to use plain boxes carry-ing graphic images. Ireland’s health minister Dr James Reilly said the initiative will stop big cigarette companies from using marketing tactics like packet size, colour and shape to attract young smokers, particularly girls. It is expected that the new law will be enforced next year. Similar legislation is already in place in Australia. Ireland was the first country to stop smoking in bars and restaurants in 2004. It also introduced a ban on retail displays and adverts in 2009, and this year it introduced health warnings on all cigarette packets.

QQI consults schools on new education quality rules

The newly established QQI – Quality and Qualifications Ireland – has begun consulting schools and colleges in order to develop a new policy on edu-cational awards and qualifica-tions. Close to 300 stakeholders from Irish colleges and univer-sities gathered in Croke Park on May 20 in the first part of a ma-jor consultation on educational qualifications and awards. The second meeting was held on May 28 in Cork. Following the consultation QQI will publish a number of policy papers for discussions in August. SEDA College was one of the educa-tion providers contacted by

QQI for feedback. QQI, which was formed last

year, took over NQAI, FETAC and a number of other bodies. The organisation’s main task is to look after qualifications and quality assurance in Ireland’s education sector. It is also in the process of developing the International Education Mark (IEM) which will be a special quality mark for Irish colleges providing education to Europe-an and international students. QQI is now also responsible for the administration of the Inter-nationalisation Register – a list of education and training pro-grammes approved for non-EU students.

QQI is also charged with developing a new register of ed-ucation providers, programmes and awards, which will include a list of education establish-ments holding the IEM. It is

expected that in time the new register will replace the current list of ACELS-recognised Eng-lish language schools.

QQI CEO Dr Padraig Walsh said: “Our role in QQI is to protect learners through the quality assurance of all exist-ing awards and qualifications. We must ensure that every ex-isting qualification and award in our National Framework is sufficiently robust that it with-stands periodic external re-examination... We are delighted that we have now begun to en-ter consultation with our key stakeholders. I spoke to a lot of interesting and dedicated stake-holders today, who share the vi-sion of QQI for the future. We will work with all stakeholders to improve the quality of the qualifications being awarded to students throughout the coun-try”.

New Dracula film to be shot in NorthA new film about Dracula

will be made in Northern Ire-land this year. The shoot will last from August to November in Belfast and other locations in the North. The movie stars Luke Evans from Fast and Fu-rious 6 and Sarah Gadon from A Dangerous Method. The film will cover the story of the man who became Dracula, a vam-pire from Transylvania, and is

based on Dracula – the origi-nal book by Dubliner Bram Stoker. The film is directed by Gary Shore and produced by Michael De Luca. It is made by the American studio Uni-versal Pictures. The decision by Universal to shoot in Belfast reinforces the North as an at-tractive film production loca-tion. The TV series Game of Thrones is also made in North-

ern Ireland, with filming for the next season due to begin in July.

4 NEWS

Cesar Gomes worked as a graphic designer and video editor in Venezuela and he came to Ireland in order to im-prove his English and see the world, he says.

Cesar studied for about a year in SEDA, getting his English to Upper Intermediate level. He is now pursuing further education – a part-time Web Design course in Ibat – a school located in Temple Bar.

“As a Venezuelan, I decided to ap-ply to Ibat because they have knowl-edge about CADIVI and could help me with all the paperwork,” he said. “It is also a good institute and was recom-

mended to me by a lot of people. At the end of the course I will get a FETAC 5 qualification as a web designer”.

Cesar said that his course with Ibat was for just one day a week, but he was also researching full time courses as he liked studying in the school. He said he would recommend the college to other SEDA students.

“SEDA helped me a lot, because it is really important to get used to the Irish accent. My teacher in Ibat speaks really fast, but I understand everything... re-ally nice!”

Cesar said he was planning to spend some more time in Ireland study-ing and improving his English, and was also looking for a job in graphic design.

Life after SEDAAfter finishing their course in SEDA, some SEDA stu-

dents continue their education in Ireland. There are

many colleges in Dublin offering further education

programmes, and it is easy to find courses to suit any

career. SEDA News spoke to ex-student Cesar Gomes

who is now doing a web design course in Ibat, a college

in Dublin’s Temple Bar.Tell me a little bit about your-self.

I am student at the Toulouse Busi-ness School and I just finished my sec-ond year. I chose to specialise in digi-tal marketing: e-commerce, website design, social media because I believe that it’s the future!

When I’m not studying I like to dance: I practice all kinds of dance since the age of 6. In France I give some dance classes to children. Also, in my Business school I have discovered vol-unteering. I help children who have difficulties in their studies. I feel great satisfaction when I see their success at school. That’s why I would encourage everyone to give volunteering a try!

Why did you choose to come to Ireland and SEDA?

I chose Ireland because I wanted to be completely immersed in an Eng-lish speaking country to improve my English. I’d been to England already and so I decided to visit Ireland. I have friends who lived here before and their feedback was more than positive. I also knew someone who was an intern in SEDA College and he convinced me to do my internship here.

What do you do in SEDA? I work with the marketing de-

partment on the various websites that SEDA has. I use my theoretical knowl-edge, like the marketing mix, com-munications, digital marketing and viral marketing to develop the school’s brand.

The main goal is to improve the college’s website so that it’s always on top of Google search results in all languages! Another priority is to at-tract the maximum number of French students. I also develop SEDA’s social media by launching campaigns with Mariana.

What are your thoughts about Ireland so far?

The people are really nice! They’re very friendly, more hospitable than in France. Irish people don’t hesitate to help me when, for example, I am lost in the city. Also, it is very pleasing to work with everyone at SEDA. In this school, the atmosphere is friendly and communicative. Everybody smiles and it is a really good point!

What are you planning to do after your internship?

My internship finishes in the middle of July. When I come back to France I will continue my studies. To-day my plan is to become an advertis-ing manager because I like the world of advertising, and I like the idea of creating advertising campaigns for big companies. I may create my own ad-vertising agency or I could work in a marketing department. I think that my knowledge in digital marketing will help me fulfil this dream!

Bienvenue à SEDA! Rokaïna brings a flavour of France to SEDAFrench student Rokaïna Larabi is doing a digital marketing internship in SEDA College and enjoys her life in Dublin.

Working as a hairdresser for the last 18 years, Eduardo Diniz knows ex-actly what to do when it comes to hair. Originally from São Paulo city, the Bra-zilian came to Ireland to learn English and since he arrived in Dublin he has been working as a hairdresser. In Brazil, he worked in a very renowned chain of beauty salons, Jacques Janine, and also as hairdressing and makeup teacher in a Brazilian cosmetics company.

With experience in bridal services, men’s and women’s haircuts for all ages, color, techniques in straightening, highlights, blow dry and styling, Ed-uardo enjoys his work:

“I like to have contact with people and my work gives me a chance to cre-

ate a bond with my customer”. Another benefit of hairdressing is he can do his job anywhere in the world: “I like what I do and it’s great that I can perform my job in any part of the world”, he says.

Currently working in the MG Hair Salon in Parnell Street – only two min-utes’ walk from SEDA College – Eduar-do works by appointment to give exclu-sive attention for his customer. “I am sure that what distinguishes my service

is my communication: I know what my customer wants to say. They may not know the technical language, but I can understand what they want and need to do through all my years of experience”.

Every month one lucky SEDA student can win a free haircut by expert hair-dresser Eduardo Diniz. To enter the competition, send a picture for our Photo Album to [email protected]. We want photos from all your parties, travels, walks around Dublin and whatever you’ve been up to!

New photo competition

Before... ...and after!

5STUDY IN SEDA

6 YOUR STORY

Caracas, Maturin, Maracaibo, Barquisimeto are just some of the cities that SEDA’s Venezuelan stu-dents come from, but the largest group hails from San Cristobal, Tachira State.

Indeed, one of the students born in Táchira is Fabiana Her-nandez, who was one of the first Venezuelans to enroll in SEDA last year. Fabiana has made im-pressive progress: in less than a year she moved from Beginner level to Upper Intermediate!

“I came to Ireland because I’ve always wanted to visit this country and because I thought I wouldn’t meet too many Vene-zuelans here,” Fabiana told SEDA News. “In my time here I have learned so much about English language and Irish culture!”

“At first I didn’t like living in Dublin too much because it was cold and very different from my country. But now I’m really en-joying my time here and have no regrets about choosing Ireland as a place to study”.

Another Venezuelan learning English in SEDA is José Miguel Ochoa. He also comes from San Cristóbal and says that he came to Ireland following a friend’s

recommendation. “I chose Dub-lin because I think it is perfect: there are so many languages and nationalities around you and this is important”.

“I found out about SEDA from a couple of friends and I think the school is great. If I could change one thing that would be the methodology that some teachers use – but I think this will improve with time”.

It is not easy for Venezue-lans to come to study in Dublin and there are many things they need to take care of before their journey. One of the main hurdles relates to CADIVI – Venezuela’s government-controlled currency exchange. The state organization controls the amount of foreign currency (euros) a Venezuelan student can get if he or she wants to study in another country.

But for many students the biggest difficulty of coming to

Ireland is being far from their family. Pablo Roa is one of those homesick students: “The hard-est thing of being here is to leave your family in Venezuela behind,” he told SEDA News. “You miss the good times and the bad, but it’s all a part of your study abroad experience. You have to be strong and you have to fill your parents with pride by overcoming all the difficulties!”

A typical Venezuelan student comes to Ireland with a suitcase full of dreams, and chief among them is to learn English either for personal or career purposes. Second is usually the desire to ex-perience other cultures, travel and explore the world. And the third dream is to get a job and possibly settle in the new country.

Stefany Mendez, a Venezue-lan born in Maracay, Aragua State, has just started studying in SEDA and she explained how it felt for her to arrive in Dublin.

“I liked how I was received, I felt comfortable. I like the quality of life here. One of my expectations is to improve my English quickly by getting out of the house and talking to people – everyone here is very friendly! SEDA received me very well and I’m happy with my course as well as the free ac-tivities on Fridays. The school also organizes travel to other cit-ies at the weekends, which I think is great!”

Venezuelans in SEDA have many things in common. One of the most important similarities is that they really enjoy learning English and want to be fantastic ambassadors for their country wherever they go!

Venezuelans arrive in Ireland with a suitcase full of dreamsIn recent months SEDA College has seen a large influx of Venezuelan students who are eager to study English and learn about the Irish culture.

By María Gabriela MARCANO

SEDA’s Venezuelan students showing off their colours in the school’s student lounge

What’s your favourite thing about Dublin?Going out for a pint of Guinness and listening to live music.

And what’s the least favourite?The weather...

What’s your favourite English expression?It’s raining cats and dogs.

And what’s your favourite Irish word?Sláinte! It means “to your health”.

Which sports teams do you support? And what Irish teams do you like?I’m a fan of Barcelona F.C., but I don’t follow sports too much because it’s so commercial. I like watching Irish rugby, but I don’t support any team in particu-lar.

What’s your favourite Irish band or musician?I really like Irish music and my favourite band is The Cranberries!

What’s the best thing about working in student support?Every day’s different and you meet many new people.

What in your opinion is special about SEDA?SEDA is a good school with lots of nationalities and great teachers. But the best thing about SEDA is that it strives to be better every day.

What’s the best place to see in Ireland?Dingle peninsula in county Kerry.

And what’s the best place in Dublin to go out at night?The Workman’s club.

Ferran Illa Gras from Spain is a member of SEDA’s friendly student support team who works with European students. He has been in stu-dent support for a year and was previ-ously employed

in the audiovisual industry. Ferran speaks Catalan, Spanish and English, and he agreed to answer some questions for SEDA News.

Staff of the month

7SEDA PEOPLE

Barry’s first appearance on the music scene was in the band Jubilee Allstar, which had great success in the mid 1990’s and was nominated for Best New Band in the Heineken/Hot Press Awards. In 2003 Barry released his first solo album “We Drank Our Tears” that was very well received by critics.

After his debut he kept playing and recording new songs, releasing 3 more records: “Last Night, As I Was Wander-ing” (2006), “Night Visiting” (2009) and “Small Mercies” (2011). At the moment he is finishing his fifth album “Cut Throat Lane” that will be released later this year.

- First thing, tell us a little bit about your musical background: when did you start playing, what motivated you to start writing songs, join a band, release your first records?

- Well, I first started learning to play the guitar when I was about ten, I went for lessons with a little Spanish guitar – I still use it at home. But after a while I stopped going to lessons because I wasn’t very good at learning ... I’m not good in music theory, I’m very instinc-tive as a musician.

When I was a teenager I started lis-tening to my older brothers’ record col-lections, they had a lot of records. So I started to pick up the guitar again, and then I learned a few chords. Bono from U2 said: you only need 3 chords and the truth, so there you go.

R.E.M was one of the bands I’d lis-ten to. They had an album called Mur-mur, so I tried to work out the chords of their songs, but I wasn’t very good at it. I suppose that’s why I finally started to write my own music: cause I couldn’t work out other people’s songs.

- Your first band was the Ju-billee Allstars with your brothers, how was the process of joining a band for you? Was that your first band?

- I was 19, I was in university and I just kinda stumbled into the band cause they had a deal with Sony Records, an independent label that was part of Sony. The first time I ever sang in public was in a recording studio – we weren’t a musical family, I didn’t grow up playing music in front of people.

- Why did you leave the band? Was it to focus more on your solo career? Or the band was going to end by itself?

- Yeah, I suppose. Well, our drum-

mer left, cause it was probably hard for him to be in a band with 3 brothers, you know. It’s very intense and I think it just wasn’t a career for any of us. Then I started to write songs and I just left the band.

- For your first album?

- Yeah, it was an acoustic album – just me and my guitar.

But after I left the band, my broth-ers recorded an album without me, that was like a garage punk album. A jour-nalist once asked my brother: why did he leave the band? And he said: if you listen to those two records, if he stayed in the band it would be like garage punk followed by folk...

I’m also the youngest of the three brothers, and I kinda needed to form my own identity. To go out and just find my own musical and personal way, you know, cause they took care of me all the time, I was very mollycoddled.

- So you’ve released 4 albums, and you are going to release a new one this year, and the critics are always comparing your songs to works by some famous Irish writ-ers and musicians like Luke Kelly, Shane MacGowan, Brendan Be-han and Patrick McCabe. Do you consider them an influence on your music, or do you think that the city of Dublin is a strong influence for all of you, and this is the point that connects all of you?

- Yeah, there is a connection be-tween the people and the place, I sup-pose you can see that in the Irish folk and literary tradition.

For example, Shane MacGowan (founder of The Pogues) was born in Ireland and grew up in London, but he was very influenced by Irish traditional music. The Pogues is basically like The Dubliners meets punk rock. The big difference with Shane MacGowan is he actually wrote his own music. Most of the folk bands are just playing these very old songs, and writing your own material is not usually done in Irish folk music.

- So do you think that Dublin is very important for your music?

- Yes, I always wrote about Dublin, and then I went to live in Paris for one year, and when I came back I was able to write about Dublin in a different way... I know that I understand Dublin in a way I can’t understand Paris, you know. Paris to me is just an amazing place, but it’s... it’s much easier to tell stories about a place you understand.

- And do you think that part of the reason why you get good reviews is because you write your own songs?

- Yeah, I mean if I was just doing the old folk songs I wouldn’t be here, I would be down in a bar making mon-ey: you can actually make good money playing the old songs. But if you do new songs, then, I suppose you have to prove that they are good. So some peo-ple really do give me credit for writing new songs within this tradition.

I think Shane MacGowan was re-ally the only writer, more or less, to take the tradition and then just say, - right, now I’m going to write my own songs - it takes a lot of guts.

- And why did you go to Paris? While you were living there did you keep writing songs? Do you think that they were influenced by Paris in the same way that they are influenced by Dublin?

- I went to Paris cause I started teaching English and I decided to travel a bit. Living in Paris is also a cliche with artists, I suppose, but it is very inspir-ing. So I decided to go there because I could teach and experience the city as an artist.

But teaching over there is very dif-ficult: I thought I would have time to walk through the boulevards and watch the city go past, but I just spent a lot of time in the metro... I did write an al-bum there, but that album was based on books rather than a place, so that album wasn’t Paris, but wasn’t really Dublin either.

- You said that you became a teacher before you went to Paris, so, when exactly did you decide to become a teacher? And why?

- I did my teaching course in De-cember 2004. I started teaching in Grafton Street in 2006 and a year later I moved to Paris for a year. I used to teach in a place called International House on Camden Street, and then I went back to my old school and I was there until March when I moved to SEDA.

When I left college I spent some time doing music, but then I realised I wouldn’t make any money from it, and I started working as a temporary office clerk. I got a job in an insurance compa-ny for one year, but then I left because I just hated doing that.

Then someone said to me: why don’t you do a TEFL course, you would be a good teacher. So that’s why I did

the course. Teaching is a creative job, it’s also a job where the people you meet are interested. You meet very interest-ing people doing this job and I’ve met some really good friends.

- And do you think that being a musician/story teller who is very attached to Dublin, influences the way that you teach?

- Yes, I suppose. There’s a barrage of stereotypes about Ireland, and your reaction is to try and let your students see another side to the place. I think the cultural part of teaching is important: you learn English through communi-cation, including communication with your environment.

One thing I like about the students of SEDA is that they are here for a year, they are living the city and they are quite engaged. So the students get to enjoy the city and they have lots of in-teresting observations.

But in general I think that as a teacher I learn even more than my stu-dents learn from me because I get to know how people view the city with their eyes.

Some people have no interest in the place, and they complain: they don’t

like classes that have too much focus on Ireland. But, for me if I went to live in a different country, part of the reason I’d go there is to have the culture. You go somewhere and learn about the place trough learning the language.

- You said that students give you a lot of different visions of the city, do you think that being a teacher of foreign students, being with a lot of different cultures can maybe influence your songs?

- Yeah, totally! When you work in a school with foreigners, it gives you an insight that other people don’t have. You find out what foreign people really think about Dublin, and then you al-ways bring that back into whatever you do as an artist.

It’s kind of a very unique insight into your own city, and that is very val-uable, especially for me because what I do is I write observations about the city. Teaching is very creative. I’m always in-terested in what goes on in other peo-ples’ brains, I write stories and having another perspective helps.

Giving a voice to Dublin’s untold storiesBarry McCormack is a critically-acclaimed, Dublin-based folk

singer-songwriter and he also happens to teach English at SEDA!

You can listen to some of Barry’s songs on http://www.barrymccormack.net/

By Guilherme AKIO

8 GOING OUT

Going to an-other country to learn about the language and cus-toms is an amaz-

ing experience, but learning the local culture is important as well. From June to August of 2013, Dublin will become the stage for another edition of Steeple Sessions Festival and that is a fantastic opportunity for students to hear and feel the sound of the Traditional Irish Music.

Steeple Sessions is a series of can-dle-lit acoustics concerts at The Unitar-ian Church on St. Stephen’s Green - the heart of Dublin City. “Steeple Sessions is for culture seekers – it’s not a tourist show. It presents traditional Irish music and folk music in the purest form and gives a real insight into Irish culture”, says Eileen Hassett, a flute player and manager of the Festival.

Tickets are available online and the prices vary between €12 (students) and €15 (adults). For Eileen, keeping the prices low and finishing up the concerts by 9:30pm is important to involve stu-dents. “It’s only €12 for students so it’s very affordable for such a quality con-cert”.

Twice a week over the summer months, Steeple Sessions brings a variety of flavours from a diverse line up of art-ists whose music has been influenced by different genres across the world. Irish dance music can also be seen performed acoustically on traditional instruments

including harp, fiddle, concertina and flute.

Traditional musicians in the coun-try perform during the Festival and at-tract thousands of people. “Last year we brought people from all over: UK, USA, Spain, Italy, Japan, China, France, Bel-gium, The Netherlands. This year we are expecting the same.”

Beyond Irish Music, Steeple Session presents Art and Photography Exhibi-tions, Irish Language Courses, Free Ses-sion Trail (Traditional Irish Music Ses-sion in a pub) and Irish Dancing (during some performs).

For more information see www.steeplesessions.com.

Traditional Irish Music at Steeple Sessions FestivalPicturehouse

Pop Rock band from Dublin.7th June, Vicar Street

Tickets: €23.00www.vicarstreet.com

John Blek and The RatsRelease party of the debut album

from the band.7th June, The Grand Social

Tickets: €5.00www.thegrandsocial.ie

Andy IrvineOne of the greatest Irish singers.

8th June, Pavilion TheatreTickets: €20.00

paviliontheatre.ticketsolve.com

Moya Brennan & Cormac De Barra

Irish folk singers.18th June, Dublin Unitarian

ChurchTickets: €15.00

www.dublinunitarianchurch.org

O EmperorAlternative rock band from Wa-

terford.21th June, Whelan’s

Tickets: €12.50www.whelanslive.com

LirRock band with known for live

acts. Tickets: €13.5022th June, Whelan’s

www.whelanslive.com

Shows & Gigs in DublinA - SIDE: Mainstream Bands/Groups/Singers

Die AntwoordA South African Zef-Rap group.

20th June, Olympia TheatreTickets: €26.00www.olympia.ie

Rihanna - Diamonds Tour Pop singer winner of 7 Grammy

Awards.21th June, Aviva StadiumTIckets: €59.50 to 99.50

www.avivastadium.ie

Azealia BanksAmerican rapper most known by

her single “212”.26th June, The Academy

Tickets: €22.90www.theacademydublin.com

Maroon 5 Multiplatinum pop-rock superstar.

29th June, The O2Tickets: €39.50www.theo2.ie

ChromaticsElectronic band, their last album

“Kill for Love” got rave reviews.13th June, The Village

Tickets: €20.00www.thevillagevenue.com

John Cooper Clarkean English performance poet.14th June, The Button Factory

Tickets: €24.50www.buttonfactory.ie

The BreedersAlternative band formed by Kim

Deal, bassist of the band Pixies.14th June, Vicar Street

Tickets: €33.50www.vicarstreet.com

The Flesh & OnlyKey bands of the San Francisco

“new garage rock” movement.14th June, Workman’s Club

Tickets: €13.00www.theworkmansclub.com

Chelsea Light MovingBand formed by Thurston

Moore, ex-member of Sonic Youth.16th June, Whelan’s

Tickets: €17.50www.whelanslive.com

Danny BrownRapper from Detroit, won Spin’s

hip hop album of the year in 2011.16th/17th June, The Sugar Club

Tickets: €21.50www.thesugarclub.com

The XXMinimal electronic pop band.

26th June, The O2, Tickets: €32.50www.theo2.ie

Devendra Banhart: Very famous name in the Freak Folk scene.

26th June, The Button FactoryTickets: €19.90

www.buttonfactory.ie

The Who – Quadrophenia6th Album of the band + their

greatest hits08th June, The O2

Tickets: €81.00 to €93.50www.theo2.ie

Robbie Williams:Ex-Member of the pop-group Take

That.14th June, Aviva Stadium

Tickets: €69.50www.avivastadium.ie

Neil Young & Crazy HorseAcclaimed Folk/Country Rock

singer-songwriter from Canada.15th June, RDS Arena

Tickets: €60.00 to €86.00www.rds.ie

Bon JoviOne of the biggest names of the

Hard Rock era.15th June, Slane Castle

Tickets: €79.50 to €215.00www.slanecastle.ie

B - SIDE: Alternative Bands/Groups/Singers.By Guilherme AKIO

Duke SpecialPianist song-writer from Belfast, known for his distinct voice and

his romantic style.27th June,

Pavilion TheatreTickets: €18.00

www.paviliontheatre.ticketsolve.com

Bell X1Band from Dublin known for their wide range of styles and powerful

live performances.29th June,

National Concert HallTickets: €25.00 to €35.00

www.nch.ie

Sinéad O’ConnorOne of the most controversial pop singers of Ireland during the 90’s.

6th JulyNational Concert Hall

Tickets: €25.00 to €40.00www.nch.ie

Orla Gartland18 year old singer/songwriter and

ginger nutcase.10th July

The Unitarian ChurchTickets: €6.50

www.dublinunitarianchurch.org

I - SIDE: Irish Bands/Groups& Singers.

By Maiana CHAMUSCA

9GOING OUT

If you’re living in Dublin you simply have to visit its sports HQ: the 80 000-seater Croke Park stadium

By Semy MONASTIER

History, legends, myths and a lot of sports. A giant hovering above Dublin. Croke Park: the headquarters of GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) and the Irish sports icon where hurling and Gaelic football come to life to the delight of fans.

When you take a tour of Croke Park you don’t just get inside this huge stadium. You also get to know

the history of every corner of the place, enjoying stories that should be

known to everyone who is visiting Ire-land. The history of the stadium spans over 100 years, so there is plenty to learn…

The tour begins with a video in-troduction and then you go through an impressive exhibition. In the be-ginning there is a stand which seems surprising at first – it is dedicated to Mohammed Ali and his fight with Al Lewis, which took place in Croke Park in 1972! You also learn about Bono of U2 and his important contributions to the stadium and you find out about an interesting tradition: after each game

the players of both teams meet for din-ner (something almost impossible in other sports!).

The visit is magical when you’re in the dressing room and you walk to-wards the field, the internal audio will prepare a surprise that will make you really feel like a player!

The tour does not finish inside the stadium as you also have the option of climbing to the very top of Croke Park. One is left with the breathtaking view of all of Dublin and, perhaps, the most shocking thing is that the city does not have many places to admire it from above.

At the end, after learning every-thing about traditional Irish sports, go to the museum of the GAA. There are many interesting historical pieces, and best of all, a game room where you can try your hand at Hurling and Gaelic football.

If you love sports and you are in Dublin – Croke Park awaits!

Croke Park: the home of Irish sport

By Leopoldo CARRASQUERO

Dublin PrideEvery year in June Dublin’s gay community celebrates Dublin Pride. This year LGBTQ Pride events will take place from 21 to 30 of June. The culmination of the festival will be a huge parade on Saturday, June 29.

This year Dublin Pride Parade is cele-brating its 30th A n n i v e r s a r y and will be held on Saturday, 29th June. It is

the culmination of Dublin Pride’s fes-tival that includes the parade through the city centre and a party in the Pride Village in Merrion Square afterwards. The parade will assemble at the Gar-den of Remembrance from 11am and will embark on its route at 2pm sharp. From there it will head down O’Connell Street towards College Green, into Nassau Street, Clare Street and will finish at Merrion Square Park for the Pride Village.

Every year the parade has a dif-ferent theme, and this year’s theme is “Live, Love & Be Proud”, which was

picked by visi-tors of the Pride website. So the organizers are asking people to get their think-ing hats on and to come up with costumes, float ideas, group out-fits to show how you live, love and are proud. The idea is to make an explo-sion of colour, music, glitter, sequins and even feather boas… More info here: www.dublinpride.ie

The first gay pride parade in Dub-lin was held in June, 1983. It was or-ganized by the National Lesbian and Gay Federation, and followed a route through the city centre of Dublin, from St Stephen’s Green to the GPO on O’Connell Street.

But now things are different, the event has grown from a one-day event

in 1983 to a ten-day festival celebrat-ing LGBT culture in Ireland with an expanded arts, social and cultural content. In 2012 they had over 30,000 people marching!

By the way, SEDA students who are curious about LGBT culture in Ireland can pop into the Outhouse – a gay community centre just across the street from SEDA! The Capel-street based organization is a community and resource centre for LGBT people, their families and friends and its pri-mary goal is to offer a safe space for people to inform, meet, organise and make things happen. Outhouse is very often the first point of contact for peo-ple into the LGBT world and also the place in which lots of groups and or-ganisations have been established.

The space is available from 10am to 10pm Monday to Friday.

Find out more on www.outhouse.ie

The beautiful old Church of St Michan’s is located in Church Street, besides the Luas line, and behind Dublin’s Four Courts, very close to SEDA College. St Michan’s is the old-est parish church on the North side of Dublin, originally founded in 1095. The present church dates from 1685 and was renovated in 1825. But the big attraction are the vaults underneath the church containing the mummified remains of many of Dublin’s most in-fluential 17th, 18th, and 19th century families.

The mummies lying in this Dub-lin church passed through a different form of mummification – not like the Egyptian mummies which were sub-jected to the mummification process as soon as the person died. In Dublin it’s the conditions inside the vaults that made the bodies so well preserved.

Admission to St Michan’s is just 4 euro for students, and the adven-ture starts with the guide! Suddenly a man with an odd walk approaches the visitors and asks them to follow him to the back of the church (just like many other old churches, this one has a cem-etery at the back). He opens a metal door set in the floor and locked with a

heavy rusty padlock. As we could have imagined, he invites us to go down the stairs...

Be careful here – the stones are re-ally old and the steps are rough. Every-thing is dark, cold and the place has a weird smell. It’s there, in the first vault, that we can see the four mummies waiting for us. In a macabre way the guide starts talking about the mum-mies, who they were, how long ago they were placed here and why they are so different from each other.

When you think the tour is fin-ished comes the best part: we are al-lowed to touch one of the mummies! I can say from my own experience that it’s very bizarre! When you look at the mummies they look hard like stones, but when you touch... oh! It’s smooth and not that cold as you could imag-ine! Definitely you shouldn’t miss this experience!

The vaults are open from Monday to Saturday, but note that the parish of the church is still in use, and occasion-ally tours are cancelled due to weddings, funerals and other church events. Pho-tography in the vaults is not permitted.

By Lili CHATTERBOX

St Michan’s Vault – The Creepy Tour

If you want to have an intense ex-perience with mum-mies you don’t have to go far...

10 PHOTO ALBUM

11PHOTO ALBUM

12 A BIT OF FUN

Crossword puzzle

Congratulations to JOSué BORGES! He won last month’s puzzle (for the second month in a row!) and can claim his prize in Carol’s office.

Here are the answers to last month’s crossword puzzle:

For more crosswords log on to: www.abcteach.com

See if you can fill the crossword puzzle with words related to summertime, the sun and the beach!

Send your answers to [email protected], or cut this page out and give it to your teacher. If you get the answers right you can win a prize!

Your name:__________________________

___________________________________

Your e-mail: _________________________

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