Welcome Back! Did you miss us?
Happy New Year!
We hope that you had a relaxing Christmas break, and that you are ready to tackle another semester of college. Firstly, to those of you still waiting on your exam results from last semester, we are wishing you the best of luck! But remember, results do not define you!
A lot has happened since we last published; we have a new government, Donald Trump is back in office , a ceasefire deal has been agreed between Hamas and Israel, Justin Trudeau has announced his resignation, France has yet another Prime Minister, and we have re-formatted our office.
Lucy and I really want to thank every member of The University Observer team for their hard work over the Christmas break to create this issue, we are immensely proud of the end result. Special shoutout to our incredibly dedicated photographer Aaron Ó Muircheartaigh, who took more than fifty photos for this issue (we just weren’t able to fit them all in unfortunately!) - he even submerged himself into a shrubbery to get the perfect angle for our OTwo Fashion Spread!
We are incredibly proud of this latest issue. In News, Kelly Smyth discusses the latest petition by UCDSU to save the 145 bus route, whilst Lucy breaks down a new extenuating circumstances policy set to come into effect in September 2025. News Editor Adam Behan details the months of Government formation that has culminated in a FF/FG/Independents coalition government.
Finally in News, we pay tribute to Eve McCarthy, a 21-year-old final-year Physiology student who tragically lost her life in a rock climbing accident in Malaga, Spain, in January.
Elsewhere in this issue, Adam Schmitz studied 11,000 Service Requests to bring you an in-depth analysis of the current state of UCD Residences, and the satisfaction levels of their inhabitants.
This month’s edition of OTwo Magazine is stacked to the brim with talent, with thanks to our brilliant OTwo Co-Editors Orla Mahon and Laura Kiely.
We hope you enjoy our latest issue! We always welcome new writers/creatives, to find out more please head to our Instagram page @universityobserver
That’s all for now, see you next month!
Oisín and Lucy