"DCU AC athletes have been in exceptional early season form in the last couple of weeks with PB’s tumbling as races return at home and abroad. Here’s a quick round-up of all the action. There will be more round-ups in the weeks to come as the track season continues at pace!Belfast IMCAn incredible 20 athletes travelled to Belfast on Saturday May 29th for the annual Irish Milers Club meet at Mary Peter’s Track with high hopes of delivering strong performances given the excellent weather and lack of races in the last year. They certainly didn’t disappoint.The Men’s 400m saw three DCU athletes involved in the A and B races. In the A race Cillin Greene and Jack Raftery were in action, both running new PB’s. Cillin took the win, ahead of fellow Galway City Harrier, Robert McDonnell, in a time of 46.45s. Jack was 3rd clocking 47.27s and getting a B Standard for the European U23s as a result.  Both performances are cracking season openers. Club Chairman, Shane Monagle made his debut over the distance in the B race and was a comfortable winner. His time of 47.77s would have put him 4th in the A race.Sophie Becker moved to 5th on the Irish all-time list over 400m with an insane run and new PB of 52.32s in the Women’s A race. Sophie finished 2nd to Phil Healy who also ran a PB in what was one of the races of the day. Sophie will now look to build on that performance and continue to gain valuable ranking points which could see her qualify for the Olympics in Tokyo. A big ask but fingers crossed. Caoimhe Rowe ran in the Women’s 400m B Race running a time of 62.62s.Also in action in the sprints were Charles Okafor and Aoife Lynch. Charles finished 7th in the Men’s 100m A race (11.10s) while Aoife who has made an excellent start to her season as part of the Irish 4x200m Women’s relay team finished 3rd in the 200m A race in a time of 24.40s.Plenty of DCU athletes were also in action in the hotly contested middle distance races. The Men’s 800m A race was one of the races of the day, with Harry Purcell and John Fitzsimmons (Kildare AC) only being separated by a photo finish. For the second week in a row Purcell ran a new PB, this time running 1.46.53. In the B race Eoin Quinn ran a European U20 B Standard, finishing 2nd in a new PB of 1.50.45.Ciara Deely and Zoe Carruthers raced in the Women’s 800m A and B races, respectively. The A race saw British athlete Alexandra Bell securing an automatic qualifier for the Tokyo Olympics running 1.58.52. Ciara had a strong performance bagging herself a new PB of 2.10.29. Zoe finished 3rd in a the very competitive B race also clocking a new PB of 2.12.95.Cormac Dalton who has already ran PB’s over 10,000m and 5,000m this season stepped down to run in the 1500m A race. There’s no stopping Dalton at the moment who finished 2nd behind Darragh McElhinney in a new PB of 3.46.50. Garry Campbell also ran in the race, finishing 5th in 3.48.33. Andrew McKenna was 2nd in the D race in a PB of 4.06.80.Avril Deegan and Alex Murphy ran in the Women’s 1500m races. Avril had a solid run in the A race running 4.31.58, while Alex ran in the B race securing a new PB of 4.44.44 to finish 6th.Daniel Stone and Euan Lagan were in action over 5000m. Daniel ran in the B race running 15.07.02 to finish 7th, while Euan ran a new PB of 15.41.42 in the C race to finish in 6th. Aoife O’Cuill and Claire Fagan ran in the Women’s 5000m. In her second race over the distance on the track, Aoife finished 2nd taking over ten seconds off her previous PB from a couple of weeks before, running 16.41.11. Claire came home in 3rd after a great battle with Aoife clocking 16.49.10 which is only a few seconds outside her PB and SB.Next Generation Meet – Nijmegen, The NetherlandsAlso on May 29th, Andrew Coscoran travelled to The Netherlands for the Next Generation Meet. He raced in the 1500m and moved to 11th on the Irish all-time list, with a new PB of 3.36.05. That performance moves Andrew back into a quota place for Olympics qualification.World Continental Tour – Samorin, Slovakia and Golden Spike Meet – Ostrava, Czech RepublicNadia Power continued her season racing in the 800m on Wednesday evening in Slovakia at the World Continental Tour event. Power ran a time of 2.02.02 and is now off to Finland for her next race in what will be a busy few weeks.Power also raced in the Golden Spike event in Ostrava, Czech Republic on the 19th of May where she finished 6th in 2.02.72.European Paralympic Athletics Championships – PolandFormer DCU AC athlete Greta Streimikyte took gold in Women’s T13 1500m at the European Paralympic Athletics Championships on Tuesday night. Streimikyte ran a time of 4.39.28, just outside the PB she set a couple of weeks before although the conditions during her race were unideal. Greta will now be looking ahead to the Tokyo Paralympics later this year where she will be looking to medal once again. Congratulations Greta from all at DCU AC!Manchester Invitational MeetBrian Fay moved to 4th on the Irish all-time list over the barriers in the 3000m Steeplechase. Fay ran a new PB of 8.33.93 on Thursday the 27th of May.City of Lisburn AC Meet – BelfastHarry Purcell and Andrew Coscoran both ran 800m PB’s at this meet, to move into the top 20 Irish of all-time over the distance. Purcell would go onto run another PB the following week as previously mentioned, while Coscoran ran 1.46.91. Brian Fay was just outside his PB running 1.51.44.European Throwing Cup – Split, CroatiaMichaela Walsh finished 5th in the Shot Put at the European Throwing Cup in early May in Croatia. Walsh threw an impressive 15.06m.T-Meeting – Tilburg, The NetherlandsAoife Lynch travelled to the Netherlands recently to take part in the T-Meeting. Aoife equalled her 100m PB of 11.91 and followed that performance up with her 2nd fastest 200m ever, 24.23s.Athletics Ireland Micro-Meet – CorkSeveral DCU athletes competed in a special micro-meet in CIT, Cork on May 15th. Cormac Dalton qualified for the European 10,000m Cup running a PB of 29.19.75. A great 10,000m track debut! Aoife O’Cuill ran inside the standard for the European U23 Championships in the 10,000m clocking 34.41.36. Club PRO Mark Smyth ran a new 100m PB of 10.58s (+0.6). Matthew Callinan-Keenan was in action in the Pole Vault with a best of 4.25m, while fellow field events athletes, club PRO Kim O’Hare and Grace Furlong jumped 4.82m and 5.62m respectively in the Long Jump.Day of 5000m races – BelfastCormac Dalton, Aoife O’Cuill and Claire Fagan all ran PB’s in Belfast at the start of May. Dalton ran under 14 minutes for the first time (13.59.04), running a massive 47 second PB. Claire ran a PB of 16.43 and Aoife ran 16.53 in her debut over the distance. As highlighted earlier Aoife’s PB now stands at 16.41!"

"DCU Clubs & Socs AwardsMany congrats to Nadia on winning the overall 'Sports Personality of the Year' award at the annual DCU Clubs and Socs awards held virtually last night. Andrew Coscoran was also an award winning on the night in the 'Contribution to Club Life Award' for his achievements over the 1500m this season and last as well as placing in the IUAA XC Champs in Cork 2020. We were delighted to be nominated for overall club of the year which was great acknowledgment and recognition for all the hard work of the committee putting on events, zoom call after zoom call, our coaches at training when we could and sending on programmes to keep our members active and engaged! Huge thank you to the entire team in DCU Clubs & Socs for a great virtual event and evening to celebrate the achievements of students in a crazy year!The full event can be watched back HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc7uj-yn3zc&t=5s"

"President's Award for EngagementNeurodivergent Society has won DCU's Presidents Award for Engagement. We are honoured to say the least. It's a wonderful send off to the current committee as we move onto a new era for the society. AGMRun to join our team during our upcoming Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Monday 24th of May at 6pm.Meet New Friends.Mould the Society.Add to your CV.Inform DCU Disability Policy.Make a Difference.Positions Available:Chairperson SectretaryTreasurerAccessability ContactPublic Relations OfficerOrdinary Committee Member (Maximum 3 OCMs)Please get in touch if you have any questions about the running procedure, if you would rather not publically present your case you are welcome to send a powerpoint or document to our email and have the points presented by our Chair, Lao?ín, on your behalf. Autism-Friendly University Research Fiona Earley, Autism-Friendly Coordinator, is collecting feedback from autistic and neurodivergent students which will inform how the autism-friendly initiative proceeds during its next phase. I appreciate this is coming at you at a time you'd like to be thinking of Summer, but it will only take less than an hour of your time and would be invaluable. Please find Fiona's message below:"Dear AllI am contacting you to ask for your participation in DCU research that is seeking to learn about your experience as an autistic student. The purpose is to identify recommendations to support autistic students entering and who are enrolled in DCU in the future.   To participate, you would be asked some questions (provided in advance) by a format of your choosing:  For example:a phone call interview via skype/zoom text-based/ email discussion or another medium of your choice This would take approximately 45 minutes at a time and day that suits you in May or June 2021. If you are interested, please follow this link https://forms.gle/a5rNfFGd7wH6zYhe6  as it provides: Further information about the research A consent form to say YES or No to participationThank you for taking the time to consider this,Fiona EarleyThe research team:(Neil Kenny, Jane O’Kelly, Fiona Earley, Stuart Neilson, Jessica K. Doyle and Joan McDonald)"

"Well done to Sneha and Ash and Krishna and Hilary who came joint first this week. It seems upgrading your partner works well! Unfortunately Áine and Gráinne appear to have lost their grove and have slipped down the table in recent weeks, well done to all who played!"

"DCU sports scholars Aoife Lynch and Sophie Becker were in action for Ireland at the World Athletics Relays in Chorzow, Poland last weekend.Aoife was part of the 4x100m and 4x200m teams, while Sophie was part of the mixed 4x400m squad and joined Aoife on the 4x200m team.The 4x200m relay took place on Sunday night, with the DCU girls being joined by Sarah Quinn (St. Colman’s South Mayo AC) and Kate Doherty (DSD AC). Aoife ran a great first leg (24.48s), passing the baton to Kate Doherty. When the baton was passed to Sophie who was running the anchor leg, she began to gain ground on her Polish counterpart who was in the lead. Unfortunately, the Polish athlete held on to take victory, with Sophie running a split of 23.82s to bring the team home in 2nd, setting a phenomenal new National Record in the process of 1.35.93!Bearing in mind it was both athletes season opener it certainly bodes well for the summer ahead. Its worth noting also that it was Aoife’s first senior international appearance, undoubtedly the first of many to come. Both Aoife and Sophie were part of our 4x200m team at the last IUAA Indoors in Athlone in Feb 2020. Aoife was a reserve on the 4x100m team which finished 10th overall, missing out on a place in Tokyo by only 0.3s, however they did qualify for the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon next year.Sophie was also a reserve in the Mixed 4x400m, rested due to a recent injury. The team finished 7th overall to qualify for the Olympics after finishing 3rd in their heat in a new National Record of 3.16.34. Chris O’Donnell, Phil Healy, Sharlene Mawdsley and Thomas Barr made up the quartet, with Andrew Mellon replacing Barr in the final.Congratulations Aoife and Sophie from all of us in DCU AC. You did yourselves, your families, college, clubs, and communities proud!  by Rory Cassidy (DCU AC PRO)  "

"Well done to Mollie and Sheila who won this week's tournament being the only pair to bid and make slam on the final board(a nice +15 IMPs)! Well done also to our two newcomers this week(Alex and Alex) who respectably took 4th! Hope everyone enjoyed and see you all next week:)"

"Are minority language speakers impacted when to comes to accessing their right to a fair trial? How are they treated by the justice system? What laws protect their human rights? PhD candidate Gearóidín McEvoy explains her research in this area, specifically concerning Irish and Irish Sign Language speakers."

"Well done to Sneha and Aishwarya who won our weekly BBO tournament. They seem to have been able to maintain their place in the leaderboard for the past few weeks. Krishna and David have also gained some momentum recently moving up the table. Well done to all who played!"

"HeadstARTs EGM!It’s that time of year again!!! We will be hosting our AGM on TUESDAY the 13th at 6 pm!! We have all committee positions up for grabs! - Chairperson- Vice-chairperson - Secretary - Treasurer - Public relations officer  If you would like to get more involved next year and any of these positions interest you, all you have to do is prepare a little paragraph on why you think you would be a good fit for the position, come along on the night and let us know!!Check our social media pages for more informationCan't wait to see you there! "

"We would like to congratulate all our contestants last night who all ended the night with a new partner. By popular vote the top three couples were as follows;Ben and CanaanCaitlin and RoryThomas and MeganEach of these wonderful couples received wonderful prizes which they may use towards a date night. Don't worry the other couples received a free pizza for their participation.Who knows we may all end up invited to their weddings in the future. "

"Hello world!I am beyond excited to announce what the Poetry society has been working on for the last academic year! I am speaking of course about our upcoming festival - Dawn. It's a week long celebration of poetry in all its forms. Every day next week there will be events that you can attend. Some of the events we have include workshops, readings, open mics, and a very special concert by Dublin singer-songwriter Sam Copley! There are 4 events that you need to pay for. HOWEVER: DCU poetry society are not making any money from the ticket sales. All the ticket money is being donated to the charity Fighting Words. You can register for all the events here: https://dcusu.ticketsolve.com/showsI hope to see you there!-Fay."

"Our Committee for 2021/2022 has been elected! Schaut unsere Instagram-Seite um mehr über das Kommittee zu erfahren!Unsere Instagram-Seite"

"Well, its finally time, we will be hosting our AGM on Discord this year. All positions are up for grabs in an AGM, with no prior experience necessary for roles other than Chairperson. So if you think you've got what it takes simply step up to the plate, explain why you should be chosen and we'll have an anonymous vote. ?As a reminder positions include: Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, PR Officer, Events Officer, Equipment Officer, Head DM, Two Ordinary Member roles For more information about any of these roles, simply message our page.? So, interested in shaping the D&D Soc Committee for the next year? Stay tuned on Tuesday the 20th, we'll be patiently waiting on Discord when the time comes and reminding folks on Social Media and in emails. Best of luck to anyone who decides to run !?"

"Another year comes and goes, and this rather strange one has offered our society a lot of interesting challenges and opportunities, we're looking forward to electing our new committee via Zoom this Wedneday - March 31st - at 6pm! Come along and run for or elect one of our many committee roles and help make next years Spanish Society great!AGM Meeting LinkPositions up for grabs -ChairpersonSecretaryPublic Relations OfficerTreasurerEvents Officer2 Ordinary Members1st Year RepresentativeHasta Pronto!-Pauric Leech, Spanish Society Chairperson 2020/21"

"Join us tonight at 6:30 PM for the first race review of the 2021 F1 season and have a chance to meet the committee! Link in our Instagram bio and our Clubs and Socs page."