Congress of Psychology Students in Ireland (2003)

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Theme

The theme of the Congress was 'Unity through our Diversity' and this was reflected in the incredibly wide range of papers presented on the Saturday. All in all, 75 papers were presented in six venues with sessions running concurrently throughout the day. Participating colleges were University College Cork, University College Dublin, American College Dublin, NUI Galway, Dublin Business School, Trinity College Dublin, and for the first time NUI Maynooth.

Thankfully, after the rain of the night before, Saturday was a glorious day, which resulted in the gratifying sight of students relaxing around the pleasant surrounds of the UCC campus, leafing through their conference packs in an effort to decide which of the many presentations to attend next. Particularly popular was a mid-morning session in Boole 6, in which a number of papers dealing with applications of psychology to social issues were presented, including a number on the application of psychology to the legal system.

As well as the presentations, another session of speeches was held in Boole 4 in the mid-afternoon. Mr. Joe MacDonagh, President-Elect of the PSI gave a talk on issues relating to psychology as a profession and career options for psychology graduates in Ireland . Dr. John Horgan (UCC) then gave a talk on the burgeoning area of Forensic Psychology, which is due to receive a major boost in this country with the establishment of Ireland's first taught Master's Degree in Forensic Psychology, which is due to commence in UCC in October 2003. These talks were followed by a question-and-answer session during the course of which some searching questions were posed about the future direction of the PSI.

Social Events

The presentations over, all students could now allow themselves to relax. Saturday night's festivities began with a barbecue in that seminal Cork student pub, The Western Star, which aided by the fine weather, was a great success. As the evening wore on, there was a great deal of inter-mingling between the students of different colleges, with more than one UCD student being spotted sampling the dual delights of Murphy's and Beamish and vowing never to return to Dublin again!

A bus was then provided to take students into the Savoy nightclub in the heart of Cork City . Along the way, we were entertained by a rousing chorus of the 'Fields of Athenry' from the Galway students. Cork first-year students replied in kind with a song about owning a mouse named Gerald, which no doubt made sense at the time, and there was an impassioned and occasionally coherent speech from the Vice-Auditor of the UCC Psychological Society.

For those hardened souls who managed to make it in to Boole 4 for 11 the next morning (bearing in mind the clocks had gone forward an hour), Professor Max Taylor gave a most informative talk on the COPINE (Combating Paedophile Information Networks in Europe) project, of which he is the head.

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