In a press release issued this afternoon society auditor Ben English said that submissions from University staff and the Gardaí had outlined that there was a ‘potential threat to the safety and welfare of students and the general public.’

The society had invited Griffin to speak at an event to be hosted on campus in Feburary. Griffin suffered a similar cancellation at Trinity College Dublin after college heads made a similar decision reportedly based on students’ security.

“Despite our withdrawal of our invitation to Mr Griffin, the Government and Politics Society’s commitment to open debate and discussion remains and the society will still host a debate on Free Speech in the near future to allow this important topic to be discussed. This debate however, will not feature Mr Griffin as a speaker.”

The planned debate had been entitled “The Importance of Freedom of Speech in Modern Society”.

Photo: Irish Indpenendent

The 21 year old had been missing since since the trawler he was fishing on got into difficulty on its approach to Glandore Bay.

Kevin was a FÁS trainee originally from Dublin, and had been living in Clonakilty for a number of years with his aunt.

Still missing are skipper Michael Hayes, from Helvic head where he founded a lifeboat station, and experienced Egyptian crew members from the Alexandria region, Wael Abd Elgwad and Saied Ali Eldin.

The body of Egyptian, Attia Shaban, (26) was recovered this morning.

Wael’s brother Mohammed Abd Elgwad is the only survivor of the tragedy.

The search has been hampered by unsafe diving conditions over the past few days but a recent change in wind directions had made it safer for the Navy and Garda diving teams to carry out the search for the remaining bodies.

Kershaw, 21, had sent a last minute desperate text to his father, asking him to ring him quickly.

The Naval Service said in a statement this morning that it is deeply conscious of the families and friends of the missing men and the wider fishing community and will begin diving on the wreck as soon as safe diving conditions prevail.

17 local fishing boats, the Baltimore and Courtmacsherry lifeboats, the Irish Coastguard helicopters, Gardaí and around 100 civil defence and coastguard volunteers are involved in today’s search efforts.

Last night’s operations were hampered by heavy seas and adverse weather conditions.

The Navy said they were concentrating their efforts “on pockets of debris in the bay where conditions are suitable for diving and have completed operations in those areas”.

Patrick Kershaw whose 21-year-old son Kevin is among those missing told Cork’s Red FM that the netting around the fishing vessel is causing major difficulties for divers as they cannot gain access to the trawler.

The project is a joint venture between UCC and the Munster Agricultural Society, and the site is to be based to the south of the N25 Ballincollig bypass.

The facility will be divided between the two organisations. UCC plans to use the facility to cater for the development of its 60 sports clubs. The facility will augment the college’s existing facilities at nearby The Farm in Curraheen as well as the multi-million development at the Mardyke Arena.

ESB came under significant criticism at the time for allegedly opening a key water dam during an almost unprecedented deluge of rain, though has since denied wrongdoing in the natural disaster, which costs local businesses millions of Euro worth of damage.

UCC’s lawsuit is expected to claim that the ESB was negligent and caused severe flooding by releasing too much water, in too short a time, from the dams on 19 November.

UCC’s claim is being brought as a ‘subrogated’ claim on behalf of its insurer, Aviva.

>> UCC President hits back over disadvantaged students remarks

30 out of UCC’s 80 acre campus was flooded as a result of the downpour.

The Gluksman Gallery, the Western Gateway Building, the Maltings Complex, several student accommodation blocks, and the entire Mardyke sports complex were damaged by the flooding.

Mr Justice Peter Kelly made an order transferring UCC’s claim to the commercial court.

The matter has been adjourned until this July.

One Egyptian crewman, Mohammed Add Elgwad, is the only survivor so far, as search efforts continue for a second day.

The vessel sank in Glandore Bay early yesterday morning.

The missing men are skipper Michael Hayes, 52, student Kevin Kershaw, 21, and Egyptians Waal Addelgwad, Ali Eldien and Zhaban Farrg.

Volunteers from the west Cork Civil Defence, Navy, and Garda divers are all involved in the search efforts, which were yesterday hampered by adverse weather conditions.

Kevin Kershaw, 21, had been living with his aunt in Clonakilty for the past 8 years and was delighted to have found himself some real-life work experience on the vessel.

According to the Irish Examiner Kershaw texted his aunt just before the voyage; she texted back, urging him to be careful.

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Higher Education Access and Disability (AHEAD), an access and disability support network today hit back at Murphy’s refutation, claiming that he did indeed claim that students from disadvantaged backgrounds were academically weaker than their non-disadvantaged counterparts, something which Murphy has strenuously denied since the comments made headlines a few weeks ago.

“To paraphrase, he [Murphy] suggests that educating and supporting students with disabilities is a costly exercise that we can’t afford in the current climate as it steals from resources available to the talented 5% of top academic students who the country needs in order to be creative and build our future,” the organization’s executive director, Ann Heelan, told the Irish Examiner.

“These views expose what Dr Murphy and indeed many others in education really think and reveal the assumptions that lie behind the mask of equality. The assumption is that students with disability are less able than other students and are not expected to be found amongst the 5% of gifted students in higher education,” he told the paper.

Murphy’s remarks at the Cork Chamber of Commerce’s annual Christmas business breakfast has sparked a bitter war of attrition between Murphy and staff angry at his comments.

Jonathan O’Brien of Sinn Féin labelled the remarks ‘arrogant and elitist’, Independent Councillor Mick Flinn said that Murphy should ‘retract or resign’ in a letter to the Examiner, while a flurry of letters in the Irish Times drew scorn on the President’s remarks from several quarters. The letters-sending culminated with thirty-four staff at UCC’s School of Applied Social Studies penning an open letter to the President expressing their disdain for his remarks.

Murphy yesterday, however, chose to hit back at his critics.

In an interview with the Irish Examiner he achieved the local media of deliberately ‘mischievous’ reporting, while denying that his remarks had not been intended to infer that students from disadvantaged backgrounds were inherently weaker academically.

”I categorically reject the inference you drew from my speech that students ‘assisted through socially disadvantaged, physical disability and lifelong learning support programmes’ are ‘academically weaker’,” the country’s highest paid university president told the paper yesterday.

34% however, say that their course is not what they expected it to be.

Over 10,000 students responded to the survey, making it one of the biggest ever undertaken in Ireland.

Founder Georgie Smithwick, commenting on the findings of the research said that: “I chose the wrong course not due to lack of research but due to the fact that the reality of the course didn’t match up to what I had been expecting.”

“A college prospectus can give you some insight but there is nothing more informative than hearing about a college course from someone who actually studies it. Had I had the benefit of CourseHub when I was filling out my CAO I would have saved a lot of time.”

Georgie’s business partner is Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2009 Terry Clune. Terry, having had his own negative experience at 3^rd level where he enrolled in two courses before finding his niche in business through studying BESS at Trinity, instantly saw the benefits.

Coursehub.ie is Ireland’s most comprehensive online college and course review site for students, parents and guidance counsellors. CourseHub.ie is a review site which empowers students to confidently determine which college and course is the right fit for their personality, academics, budget and future.

CourseHub.ie won the Eircom Spider award for Best Education Website 2011 and was also named as Best Student Web or Social Media Project at the 2011 Irish Web Awards. CourseHub.ie launched in September 2011 and employs three full time staff members. For more information, visit www.coursehub.ie

UCC President Dr Michael Murphy has hit back at controversial remarks suggesting that money for disadvantaged students be diverted to more ‘gifted’ ones, accusing the media of ‘mischievous reporting’ in an open letter to UCC staff.

“The subject matter of my speech to the Chamber of Commerce was mischievously reported, at best, in the local media,” Murphy claimed.

“I had a serious intention to commence a national debate on two critical matters, namely the level of interference by government in the running of universities in Ireland and to ensure that in the race to continue the ‘democratisation of education’ that universities will be properly resourced and I specifically wished to highlight the need to appropriately invest in programmes for the academically talented.”

The speech was delivered at the Cork Chamber of Commerce’s Christmas breakfast meeting, and prompted a number of scalding letters from fellow academics and even staff at UCC.

“We wish to affirm our own positive experiences of working with students who come to UCC via non-traditional pathways. They face enormous challenges and often make real sacrifices in order to avail of educational opportunities. They bring a wealth of life experience, critical analysis and informed opinion to the institution,” thirty-four staff at UCC’s School of Applied Social Studies claimed in a letter to the President.

Murphy suggested at the Chamber meeting that some of the money allocated towards helping disadvantaged students be allocated to supporting the academically stronger ones.

Sinn Féin TD Jonathan O’Brien described the remarks as ‘arrogant’ while another grouping of academics labelled the remarks ‘outrageous’.

Murphy however had the last word, in his letter saying that: ”I categorically reject the inference you drew from my speech that students ‘assisted through socially disadvantaged, physical disability and lifelong learning support programmes’ are ‘academically weaker’.”

“My social background would have qualified for inclusion in the Access Plus programme were it in place in the 1960’s; professionally I spent almost a decade serving the disadvantaged population of South Chicago and I have practiced in the public health care system in three countries.  ”

The award was presented at the annual Confucius Institute Global Conference held in Beijing in December 2011.

Participants from 388 Confucius Institutes world-wide attended the conference and the awards ceremony.

Mr Li Changchun, member of the Political Bureau of CCP Central Committee, Mrs Liu Yandong, State Councillor and Chairman of the Board of Hanban/Confucius Institute Headquarters and Mr Yuan Guiren, Minister of Education attended the ceremony and presented the award.

Madam Xu Lin, Director General of Hanban/Confucius Institute Headquarters, met with the UCC delegation and Shanghai University delegation in Beijing.  Board Member of UCC CI, Lord Mayor of Cork Mr Terry Shannon, briefed Madam Xu on UCC CI’s work in Cork and Ireland.

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Madam Xu congratulated the UCC CI on the great success which has been achieved. She expressed that Hanban / Confucius Institute Headquarters will continue its strong support to UCC CI and its strategic plan and activities in Ireland in general and in Cork in particular.

Two new textbooks produced by UCC CI and published by Zhejiang Education Press:Business Chinese (Vol II) and Reading in Chinese Literature, were displayed at the International Chinese Text Books Exhibition and received excellent feedback during the conference.

“A dedicated [Confucius Institute] building for the local community and for Ireland would be symbolic of the friendship between China and Ireland and between the twinned cities of Cork and Shanghai,” Prof. Fan Hong told the Irish Times commenting on the award.