The Gown Student Newspaper at Queen's University Belfast

Rod Martin has been lining his own and Shine's pockets for years!! If he'd been concentrating on his job rather than kissing Shine's ass maybe the Union wouldn't be losing money. Good riddance to him and those tossers who own Shit Kitten, Mr Dodge should f**k them out next. Well done Mr Dodge, these bloody students have no respect for authority and no grasp of the real world.

@ Robbo

You say everything on thios site is negative...not EVERYTHING ia negative. But as Jammy Dodger says...news is by its nature a negative affair...at least most of the time.

I would advise you to check out Queen's Now, Su Mag, The Graduate....or QOL/QUBSU websites for poitive Queen's and Queen's Union news.

Robbo, how can you know who Rod Martin is and not know who Dodge is?

News is, by its nature, a negative affair.

I was friendly with a Sabb from a couple of years ago when Dodge started working in the union. He was reputed to have tried to divide long standing colleagues against each other as soon as he arrived and when that didn't work, tried other ways to turn people against each other.
If i worked in the union i'd be looking to try another more generous employer like Robert Mugabe or Pol Pot. God love poor Mr Martin - what was he put through before he'd finally had enough.

who is this Dodge guy? Everything on this site is negative. How many people have left the union cos of him? Rod Martin was a great guy - something stinks here!

yup. They just looked after the bars and babysat the night for POD. It wasn't their gig.

@b

O RLY?

Are you sure Shine didn't take over the promotion?

Rob B Dick;
"This was, if you’d done any research, in the week that the guys at Shine had to start giving away tickets for a gig in the Ulster Hall on Wednesday."

If you'd done any research you'd know that the Leftfield gig that Wednesday was promoted and booked by POD and not Shine.

Nevermind Rob Martin, what about Rod Martin??

Rob Martin will be trully missed at the SU. Legend

When I say union staff are thick I was actually referring to some of the sabbs. Sorry for making a very general statement when actually what I meant was quite specific.

All hail the Union bar staff and indeed other part timers in there. Not a bad word to say about yis at all. It's the "management" and the management that are the problem.

to say the su staff are thick is an absolute joke. quite a few spent the year trying to stand up to dodge and made it pretty apparent that certain areas needed reconsidered as they were not working. calling the staff stupid is just one person's attempt to blame when they have no idea what part time staff put up with. just like sabbaticals they can try to have their say but it counts for nothing because management just do not want to listen. rod martin was the only one who did.

Im not really sure what all the fuss is about but on a related note I dont really understand the Sunday to Thursday culture of many students.

Belfast has so much more going for it than the union, so how about not worrying what the union has on offer or how much the booze costs and try to experience the wider Belfast.

@ Pro Tanto Quid

I am having serious difficulty in understanding your comment as, writing from very much an insider's positon, it is phenomenally ill-informed and factually incorrect.

As a previous editor I can confidently say that The Gown website moderators have never censored or removed comments due to them being critical of Andrew Dodge, Rod Martin, The Gown itself, or anyone or anything for that matter, unless of course they were blatantly libellous.

During the last academic year, the Gown team had a very rocky relationship with the Union management and so censoring comments which are critical of Andrew Dodge or Rod Martin (I would remind you that the Union breached an ents advertising contract with the Gown this year) would seem to be a very silly concept to anyone with even the most basic knowledge of the dispute.

I would direct you to stories on this website about the ongoing Gown/Union fiasco. Under these stories you will find innumerable comments which criticise The Gown.

I have no idea why you think any Gownie would want a job in Queen's or the Union. I, for one, would rather have a job flicking crumbs from Osama Bin Laden's beard.

I suggest that the four people who allegedly had comments censored or removed immediately contacts editor Connor Daly.

For the record, I think Andrew Dodge's presence in the Union will continue to be detrimental to both Union staff and the student population. The building opposite the university will continue to become more and more a commercial outlet, as we all already know...it is no longer a Students' Union.

To suggest The Gown would censor comments that criticise Dodge, or any Union or University officials, is comical to say the least.

Apologies for the delay in comment moderation during the last number of days. We are completing the handing over process at the moment.
Connor Daly, Editor.

FREE SPEECH NOW!

Listen Gownies, stop censoring and removing anything which is mildly critical of the Union management and complementary towards Rod Martin!

Lets face it: you're not going to get a job in Queen's or the Union after you graduate so stop brown-nosing and be journalists for once.

I know of 4 people who've had comments removed because they were critical of Andrew Dodge and or the Gown. So I'm gonna keep posting my comment until you get tired of removing it.

“opportune time” for a rethink in what the Union offers and is a chance for students to “be given what they want, rather than being told"

Andrew dodge What an idiot you are! That made my blood boil. Students have no clue what they want. In my student days all students wanted was the chucky trad nite and that was rubbish and divisive. This is QUB, not St. Mary's! The job of a good su ents manager is to broaden horizons and culturally educate students. Rod martin did that far better than most. You've killed the goose that laid the golden egg. Let's see how far su ents fall before they contract the whole lot out to the odyssey!

clock watcher.."many of the current Union staff are thick" What a great generalisation, its up there with all students are pissheads. I presume you are talking about everyone from the cleaning staff, shop staff, bar staff and all the staff upstairs? What puts you in a position to judge?

Someone very close to the management in the union told me that figures were on target but not the new Andrew 'the overlord' Dodge figures. Maybe the Gown can look at previous years income compared to this years.

Numbers are down everywhere and the union needed a fall guy. Rod was a great Ents manager and will be sadly missed. The Union is held in such high regard by artists around the world. Watch how poor next years lines up will be.

Best of luck Rod...

And they laughed at Lilly and Mac Giolla Cheara when they said the students had no say in the Union...surely this shows the diluded VP Community and President who really is boss...
when two University Directors came over and proclaimed the end of ENTS... where was the hardworking president and those other hardworking sabs? DO they even have a say when it comes to these matters? TO THIS I ANSWER LMAO

@ Everyone knows.

Most of us know who secretly runs Stiff/Shine?

It's Alan who owns the place and Joe who runs the gigs. Easy.

What else do you mean?

@John B. Dick

Aye the "guys" who run Stiff.Most of us know what guy is secretly involved in that.

This whole situation reeks of scandal and controversy. There are so many things that the Gown team wouldn't be able to print so I don't think it's a case of them "missing something". It all depends on Union people talking. PROOF.

Hope the majority of Union staff know the score.

If only libel laws didn't exist. :p

Don't bring Shine into this. If you knew anything about Shine you'd realise that it's an outside company - the guys who run Stiff Kitten.

This was, if you'd done any research, in the week that the guys at Shine had to start giving away tickets for a gig in the Ulster Hall on Wednesday.

There have been a lot of incredible gigs this year.

However, I think you've missed something here.

It's hard to know what would be better: A new person who will probably be moulded into Dodge's minnion...or an old Union person who knows the score but will potentially already be a minnion...Either way it doesn't look great. The marketing team will no doubt continue their pathetic efforts to get people into the Union. Who was it that came up with the Sonia Mac thing? And those ugly t-shirts? And the win a grand thing (which let's face it was a bit of a disgrace...encouraging students to socialise 4 weeks in a row so that the bars could hopefully take in more money from them buying drink and getting drunk?)?

I'd be embarrassed to work in that Union. It's the promising new saabs I feel sorry for... poor sods. Only a matter of time before they're part of the Union mafia too. Actually, no, mafia is giving them too much credit, because so many of the current Union staff are thick. Bet they love programmes created by Simon Cowell.

I can see the meeting at Union HQ.

MANAGEMENT: "Rite, we need to connect with students - what should we do?"

EVERYONE ELSE: "Give them all uncomfortable t-shirts and bring in Sonya Mac, students like wearing shit clothes when on the pull and love commercial radio DJs that usually play in barns. rite?"

MANAGEMENT: "Is that what they said?"

EVERYONE ELSE: "Well we asked this one guy that was hanging outside. So I guess so."

STUDENTS: "Ummm... no. I've only got a fiver, I'll get a carry-out."

@ SU insider
-I’ve been reliably informed that Queens SU has the highest drink prices than any other SU in the UK.
- Possibly true. BUT they have the lowest prices in Ireland, and almost certainly the best value in Belfast. So unless you regularly go to England for your Monday night out, I don't see how you can beat 3 for a fiver, or £1.50 a drink.

-You’ve clearly never been there on a busy Thursday night…
It's hard to get served in any bar when it's busy. Even the super long one in the Limelight.

-I don’t mind security, but why do they let people into bunatee bar without a wristband, forcing them to put two people checking bands between that and the main bar. The reason is they don’t extend the offers to Bunatee, so when you can’t be bothered queueing for ages to get server, you go round to bunatee and have to pay extra.
It’s especially pointless when it’s free in the speakeasy anyway.

I was there most weeks and it was always on in the Bunatee. Sometimes not barsub but that was at the end of the year when it wasn't part of the 'club'.

Did I say the musics terrible already?
The music was the only reason I went there over the super-cheese-fests of every other place. Long live the Mandela - they just need to open it sooner so that everyone doesn't get pissed off in the Bunatee and leave.

I think the word 'resigns' should be in inverted commas. Why would he leave/resign off his own bat...?

I can think of one big bad reason why he did.

And I'm sure you all know who I'm talking about.

Union is going to shit. Looking forward to seeing more "let's bring in Sonya Mac" type ideas. It's going to be carnage. Puppets at the ready. Don't get tangled up in those strings now...because you might get sacked.

@ SU insider

-I've been reliably informed that Queens SU has the highest drink prices than any other SU in the UK.
-You've clearly never been there on a busy Thursday night...
-I don't mind security, but why do they let people into bunatee bar without a wristband, forcing them to put two people checking bands between that and the main bar. The reason is they don't extend the offers to Bunatee, so when you can't be bothered queueing for ages to get server, you go round to bunatee and have to pay extra.

It's especially pointless when it's free in the speakeasy anyway.

Did I say the musics terrible already?

@ Daniel

- The drink offers make the place considerably cheaper than most other bars in South Belfast.
- I've never had a problem being served
- What's your problem with the concept of security? I think you'll find they have people checking you have a ticket in other bars too...

Yep, a bar with decent prices and with security. clearly rubbish.

the DC's are not the problem

Shine was on Friday.

Don't blame the recession. It's becuase the union has been rubbish for the last two years.

The drink offers are rarely all that good, they never have enough bars open so you can get served in time, it's the same music every week, they have yellow shirted people at every door way checking you have a ticket.

The whole things just a joke, who ever was running it clearly had no idea what people want on a night out.