Editorial - Time Marches On

Welcome back to college and to the UCC Express. It’s 2018, can you believe it? 2017, it’s generally accepted by now, was a pretty awful year for most, so those ‘New Year, New Me’ resolutions should be important for setting a good platform for you all.This year is certainly an important anniversary for the UCC Express, though we’re not quite sure which one we should celebrate more. History for our publication beyond the 1980s is spotty at best, but we do know...or at least think we know… that the paper goes back to 1953, which would make this the Express’ 65th year of publication total. Before the late-90s, the Express (then named ‘The Gazette’) was an SU newspaper that ran over several pages, and was mainly about events on campus. Before that it was a (double-sided) single-page newsletter, and the paper itself was made by hand-cranking a machine that some might compare to a Mimeograph. Due to the nature of the publication (and poor storage & record keeping from that time) we don’t have any paper record of these publications, just the word of the students’ union officers who worked on them.The other important anniversary comes from the 1997/18 academic year, the first year of the Express (then The University Examiner) as an editorially independent newspaper. This would make this year as the UCC Express’ 20th Anniversary of being a full, proper newspaper. So a big (or possibly even bigger) happy birthday to this very publication.This issue is notable as well, for a number of reasons, for members of our staff. For me this is the last semester I’ll be on the Editorial team of the Express, having been on staff for four years (including this one). I’ll have plenty of time to say goodbye (hopefully), but I want to dedicate this editorial to thanking one person. This is the last edition of the UCC Express with Emmet Curtin providing photographs. Almost all of you know Emmet and have seen his work, be it at events, at society balls, nightclubs or in perspective matches’ Tinder photos (seriously, half of Cork seems to have Emmet’s photos on there). Emmet’s been on staff or providing photos to the Express for seemingly ever, and, on behalf of this editorial team and all previous editorial teams, I would like to sincerely thank Emmet for all his photos and for the countless time, effort and love he has put into this publication. And if Emmet ever actually reads this (I never know if anyone reads these), please finally know: I’m gay for Moleman.