Fresher’s week in Trinity is an interesting spectacle: an open corridor of tents and stalls each sporting a different service and function. There are glamorous signs and posters with the warm scent of pizza hanging in the air. All around you, a myriad of different characters stand, accosting with information and small plastic cards, from medieval knights and wannabe businessmen to athletes and riflemen. It’s like some bizarre gathering of people selling their wares. Along this bustling path, there was a humble placard, a post decorated with skull and bones. This ominous banner drew us in like fish to a tackle, it could only be the Trinity Pirate Party… wait Pirate Party?! Ah yes I’ve heard of them, they dress up like pirates and embezzle hapless boats in Dun Laoghaire. What an absurd premise! Nonetheless we joined, in the fresher’s week frenzy, with a whetted appetite for thick rum, how could we possibly resist.
Like most of the groups that were joined on whimsical impulse, commitment never really came to fruition in terms of attendance and participation. Interest was feigned at best and realistically most students just keep to their own select societies, so although the membership rate might be high in fresher’s week, the actual attendance of new members is low. As a result, commitment to the mysterious Pirate Party isn’t as elevated as it perhaps should be. This might, however, be put down to a misread vision of what the society actually is. People assume for a comfortable environment of swashbuckling clothes and the ingestion of hard alcohol, yet the club’s online newsletter says differently. So I guess there remains a few questions on everyone’s mind. What exactly is the Pirate Party?
One of numerous Pirate Party events
Intrigued by this illusive group, a colleague and I attended a Pirate Society function ‘Dances with Pirates’ a fortnight ago to find out more. Set in the charming Long Stone pub, we got some drinks and proceeded to join in on the gathering: a modest group, but a welcoming and friendly one nonetheless. Upon joining them we could not help but ask whether they do in fact dress as pirates and drink rum, to which they politely told us off for such naivety. They continued to say that such a particular stereotype is entirely attributed to the ravings of one overexcited member on Fresher’s week. The ethos of the party is far more serious than most students actually perceive. What we discovered is that the Pirate Party is based off of the Swedish Pirate Party, a society dedicated to the freedom of information while also emphasizing a right to certain privacy. It is a proponent for the reformation of patent and copyright laws. From what we could tell, it adhered to a serious view of reformation regarding copyright, how it is designed and who administers copyright… quite unlike most brigands of the waves.
We engaged in an interesting verbal exercise/drinking game where we chose from a selection of ambiguous phrases to talk about, from nuke the whales to the quite humorous ‘fat! so?’ The game revolved around a philosophy of no small talk, and, once finished, all left in good mood, while stoically pondering to themselves the new opinions they had been exposed to. Although not as salty and seafaring as most would have expected Pirate Party members to be, it was definitely enjoyable.
So mystery solved! The Pirate Party is ironically filled with people who could never be pirates. They are noble, democratic and passionate for justice.
Gary Wall
