Words from Hubert McDermott,

Lit. & Deb. President

Taken from the text of an interview conducted by Niall Ó Murchadha, Corresponding Sec., during last year’s successful attempt to break the World Record for continuous debate.

Societies & Clubs play a fundamental role in any College. A debating Society however has got to be the one with the most to offer students as individuals. I sometimes tell what’s called the Dale Carnegie story. Dale Carnegie drifted once he left College, becoming a pork pie salesman, joining a travelling road show etc. until he realised he had to do something with his life. He set himself up in the business of selling self-confidence. What he taught at his “self confidence” classes was public speaking. He had been motivated in this choice by personal experience. Coming from a rural Missouri farm he was initially extremely shy, backward and awkward at University. All this was changed for him by joining a Debating Society and the introverted farmer’s son became an outgoing personality. Realising that he wasn’t a minority of one and that, what worked for him might well help others, he went into business. He opened in New York in 1912, selling self-confidence. The courses were so popular he became a millionaire.

In that sense I regard the Literary & Debating Society as contributing significantly to the people who are actually performing. Once one learns to perform in public like that, life becomes very easy in many spheres. I think that, in terms of the people who are listening, that they too are being educated significantly. I always say that the education that takes place outside of lecture halls is more important then what happens inside. People who are not doing the humanities, people in Medicine, Science or other disciplines, are sucked into the Liberal Arts, sucked into an extra-curricular education otherwise unavailable to them and also become a more central part of the University then they would by reading books alone.

The World Record breaker must be considered one of the most significant things that could have been done in internal public relations. No student can pass by where the debate is in progress on the Concourse without being aware that it is on. There is almost no student or staff member in the college who hasn’t stopped at sometime to listen and admire. It will be of great advantage to the Lit. & Deb., raising its college profile even higher. Perhaps its the kind of thing that need to be done every so often, not necessarily a marathon, but something with similar public access, exposure and interaction. It can only enhance our self-esteem within the institution.

Egotism has always played a role in the Society. You have to be a bit of an egotist in front of a group of people, that’s beyond question, indeed if you hadn’t some egotistical tendencies you couldn’t talk! The trouble is that it becomes a negative element the minute you start speaking in order to admire one’s own voice. Its your ego that puts you in front of the crowd and which can also turn the crowd against you.

When the Society met in the old Greek Hall there used to be a fair bit of drinking in advance of speaking in order to be able to cope with nerves. It was more riotous then it is now, I suppose because the hall was so much smaller and the heckling was perhaps of a more vicious quality.

The Lit. & Deb. itself goes through cycles. You get one or two bad Auditors and the audience diminishes considerably, it loses its prestige over two to three years then suddenly a vibrant auditor re-emerges and it takes off, recovering all of its old magnificent tradition. If you can get a few good auditors in succession the bad old days are quickly forgotten. It is for these reasons that the Society has always been able to recapture its tradition eventually, evolving yet always fundamentally remaining the same.

(ed.)