Editorial to the
Elbert Hubbard contended that an editor’s job entails separating the wheat from the chaff, and ensuring that the chaff is printed. Ostensibly Mr Hubbard has never been acquainted with the U.C.G. College Annual, which now in its 95th year still embraces the fundamental purpose set down by its founding fathers, disseminating the glowing sentiments of our youthful aspirants to the amaranthine bay. The magazine was initially published three timed in the college year under the title ‘Q.C.G.’ with the pioneering publication promulgated in 1902. Due to inconsistencies in its arrival, responsibility for the magazine has fallen under the auspices of the Literary and Debating Society since 1913. As a consequence it serves the dual purpose of being both the college’s annual and the society’s journal.
This year’s publication coincides with the 150th anniversary of the Lit & Deb. This year has seen a marked expansion in the literary aspects of the Society, in the form of poetry recitals in association with the English Society and a Literary Competition which was kindly sponsored by A.T. Cross. Akin to last year, this year the society is producing a journal, not just of the literary achievements of its members during the past year but also of all its debating achievements both internally and externally. The Society is the oldest within U.C.G., the largest in the British Isles and Ireland, holder of the World Record for the longest continuous debate and holder of the Kingsmill-Moore Intervarsity Debating Title 1997.
Since the society is celebrating such a monumental watershed
in its existence, it is a time to be reflective, if not philosophical. Plato
believed that opinion was the medium between knowledge and ignorance. Some 150
years since its foundation, one can truly say that the Society is a forum
within which many varied and often contentious opinions are expressed. If
Plato’s sentiment be true, then it is quintessential that the mediums through
which such conjecture is expressed, be it in a literary or debating form, are
maintained if not elevated or we may all become vessels of the latter part of
that sentiment. I find it fitting at this juncture to end on the words of the
society motto: Nunc Nunc Qui Timet Eloqui - now now who fears to speak.
Ronan Feehily (2nd Comm.)
Literary Officer