LIT’ N’ DEB INVADE SCOTLAND!

The day dawned bright and clear...yeah right it was 3 o’clock in the morning when four intrepid Lit’n’Debbers headed off for bonnie Scottish Highlands! The reason being - participation in the infamous & international Glasgow “Ancients” and Strathclyde Intervarsities. The courageous four being namely Fergal Crehan, Eoghan Mac Giolla Ri, Eimear Ryan and myself! Upon arrival quite some time later we set up camp in the Glasgow Uni canteen to await debating news… I could have sworn I saw Bridie there - it must have been a Scottish relative, the similarity was amazing! Anyway about 1pm the debates went underway with the first motion being “That this house would think before opening its mouth!” Due to the Observer Mace format of the debate various interpretations ensued, one of them being the alienation of Sinn Fein from the peace talks.

“This house believes that marriage is more reprehensible than prostitution!” was the next fine challenge Glasgow Debating Union put before us… yep the aul’ legalisation of prostitution argument reared its head once again- not a bother to us having discussed it at length (& ad nauseum) back home in UCG ,sorry NUI, Galway! That was the debating over for one day much to the relief of myself & Eimear who hadn’t bothered going to sleep the night before and ended up “dummy speaking” the whole day despite the fact that our brains had dribbled out the backs of our heads around 4am due to lack of sleep! Tea & a major reception followed and then we all retired for the night... I discovered that if you’re tired enough you CAN sleep anywhere...in my case I found repose whilst sleeping on a broken armchair! Say nothing ‘til you hear more as they say! Reluctantly (very reluctantly believe me!) we also had to let Eoghan go home that day as he was on his deathbed with the ‘flu.

Saturday arrived & after breakfast in a wee cafe called aptly enough “Insomnia!” we hit the Strathclyde Uni scene! “There’s nothing quite like a McDonalds!” was the first motion before us - Evil American globalisation was the definition! “That this house would put its finger in the dyke!” Hmm - the prostitution argument again? No is the answer for those with their minds in the gutter -this motion gave birth to various different hybrids one of which being the preservation of the Irish language etc. In order to really test the Lit’n’Deb stamina Strathclyde had another debate for us- 3 impromptu debates in a row (lucky we’d all had the aul’ Weetabix that morning -eh!) “That this house would mourn the passing of Enoch Powell!” was the grand finale Strathclyde gave us - and what did it result in….. Thatcherism! This debate appeared really boring at the start but ended up being hilarious ! Not many of us know that Maggie was in fact the first & original Spice Girl - now affectionately known as “Wrinkly Spice!” When you’re away it’s also very important to impress your opponents not just by argument but also appearance as Fergal did having decided to debate all day in his Tux! And mighty fine he looked too!

Tea & a reception followed and we all retired to the hotel… I’ll say nothing about someone who had to be locked in his room for his own safety!!! After tonnes of beauty sleep -(not!) Sunday arrived, reputedly a day of rest but not for the fearless debate-aholics (honestly that’s a real word!!).The Glasgow Caledonian Intervarsity was the next challenge & once again we held our own! “That this house would celebrate the millennium!” -the logical answer being build a intergalactic spacestation because Ladies and Gentlemen ..we are surrounded by ALIENS -we just didn’t realise it! Fox

Mulder was right all along & to think that we all laughed at him… I wonder who’s laughing now??

Monday was the day we’d to leave our Scottish brethren & begin the long journey home, back to Galway, back to NUI,G - back to the real world (sigh!). But we were armed with some lethal rebuttals -our favourite being “Was that a point of information or did your brain just fart?!” and “If I ate a bowl of alphabet soup I couldn’t vomit out a worse argument!” which whilst being quite tasteless, definitely do get your point across! What can I say? It was a great few days....roll on next year! At least -we expect Lit’n’Deb world domination!

Helena Devenney.

Lit’n’Deb Foreign Correspondent