LIT & DEB – FRESH!!

And so September 1998 came and with it came a flock of fresh faced young innocents, the like of which the Lit & Deb hadn’t seen in quite a while (well about a year actually). They came with fire in their bellies, with a hunger for quick wit and not-so-subtle-innuendo and a thirst for free drink like that of, well, freshers during Freshers’ Week.

Gibs’ Night with its “where exactly is the canteen?” and cider-swilling first year jokes (so what if we happen to like fermented apple juice?) introduced a few new faces and names to the Kirwan Theatre. Among them were Gillian Murphy (1st Arts) and Jonathan Flynn (1st Corp. Law) who both chose to speak on the motion “that virginity should he a prerequisite to marriage”. Ms. Murphy gave special mention to the organisation P.V.C.I. - Pro-Virgins for Catholic Ireland - of which she declared in pride that she was a member along with some of the Lit & Deb committee.

Several others including Darragh Noonan (1st Corp. Law) chose to discuss the plight of Michelle de Bruin - no not the former auditor, the ill-fated swimmer, some defending and some condemning her. Derek Cawley, a rather shy and retiring med. student spoke on the motion “that it’s time to let the willies go”(where do they come up with these motions??) and while he obviously had nothing prepared and had the tendency to wander off on tangents all related to his eternal admiration for the aforementioned organ, his speech warranted second place in the competition. Gillian Murphy captured the overall prize, purely one is inclined to believe for the huge amount of innuendo that she managed to cram into her speech—it’s always popular among the committee members (however you get your kicks……….)

The evening for Maiden Speakers several weeks later was another opportunity to test the talents of first time speakers. Speaking on the motion “that this house has the right to die” were all of the above mentioned first years save Ms. Murphy who was replaced by a rather brilliant Elaine Dobbyn and also vying for the huge cash prize (25 big ones) and valuable free passes to the Warwick were Orla Power and Eric King (1st Arts), Enda Dolan (1st IT), Fiona Hogan, and Mona O’Boyle (1st Biotech). Although the evening hadn’t been blessed with a particularly entertaining topic of conversation the first years struggled on, Ms. Power even managing to slip in a Viagra joke - more power to her!

The unfortunate person who won it was Jonathan Flynn, dreary second place was awarded to Derek Cawley but for her brilliant speech and excellence of delivery Elaine Dobbyn got the much-sought-after third position. Standing before the people she held their attention for practically all of her speech, she only stammered twice and got flustered once. In this woman, I without any bias or prejudice of any kind, see a future champion of debating, a future Taoiseach, perhaps even a future member of the Lit & Deb Committee - but maybe that would be overstating it slightly.

The most avid contributors from the first year camp to the Lit & Deb throughout the year were Derek Cawley who competed in the Observer Mace Competition in Trinity College, Diane Halley who competed alongside Gillian Murphy in the Irish Times Competition in Maynooth, Enda Dolan who has had them rolling in the aisles with his Coronation Street impressions along with Daragh Noonan, Elaine Dobbyn, Eric King, Jonathan Flynn, Fiona Hogan and many others.

With these youngsters under its belt the future is looking bright for the Literary and Debating Society. One can only hope that the more elderly, geriatric and infirm members of the committee will see fit to bring some of this new blood onto the committee next year - especially that Elaine Dobbyn, something tells me she’d make a damn fine Literary Officer, but then again those homicidal tendencies simply cannot be ignored. One must wait and see, wait and watch as the ever more entertaining chapters of the Lit & Deb unfold themselves to view. Ladies and gentlemen — enjoy the show.

Elaine Dobbyn (1^st Arts)