If you can make it there, you’ll make it anywhere....

It’s all very well saying you’ll do an article, especially when they say that they really don’t mind what you write about. Sure enough! Why not! No bother! It’s a different thing when it comes down to it though. Not so smart now, sitting in front of a screen with a little cursor beguilingly blinking. And then they start ringing up saying that the thing has to be done by tomorrow, that the pressure is on but, they emphasise, they don’t want to be hassling you. That’s what they’re doing though. Hassling me and putting me under pressure and still that little cursor is winking. The first paragraph is done though.

Maybe I could write a bit of a poem altogether. Something short. But deep. Mysterious. Evocative. Unpunctuated. It wouldn’t even have to rhyme. Poems don’t these days I’m told. Spring maybe. Or a lament for the good old days of Abba and My Boy Lollipop. No. I’d never get away with it. The crowd doing English would see through it. They’d know I was faking. ‘Shallow’ and ‘insincere’ they would sniff……. ‘it doesn’t even rhyme.’

‘Write what you know’ they said, sounding original. Just a short bit of a thing. Anything really. It’s just to fill a page. About debating or something. Now there’s an idea.

Not that I know much about debating. When I’ve been introduced on the Thursday Nights, Ronan always pipes up with the ‘Former Auditor Of The Literary And Debating Society In St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth’ title (he is the only person I know who can pronounce Capital Letters). But, to be honest, this FAOTLADSTSPCM thing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Having once had the ability to call ‘order, order there’ and conduct a debate between consenting clerics doesn’t really give one an insight into the skills and talents required by a proficient debater. But I do harbour one or two strong opinions in my heart.

I believe, for instance, that the Literary & Debating Society is a Good Thing. Good for students and good for college. And it’s nothing to do with lofty ideals like truth, integrity or fact. No the L&D is for greater things than this.

Kirwan on Thursday nights is a school of skills and a forum of formation. It is there that the young equip themselves with the faculties, craft and ability they need to face a world steeped in cunning and guile. It is there they learn to think on their feet. They learn to analyse a proposition for its strengths and weaknesses, seeing both sides that every argument worth having has. They learn to formulate this analysis into words and express it in a cogent, clear, concise style. They learn to be sensitive to counter argument, offering rebuttal in an instant.

It is here in the Kirwan that students learn to speak audibly and with passion. The fact that this passion is not always heartfelt is an irrelevance. Sure, in the big set-piece debates on the great issues of the day, people speak from the heart. Sure they tell it as they see it and believe it. However, I contend, authenticity ain’t what the L&D is always necessarily about. Rather the Society is concerned with shyness overcome. Tongue-tiedness (the spellchecker doesn’t accept that word but you know what I mean) cast aside. Wilting wallflowers blossoming beautifully.

The skills fostered by the L&D are precisely the skills required by anyone who wishes to function in the world of business, of commerce, of industry, of law, of education, of medicine, of politics, of everyday life. If students are not able to put their point of view they are going nowhere. If they cannot analyse what is being presented to them, if they cannot weigh an argument for its strengths and weaknesses, if they cannot formulate and clearly express a response, they will not prosper. They most certainly will not have leadership potential.

Few are born with these skills - normally they must be acquired. My contention is that, within the confines of NUI, Galway, the best way, the only way to do this, is through participation in the activities of the Literary and Debating Society on the Thursday Nights. Sure, the first time is difficult. Sure, to stand up in the midst of animated group of raucous hecklers is intimidating. Sure, to lay yourself open to questioning, criticism and opposition is nerve-wracking. It requires courage and fortitude. It requires calm and composure. And there is a respect for those who are partaking for the first time. There is understanding for the novice. Nobody expects unfettered fluency though it is always appreciated. Here is the place to get experience and grow in confidence. I rest my case. The L&D is a Good Thing.

There you are, all finished. Only two days late. They started calling to my office looking for it you know. (How come, I wonder, that the Committee members of the Literary and Debating Society never travel alone? The who thing has a hint of cult, a whiff of oddness about it.) Now all I have do is await publication to see how that Nelson chap has edited my ten page article down to a handful of paragraphs.

Diarmuid Hogan

Dean of Residence