The Lit and Deb in the Sixties
There was never any doubt in the 1960’s that the Literary and Debating Society was UCG’s premier society. I recall the Annual Election for Auditor drawing an electorate of nearly 600 even though the Greek Hall where the debates were held was past a safe capacity at 400.
I was 21 when I enrolled at U.C.G. in 1962 and my nervousness at participation in College events was based on a self consciousness of being that bit older than my fellow students.
The first real test of nerve in the Society was Jibs Night when First Years could speak on a topic of their own choosing for three to five minutes. This was of course much worse than speaking on a motion and hecklers, pickled and emergent, seized on such beginners with the ferocious zeal that the second rank of talent always reserves for the innocent.
Sophisticated hecklers reserved their talents for later in the year. I spoke every year in the Inter-Faculty Debate in the period 1962-1966. The first motion I think was “ That this House would abolish Capital Punishment”.
I recall Colm Luibhéad being one of the judges. Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh was an eloquent speaker in both Irish and English in my year. We both represented U.C.G. at Inter-varsity Debates in the years when Trinity had David McConnell and Cian O’hEigeartaigh on its team. U.C.D. had Paddy Cosgrove and Anthony Clare. Q.U.B. had Eamon McCann and Michael Farrell.
I became Auditor in 1965. Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh was Reachtaire of the Cumann Éigse agus Seanchais. I was also President of the Comhairle Teachta na Macleinn in that year. Gearóid was on the C.T.M that had Brian Geoghegan, now Economic Director of I.B.E.C., as Secretary.
I recall the Thursdays as a kind of theatre. Being in the Chair was an incredible challenge. If you lost your concentration for a minute you might never recover. Yet the challenge was to let the whole debate out to a point of risk and then haul it back. We were far less influenced by Law Library rehearsals than became common later.
The hecklers sat along the back row. Colm Roddy and Ciaran Muldoon were the two main sources of dry, if predictable, wit in my time.
Going away for a debate involved hiring a dress suit and been given an envelope with £10 in it. A famous debater just before my time got as far as Oranmore and his excuses were a subject for debate within the Committee of my time.
We had many famous and some notorious
speakers. I recall Denis Franks, for example, coming to speak and he was not
the only one who had an advance of their expenses sent on in advance. Being a
Shakespearean actor touring the Irish schools in the 1960s was a most
precarious life. He was, however, a wonderful exponent of Shakespeare, as he
should be spoken in the
Michael J. O’Connor, an Auditor of my time,
was so innovative that for a few weeks we had to move the debates out of the
University. Indeed we moved to the Rosary Hall of the Dominican Convent in
This gave an opportunity for moral and aesthetic judgement. An illustration on a poster by Doc Doherty was judged to be an insult to the dignity of women students. A conflict ensued. Mediation by the then Treasurer, historian G. A. Hayes-McCoy, led to our return to U.C.G. It was also Michael O’Connor who brought visitors from abroad in great numbers.
I look back now with affection on most of the period. There are of course some events I am happy to have left unrecalled, however - they will be the stuff of a longer reminiscence.
Debates were preceded on occasion with a reception and meal in the Skeffington Arms Hotel. It was the period of Tio Pepe and Blue Nun. Patsy McGarry caught the spirit of that time well in his article for the 1997 Annual.
As to the speakers — Tony Clare, even then,
had a habit of tossing his hair back. He was an effective speaker. The style
was somewhere between a Ruby Club and a
I am pleased to hear that the Minute Books of my time have been recently recovered and deposited in the Library. They were lost for a number of years. I hope somebody edits them at some stage. Certainly the contributions were usually well crafted. Occasionally there were disasters, some turning into what might be called fiasco — a beautiful word insufficiently used.
The annual Ex-Auditors’ Debate was a good
candidate for this. Inevitably it was a kind of Supper of all the Vanities.
John V. Lennon from
Monday night was Cumann Éigse night. Tuesday night was the Students’ Dance in Seapoint. A box of chocolates was presented to the Lady Superintendent who sat in an aisle of the dance floor. Wednesday night was for socialites like Commerce and a very successful Arts Society. Thursday night was Lit and Deb night. Friday night in the Hanger had the relationship to the Tuesday students’ dance that the Rolling Stones had to the Beatles. You must work it out for yourselves.
Most students lived in digs. It was the era
of landladies and green cabbage leaves. The first protest by students in
We marched to Salthill and dispersed peacefully. Life was never really the same again.
Michael
D. Higgins
Auditor 1964-1965