External Events 153rd Session 1999/2000

The A.G.M. of the last session decided my fate in the Lit ‘n’ Deb for the next year- External Convener. No better man to handle such a responsibility, I thought, but being the sole organizer of the Irish Times Debating finals and the Siobhán McKenna Intervarsities was not a thing Derek Cawley was to be trusted with. However, booking beds for a few lunatic Scotsmen was more than enough to make me happy.

An inkling of sense tells me fortunately, that it was not the mere organisational facet of my character that anchored me to the Lit n’ Deb for the year. No, instead it was my oratorical skill that they wanted to keep, to nurture, they wanted to cherish this chattering cherub. In fact, it was my ability to talk absolute waffle for hours and hours. To misquote George Elliot, “Blessed is the man who having nothing to say, abstains by giving us wordy evidence of that fact!”

The Galway round of the Guinness Hibernian Challenge began in the afternoon of the 27^th January in the new Student Theatre, NUI, Galway. Ironically, this mannequin turned up to “dummy-speak”, and I assure you, I did Galway proud in that capacity. The honourable (honoured) Denise Kehoe and I were unfortunately defeated by the almighty Strathclyde B team in the first round on the same motion as they beat us last year - the veritable notion of legalised prostitution. The dynamic duo of James Lawrence and Ross McDonald went onto win the competition. Otherwise one would not have known where Miss Kehoe and I might have ended up.

The Irish Times Debates were the highlight of the debating year for the Lit ‘n’ Deb and a highlight in Conor Nelson’s life as an Auditor, as a student of NUI, Galway and indeed as a celebrity on page seven of the Irish Times. Unfortunately for my good self and the veritable Misterrr Mohammed Al Kareem, the winners of that competition, featuring four hundred contestants, also knocked us two astute medical students out of the first round. Mr Enda Dolan, 2^nd Informational Technology (at the time) got to the semi-finals, while Ms. Aisling Currid and Lieut. Barry Ryan did Galway proud in reaching the finals.

Alas, in a porridge of barristers and solicitors and Limerick men who grew up on the street, on a motion “That this House would call a halt to the Tribunals of Inquiry”, it was not to be. It didn’t stop there, oh no, a night of feasting and “feishting” was had to the music of the Guinness Jazz Band and in the Irish Times the following day. the ensuing article gave Ms. Currid the last word - “that tribunals of inquiry were like a never-ending rock concert that gave us loads of entertainment but never seemed to stop”. The motion was narrowly defeated.

It really was a great year for students participating in External events. Hopefully next year will see even more people entering Intervarsity Debates and representing NUI, Galway to the best of their abilities.

Derek Cawley

External Convenor