Schools Debates
The role of Schools Convenor in the
Literary and Debating Society involves the organisation of the Society's two
schools debating competitions, as well as forging links between the society and
second-level students, many of whom, we hope, will become the Gibs of the future. Indeed a perusal of the Committee lists
in recent years shows significant numbers of former school debaters, both
within our own society, and within the ranks of soulless zombies who populate
the other 'debating' societies.
The schools debating year kicked off in November with the preliminary rounds of the World
Schools Debating Championship (West of Ireland Division), which is run in a
mace style. In light of the high proportion of competitors unused to mace, and
indeed in many cases to debating at all, we decided to give the participating
teams notice of the motion, and of the side they would represent. Fifteen
minutes before the start of the debate we informed them of their speaking
position. The reason for this derivation from the norm was twofold - to ease
the burden on the speakers by allowing them to prepare some facts on the topic
before the debate and hopefully allow them to concentrate on the format and
style rather than worrying about content. We found it to be a successful policy
as nerves were not exacerbated by lack of factual material, not that this has
ever affected members of the Society in college competitions, but again
innuendo, lies and barefaced slander are aspects of our art that we tend to
discourage in schools competitions.
For the
afternoon of November 22nd we annexed the Arts Millennium Building and ran the
43 speakers off against each other, initially in the schools teams they had
registered in, but the rounds after that were organised with speakers being
paired according their rankings after the first round. After five rounds the
eight highest placed speakers on the tab were selected to go forward to the
final on November 28th, where, in front of a sizeable crowd, they debated the
motion "that this house believes tobacco companies should pay compensation
to their victims." The victors in this hard fought debate, ably chaired by
the Registrar, Prof. Jim Browne, were Lorcan Price of
St. Joseph's Patrician College (The Bish) who came
first, followed by Ray Storan (also of the Bish) and Aine Maire Ni GhiollabMin of Colaiste na Coiribe.
Indeed in the great tradition of parliamentary debating I can end with a cliche and state that, since all competitors who qualified
for the final also travelled to Dublin to contest the National Team Run-Offs,
everyone was a winner!
We were
fortunate this year in that the World Finals, usually held in late spring, were
pushed back to autumn, which allowed us greater flexibility in the
organisation, and more importantly, a change from the previous practice of
having an invitation competition to having a completely open one. The mace
generally involved those teams who had excelled in the previous years ESB
Competition, but by opening it we hoped to attract schools whose strengths or
inclination was the more informal style seen in the Mace. To aid this we
intended holding tutorials over the year but a combination of factors, including
the usual suspects of exams, essay deadlines and Rag Week put paid to these
plans. This year the aforementioned were joined by the Students' Union
elections, and naturally the Society's vastly inferior position in relation to
the more important, necessary and relevant activities of our benevolent Lords
and Masters in the Union resulted in a complete suspension of schools
activities. Indeed my own ascension to take the poisoned chalice and tarnished
chain of the Union Presidency should allow my worthy successor, Thomas Curran,
the freedom to administer the competition in a manner uninterrupted by such
activities.
The Mace
competition had not finished before preparations for the ESB competition began,
and it is fair to say that it dominated many facets of the societies
activities until the final on March 13th. A total of 42 teams from 23
schools entered the competition, representing every county in Connacht as well
as our Lebensraum of Clare and Donegal. As with the Mace we were pleased to see
a greater incidence of rural schools participating, which went a long way
towards counteracting the traditional urban dominance of the competition.
February saw the first rounds held in venues all over the (greater) province,
with the semi-finals being held on March 8th in the College. Three semi-final
debates were held, with the three winning teams and individuals and the best
second placed team and individual contesting the final. A sizeable crowd saw
teams from Davitt College, Castlebar,
Coláiste na
Coiribe, Galway, Patrician College, Galway, Dominican
College, Taylor's Hill and St. Gerard's College, Castlebar.
The winning team, representing the Dominican College, was that of Roisin McGrogan and Meabh Connolly, while the best individual was Aine Maire Ni Ghiollabhain
of Coláiste na
Coiribe.
Overall, I
feel, and have always felt, that the Schools Competitions represent some of the
more important activities carried out by the Society. Debating develops
confidence and logic within a person, but perhaps most of all, the ability to
stand before a group of people and present a coherent argument is a vital
skill. To practice these skills during the formative years of secondary
education can only be of benefit, and I for one feel proud that the Lit and Deb
can facilitate this.
As I look
back over the year as Schools Convenor I feel a deep debt of gratitude to my
colleagues and friends in the Society for allowing me such a deeply enjoyable
year in the job. At no time was I left without the vital support needed to
carry out the role, and any task I delegated was dealt with very ably by the
Committee and the myriad of first years that assisted with the running of the
Competition. In particular Thomas Curran was the first volunteer to step
forward on Gibs' Night, and in recognition of his
sterling work he now begins his term as Schools Convenor. However, it is also
fair to say that, were the list of people to whom the success of the
competition can be attributed to be written, many, many names would be
included, and any success we shared should be just that - shared.
Tony McDonnell (2nd
Arts)
Schools
Convenor
