Down through the years, debaters for the UCD Literary and Historical Society have been notorious for regarding themselves as a breed apart: the Manchester United of student debating, if you like. The fact that three of the four teams in this year's Irish Times Debate final are from their society would be a cause for a week of celebration in many colleges, but L&H debaters regard a place in the final of major debating tournaments as their birthright.
These are people who eat, sleep and drink debating. As a result, like United, the society has strength in depth of which many other college's societies could only dream. However, as United sometimes find to their cost, their status can gall their opponents into pulling out all the stops to beat them. This year's final is rather unusual in recent years in that it is completely dominated by the traditional strongholds of student debating. The fourth team in the final, Muireann Ni Chinneide and Liz Barrett, are from UCC Philosoph. They will cross swords in the team contest with three L&H combinations: Caoileann Gallagher and James McDermott; Ian Wright and Rossa Fanning; and Bairbre O'Neill and Gillian Synott. Walsh and Fanning reached the semi-finals of the World Debating Championship last month, while James McDermott is a former public speaking champion in the "Worlds".
The four individuals in this year's final are Brid McGrath and Paul Gleeson of the Trinity Hist, Steven Vaughan of the UCC Law Society and Colm O Conaill of Cork's Philosoph. Vaughan and McGrath will take particular pride in reaching the last stage of the competition as both are first-year speakers.
The final takes place on February 19th in the Waterford Institute of Technology, where the teams will debate whether "Ireland should put social justice before a Tiger economy". Chairing the final will be former leader of the Labour Party and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dick Spring.
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