Sponsorship of the Literary and Historical Society at UCD by Fiat Auto (Ireland) Ltd will help the famed L&H to bring an assortment of statespeople and celebrities from home and abroad to its Dublin meetings.
They will debate the merits of the peace process, legalising drugs, banning Scientology, wearing the poppy, etc, etc.
The L&H, founded in 1855, is one of Ireland's oldest student debating societies. This is the first such commercial partnership in the society's 143-year history.
Its new season of debates starts this Friday at 7.30 p.m. with one about the the peace process. The speakers will include Albert Reynolds, TD and former Taoiseach; Eoghan Harris, columnist and broadcaster; Ruth Dudley Edwards, historian and journalist Tom McGurk.
The following Friday, October 3rd, sees a lunchtime debate on the legalisation of cannabis. The scheduled speakers are Olaf Tyranson of the Cannabis Legalisation Party, Brian Hayes TD and Fergal McKee, lead singer of Whipping Boy.
Paddy Corcoran, managing director of Fiat Auto (Ireland), called the L&H "a remarkable forum". He added: "We hope our involvement will enable it to continue to shape the Ireland of the future as much as it has done in the last 140 years."
Auditor Tom Wright and his committee have a line up of speakers for the coming year which includes George Mitchell, Sir Edward Heath MP, Willie Claes (former secretary general of NATO), Senator David Norris, John Taylor MP, Lord Henry Mount Charles and Eamonn McCann.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/sandbox.irishtimes/ZNXTZ2DRXNFU5MTNZFDVCVJJNE.png)