UCD speaker wins individual award at Irish Times debate final

Students Ross Merriman and Conor White from the Solicitors’ Apprentice Debating Society of Ireland (SADSI) were crowned team champions of the 62nd Irish Times Debate competition at the grand final of the event on Friday evening at University College College.

The individual speaker’s award went to Bevin Armstrong from UCD LawSoc. The runner up team was comprised of Martha McKinney Perry and Aisling Rooney from TCD while the runner up individual prize went to Frances Aketch of UCD LawSoc.

Speakers were competing at Ireland’s longest running third level debating competition for the Demosthenes Trophy for best team, and the Christina Murphy Memorial Trophy for best individual.

Past winners who have gone on to have distinguished careers include Marian Finucane, Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman and Dara O’Briain, while defeated finalists include President Michael D Higgins and former president Mary Robinson.

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The motion for the debate was: “This House believes that the Covid-19 Pandemic has shown that Ireland is not up to the challenges of the 21st century.”

The winning SADSI team opened the debate by arguing for the motion.

Mr Merriman said the pandemic highlighted our “deeply rooted inability to plan”, arguing that collective efforts would not come in to play for the more ordinary problems which awaited us.

“[During Covid] we acted on our solidarity based on a fear that will never exist for the less blatant long term challenges that don’t make people panic. The ones that will be boring. That will require constant trial and error and adaptation over decades. We won’t have national solidarity for the challenges ahead that actually divide us,” he said.

Ms Armstrong, who also spoke for the proposition, said Ireland dealt with challenges in an “ah sure look it will be grand” manner.

“We would rather put our trust in fate than acknowledge any sort of collective responsibility. It is a collective excuse to do nothing,” the individual prize-winner said.

“There is no leadership. No foresight. No planning. All things necessary to face the challenges of the 21st century.”

Other finalists were Olcan McSparron of QUB; Caoimhin Hammill and Sinziana Stanciu of TCD; Sarah Jones and Owen O’Grady of UCD L&H; and Pierce Lyons of SADSI.

The event was hosted by UCC Philosoph with Prof Ursula Kilkelly, head of business and law at UCC serving on the judging panel.

The chairperson for the evening was deputy chief medical officer Ronan Glynn and deputy editor of the Irish Times Deirdre Veldon was the head judge on the adjudicating panel.

Other judges included Circuit Court Judge Helen Boyle who was a team winner with King’s Inn in 1996 and Rachel Mullally who was an individual winner in 2019. The debate was convened by Ronan Daly.

Following the debate, Dr Glynn addressed the audience. He said the pandemic was essentially “live-streamed” and that it was challenging for the public to know where to find reliable information.

“We needed collective action. We needed solidarity. We needed civic will. Covid was the first pandemic of its kind in an age of social media. There was often masses of contradictory data coming at us day by day.

“Yes, on the one hand science stood up like never before. Vaccines were developed at a speed beyond anything we had previously envisaged. However, on the other hand the pandemic has accurately been characterised as an existential moment in the use and abuse of knowledge.”