The Debate Goes On!

We have the Leinster (Irish) Debating crown… and we plan on holding it! And what has made St. Conleth’s such a perennial challenger for the Leinster, national and international titles? Our intensely competitive in-house debates, that is! Recently, our next generation of contenders faced off in the McCarthy Cup for First Years with Marty Davitt out-pointing brother Michael and Harry Collins in a debate that typified our in-house riotous rhetoric. And Shane Carroll, the dignified statesman of Third Year, outlasted the bombastic barracking of numerous pretenders to claim the O’Connor Cup for Second and Third Year Debating.

And the last echoes of our sensational (and sensationalist) Senior Debates are finally dying away as some new (and some familiar) names will now be etched alongside all the past greats on the Kinlen and Gardner Cups and the Bouchier-Hayes and Francis John Barrett Plates. Our Debating Coach Adrianne Ward and Auditor Turlough Dineen ran a tight show, fitting two complete debates and the deciding of four trophies into one trifecta of periods, in the stylish surrounds of the KD Kelleher Wing’s Performance Hall. Gone of the days when the wall between Rooms 1 and 2 would be ‘rolled back’ and the resultant bear pit would bear witness to such raucous affairs that the US Embassy Marines would pay a flying visit.

Mr. ODulaing, who has always enjoyed the high-fallutin’ haranguing over the years, was on hand to present the Kinlen Cup to Turlough Dineen. Our Principal (and the adjudicators) and everyone in an attendance were impressed by Turlough’s frenetic dissection of the motion amidst fierce competition. Then, after a few breaths break, we launched into an impromptu debate on the merits of …well… existence. Lochlan Flynn and Charlie Plant took the team prize of the Bouchier-Hayes Plate and Milo Smith won the Gardner Cup for best individual speaker. We also proudly awarded the Francis John Barrett Plate for Best Maiden Debater to Brooke O’Connor, who did well to more than hold her own in both debates, surrounded as she was by Leinster finalists and, as a TY, showing great promise for the future!

by Charles Latvis