Griffith College Dublin

Debating Committee 2010/11

• Mentor - Sean O'Quigley
• President - Graham Butler

Contact Details
Email debate@gcd.ie
Web http://www.gcd.ie/debatingsociety/

News

April 2011

Mooting 2011
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March 2011

The Irish Times Debate 2010-201
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GCD was honoured to host the final which saw a huge turnout from around the country to support the speakers in the final who represented colleges including The Honorable Society of Kings Inns, UCD and Trinity.

The motion discussed was "That this house would default" and both the winning team and winning opposition were selected from the side proposing the motion.  The winners will enjoy a 3 week all expenses paid tour of the USA!  All who attended were complimentary of the fantastic facilities provided by Griffith College Dublin and its staff.

The event proved an immense success and has positioned Griffith College Dublin as a force on the debating scene and a desirable venue for other debating competitions.

January to March 2011

Griffith College Dublin's involvement in and reputation among the Irish University Debating scene was further improved and cemented this year. 

Following on from winning the competition last year, GCD again this year was a powerful player in The Irish Times Debating Competition. 

Shaun Blundell and Malachy Ryan (3 LLB) represented the college and as a team reached the quarter final of the competition.  Shaun progressed to the semi final and narrowly missed out on a place in the final after delivering an excellent speech on Abortion in Belfast.   

Eager to build on this success many more events are planned for next year, including a show case debate featuring some of the most successful and entertaining debaters on the college circuit at this time.

An internal competition will also be run for beginners wishing to get involved in public speaking.  We are also eager to enter teams into the other competitions held both in Ireland and internationally.

Congratulations again to Shaun and Malachy on their amazing performance in this year's competition.

November 2010

GCD Team make it into next round of - Irish Times Debating competition
On Thursday 4th November 2010 Griffith College Dublin hosted two rounds of the Irish Times Debating competition. Teams from institutions all over Ireland converged on campus at 6.30 pm all looking to secure a place in the quarter finals of the competition.
The institutions represented included UCD, UCC, Trinity, DIT, DCU, IT Carlow and Independent College. In one room teams debated the motion "That This House Welcomes the Demise of The Celtic Tiger" which proved to be a very enjoyable debate. The adjudication panel include a GCD student however the main interest for GCD was in the other room where the GCD team of Malachy Ryan and Sean Blundell (3LLB) opposed the motion that "This House Believes Collins and Griffith Should Not Have Signed The Treaty".
In a high standard room Malachy and Sean delivered well researched and well presented arguments which featured outstanding analysis, rhetoric and humour. They were one of only two teams to qualify from the debate and will now represent GCD in the quarter final of the competitor to be held next week.
Congratulations to Malachy and Sean and the very best of luck in your future rounds.

April 2010
March 26th and 27th saw the Thomas Finlay Moot Court interversity competition being held in UCD, Roebuck House, Belfield. Again GCD was represented, this year by Miss Edwina Malaniff and Mr Philip Smith.

The theme this year was on the Law of Tort. Some 16 teams took part, some from as far a field as United States, and 9 teams from the U.K.

The GCD team argued their way to the last six and where beaten by only six speaker points by the semi-finalists. It was a great honour for both Edwina and Philip to represent the college at this prestigious event and would recommend it to the next generation of legal scholar's in Griffith.

March 2010

Presentation to Sean O‘Quigley winner of the individual prize at the 2010 Irish Times Debating Competition

February 2010

Seán O'Quigley wins individual prize at the 2010 Irish Times Debating Competition


The good news continues. Sean O'Quigley has progressed to the semi-final of the Irish Times Debating Competition representing Griffith College Dublin. The other speakers are from Kings Inns, UCD, Trinity, DCU and Royal College of Surgeons so hopefully Sean can do the college proud! Teams are also being entered in the UCD Moot Court IV in March (which Griffith won last year) and Registration of teams in the Galway Debating IV in February.

January 2010
Griffith Students Challenge the world - Report from Claire and Barry about Koç Worlds Universities Debate Championships

For the first time n the History of the Law School, a team was entered in the World Universities Debating Championships (Worlds).

Two students from the third year of our LLB programme, Barry Vickers and Claire Michelle Smyth represented Griffith College. They have recently returned from taking part in the World Universities Debating Championships (Worlds) in Antalya in Turkey. Worlds 2010 was one of the largest student events in the world with over 1200 delegates representing their institutions this year.

Barry and Claire Michelle debated nine times over three days on a wide range of issues including politics, law and economics from partitioning Sudan to banning labour unions. 43 of the world‘s major universities - including Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and Yale were represented, with Sydney winning the Grand Final.

Barry and Claire Michelle felt it was an invaluable experience, and will be passing on the benefit of their experience to future Griffith teams.

December 2009
December has already been a busy one for the society and its success continues. In their Irish times quarter final round Jane and Sean spoke in favour of the motion “that Collins and Griffith should not have signed the treaty”. Despite narrowly missing out on a team spot, Sean progressed to the semi final of the competition as an individual speaker. The semi finals will take place next year. The UCC Cork IV also takes place this month and Griffith will be represented by Claire and Barry.

In the New Year the Trinity and Galway IVs take place and already there is strong interest as membership and interest in the society grows. The society also hopes to host internal debates and events in the New Year. If anyone would like to get involved in the committee, the society or debating please get in touch with the committee at debate@gcd.ie .

November 2009
November was also a very busy month for the society and its competitive debating ventures. Barry and Claire represented the college in the first round of The Irish Mace Competition in UCD. Needing to win the debate to progress to the second round they sadly came a very close second. However, it was so close that they are expected to secure one of the “best ranked looser” spots and will speak in the second round of the competition. The convenor of the competition Mr Gregg O’Neill also came into Griffith one Tuesday evening to give a debating workshop and advice seminar which will be of benefit to our teams moving forward. The Irish Times Debating competition also kicked off and the team of Malachy Ryan and Shawn Blundell were very unlucky not to progress into the quarter final. Debating “this house was appalled by the decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama” in Kings Inns, Malachy and Shawn came up against very strong competition, including a Kings Inns team and a UCD team tipped to win the competition outright. The society also hosted two rounds this year including the motion “that this house laments the rise of Social Networking” which the Griffith team of Jane O’Neil and Sean O’Quigley won.

October 2009

October the new committee was elected. The committee consists of a Keith Brady (President), Padraig Flynn (Vice President and I.V. Convenor), Sean O’Quigley (Treasurer and External Competitions Co-ordinator) and Alan Gallagher (Society Secretary) who can be reached at debate@gcd.ie . Having been provided with generous sponsorship from the college and deciding the society activities for the year, the committee set about running its first event.

The first event of the society was the “run off” event which saw five teams compete for a €300 prize fund and the title of “Griffith College Dublin A-Team”. Experienced adjudicators from colleges all around Ireland descended on Griffith and oversaw the event. In the final the motion “that this house would allow the wearing of religious symbols in the workplace” was debated and tightly contested but after deliberation Chief Adjudicator and Dean of Law David Langwallner announced Claire Michelle Smyth and Barry Vickers as the winners of the debate and Sean O’Quigley as best speaker on the night. Shawn Blundell also earned himself an honourable mention for a compelling speech. Over a few pints in the Headliner Bar the adjudicators went to great efforts to report that they were genuinely impressed with the standard of debating from all the Griffith Teams, especially the first year team of Nikkita Browne and Katie Jo McRory who they feel show exceptional promise for the future.

Having been selected as the G.C.D. A-Team Barry and Claire then had to compete against the Griffith College Cork A-Team. After two “head to head” debates held in Dublin under the watchful eye of Cork adjudicators Barry and Claire were deemed the winners and will fly to Koc, Turkey later this month to represent the college in the World University Debating Championships (W.U.D.C.). In the W.U.D.C. over 300 teams from 60 countries compete for the greatest accolade in debating – World Champions. In short, it is like the FIFA World Cup except, this time, Ireland did qualify and Thiery Henry did not. The very best of luck to Claire and Barry in Turkey.

May 2009 to July 2009:
Exams in May, followed by weekly meetings with the committee, faculty mentors David Langwallner and Keith Spenser during the summer gearing up our team for the World Universities Debating Championship.

Pictures:


April 2009:
Continuation of in house debates on Monday nights, prizes on offer for the most successful participant on the night. Drinks afterwards. Intensive Preparation of students who wish to participate in upcoming Debating Competitions over the forthcoming months such as the Irish Mace, Irish Times and World Championship (to be held at Koc University, Istambul).

March 2009:
The committee establishes links with other Debating Societies both in Ireland and abroad. Continuation of in house debates on Monday nights, prizes on offer for the most successful participant on the night. Drinks and refreshments afterwards. The highlight of the year was that our team were winners of The Thomas Finlay Court Moot in UCD. Claire Michelle Smyth and Barry Vickers took the first prize at The Thomas Finlay Moot run by UCD over the weekend of 21st and 22nd March 2009. The two second year LLB students defeated the opposition from all over Ireland, UK and Northern Ireland and have made history as the first ever GCD team to win such a prestigious award in the Moot Court Competition. Phillip Smith and Sean O’Quigley from the same class also took part in the moot .

February 2009:
Welcome back after the exams! Griffith College Debating Society Constitution adopted and put into practice. Continuation of in house debating on Monday nights, prizes on offer for the most successful participant on the night. Drinks afterwards.

January 2009:
Pre exam break, no debating nights for the month of January.

December 2008:
Irish Mace Debating Competition commences, again strong interest shown by the Ordinary Members. First Heat of Round 1 to be held in Griffith. Monday meetings of the society ongoing.

November 2008:
Irish Times Debating Competition commences amid a lot of interest. Teams are picked based on ability determined on performance over the course of the Monday night meetings up to this point. David Langwallner (Dean of Law) gives intensive coaching to participants. Malachy Ryan LLB (year 1) progresses to round two. Meeting with the college and the society to discuss funding for the forthcoming year. Continuation of Society Monday meetings. Second meeting with the college to finalise funding arrangements.

October 2008 :
Keith Brady and committee are elected by the ordinary members overseen by Kate Kelly (BA (NUI), LLB (NUI), MSc (Edinburgh)) and David Langwallner (B.A., LL.M (Lond.), LL.M (Harvard), B.L.). Meetings take place every Monday at 6pm for gatherings of the society. Teams are enrolled in the Irish Mace and Irish Times Debating Competitions.
Barry Vickers, Claire Michelle Smyth and President of Griffith College Diarmuid Hegarty

August 2009:
Griffith law students take part in the World Universities Debating Championships.