Irish Times Debate

The Irish Times National Debating Championship is a debating competition for students in higher education in Ireland. It has been run since 1960, sponsored by The Irish Times. While most participants represent institutions in the Republic of Ireland, institutions in Northern Ireland are also eligible.

Irish Times Debate
Status	Active
Genre	Debate
Date(s)	1960
Country	Ireland
Founders	Union of Students in Ireland The Irish Times

History

The Union of Students in Ireland approached The Irish Times in 1960 to secure sponsorship for an Irish equivalent of the Observer Mace,^[1] a debating competition started in Britain in 1954. The "Debating Union of Ireland" was formed for a time,^[1] but later The Irish Times would appoint a student convenor each year, often a previous year's winner.^[1] Until the 1970s, the best teams and individual went on to compete in the final of the Observer Mace.^[2] (The Mace no longer has an individual competition.)

In 1979, Gary Holbrook of Metropolitan State College of Denver was on sabbatical at Trinity College Dublin and was impressed with the debate.^[3] In 1980, he persuaded Coors Brewers to sponsor a debate tour of U.S. colleges for the winning team and individual speakers.^[3] The Irish were struck there by the very different approach of American debaters.^[4] Holbrook subsequently organised "Friends of the Irish Debate",^[5] sponsored by The Irish Times and Aer Lingus, to make the tour annual.^[1] The tour is now organised by the U.S. National Parliamentary Debate Association.

In 2010, a special celebration marked the debate's 50th anniversary.^[6]

Format

The competition is generally considered the most prestigious in Ireland, due in part to the additional media attention provided by its sponsor, but also the status of some of the former winners, and the US tour which forms part of the prize. Running between November and February, it operates on a knockout basis, with the initial entrants (usually between 150 and 170 teams) being whittled down over successive rounds, culminating in a Grand Final with four teams and four individuals competing for team honours (The Demosthenes Trophy) and an individual prize (The Christina Murphy Memorial Trophy).

The format of the competition is now unique in third-level debating, combining team and individual roles. The first round consists solely of team entrants, from which both teams and individuals progress, thus creating subsequent rounds featuring both. Individuals may be selected from a team at any stage of the competition, including to win the competition at the final stage. The winning individual cannot be selected from the winning team, though this restriction was not observed in the 1972 competition, where Donal Deeny took both prizes.^[2] In that year, the judges nominated Kathleen Boyle to progress to the Observer Mace individual competition.^[2]

The only other competition to adopt the same format is the All-Ireland Schools' Debating Competition.^[7]

Winners

By year

Year	Team Society	Team Speaker 1	Team Speaker 2	Individual Society	Individual Speaker
1960[8]	King's Inns	Aidan Browne	Charles Lysaght	TCD Hist	Neville Keery
1961[8]	TCD Phil	Hallam Johnston	Jack Daniels	UCD L&H	Peter Donnelly
1962[8]	QUB	John Murtagh	Michael Egan	TCD Hist	Ian Blake
1963[8]	UCD L&H	Patrick Cosgrave	Anthony Clare	RCSI	Desmond King[2]
1964[8]	UCD L&H	Patrick Cosgrave	Anthony Clare	King's Inns	Terry McMahon
1965[8]	TCD Hist	David McConnell	Cian Ó hÉigeartaigh	QUB Literific	Eamonn McCann
1966[8]	TCD Hist	David McConnell	Cian Ó hÉigeartaigh	UCD L&H	Esmond Smyth
1967[8]	UCC Philosoph	Donnchadh Ó Corráin	Anthony J. Adolph	King's Inns	Kevin O'Higgins
1968[8]	UCD L&H	Roddy Buckley	Dermot Gleeson	UCD L&H	Henry Kelly
1969[8]	QUB	Brendan Keenan	Derek Davis	UCC Philosoph	Anthony J. Adolph
1970[8]	UCD L&H	Neal Clarke	Donal O'Riain	UCD L&H	Adrian Hardiman
1971[8]	TCD Hist	Donnell Deeny	Gregory Murphy	DIT Bolton Street	Marian Finucane
1972[8]	TCD Hist	Donnell Deeny	Frank Bannister	TCD Hist (St Mary's, Belfast)	Donnell Deeny (Kathleen Boyle)[2]
1973[8]	QUB	Billy McRory	Jimmy Hughes	UCD L&H	Adrian Hardiman
1974[8]	TCD Hist	David O'Sullivan	James Connolly	NUU	Alex Lowry
1975[8]	NUU	Michael Hughes	Kevin Cahill	King's Inns	Brian Curtin
1976[8]	UCD L&H	Paul Gill	Gerry Danaher	Maynooth	Deirdre Murphy
1977[8]	Maynooth	Patrick Hennessy	Gerry Maher	UCD L&H	Patrick Healy
1978[8]	UCD Law Soc	Conor Gearty	Donal O'Donnell	King's Inns	Turlough O'Donnell
1979[8]	UCD Law Soc	Conor Gearty	John O'Donnell	UCD L&H	Maurice Biggar
1980[8]	UCD L&H	Maurice Biggar	Eugene McCague	King's Inns	Brian Havel
1981[8]	UCD L&H	Charlie Meenan	Gerry Stembridge	TCD Hist	Sean Moran
1982[8]	TCD Phil	Michael Byrne	Gerry Foley	UCC Philosoph	Liam Plant
1983[8]	UCG Lit & Deb	Eoin O'Maoileoin	Damian Crawford	TCD Hist	Bill Maguire
1984[8]	TCD Hist	Eoin McCullough	Brian Murray	UCD L&H	Pat Whyms
1985[8]	UCC Philosoph	David Holland	Brian Hassett	TCD Hist	Gideon Taylor
1986[8]	TCD Phil	Declan McCavana	David Keane	UCG Lit & Deb	Brendan Wilkins
1987[8]	TCD Hist	Aidan Kane	Paul Gavin	UCG Lit & Deb	Conor Bowman
1988[8]	UCC Philosoph	Adrian Hunt	Tim Murphy	UCC Philosoph	Robert Plant
1989[8]	King's Inns	Maeve Collins	Pat Twomey	UCD Law Soc	Julian Clare
1990[8]	UCC Philosoph	Brendan Lenihan	Don O'Sullivan	Cadet School	Tom Clonan
1991[8]	King's Inns	Tim O'Leary	Pat Treacy	UCD L&H	Barra Faughnan
1992[2]	UCD L&H	Johanna Farrelly	Pat O'Keeffe	UCD Law Soc	Cian Ferriter
1993[9]	TCD Hist	Brendan Foley	Gavin Titley	UCC Philosoph	Kieran Healy
1994[10]	UCD L&H	Dara Ó Briain	Marcus Dowling	King's Inns	Bernard Dunleavy
1995[11]	UCC Philosoph	Alan Roberts	Diarmuid Conway	UCC Philosoph	Gerry Hyde
1996[12]	King's Inns	Helen Boyle	Paul McDermott	TCD Hist	Douglas Clarke
1997[13]	UL Debating Union	Seamus Doran	Padraic O'Halloran	SADSI	Matthew McCabe
1998[14]	UCC Philosoph	Muireann Ní Chinnéide	Elizabeth Barrett	TCD Hist	Paul Gleeson
1999[15]	UCD L&H	Caoilfhionn Gallagher	Bernadette Quigley	King's Inns	Rossa Fanning
2000[16]	King's Inns	Michael Deasy	Rónán Mullen	SADSI	Louise Rouse
2001[17]	TCD Hist	Bríd McGrath	Yvonne Campbell	TCD Hist	Aoife Titley
2002[18]	TCD Hist	Louie Mooney	Brendan Kelly	UCC Philosoph	Conor Buckley
2003[19]	UCD L&H	Leo Mulrooney	Colm Coyne	TCD Hist	Alison McIntyre
2004[20]	DCU	Ian Kehoe	Michael Moriarty	King's Inns	Paul Brady
2005[21]	King's Inns	David Whelan	Sam Collins	UCD L&H	Frank Kennedy
2006[22]	King's Inns	Barry Glynn	Mark Murphy	UCC Philosoph	Diarmuid Early
2007[23]	TCD Hist	David Boughton	Ciaran Denny	King's Inns	David Quinn
2008[24]	TCD Hist	Christopher Kissane	David Kenny	UCD L&H	Stephen Boyle
2009[25]	TCD Hist	John Gallagher	Andrea Mulligan	UCD L&H	Jeremy Kinsella
2010[26]	TCD Hist	Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin	Niall Sherry	Griffith College Dublin	Sean O'Quigley
2011	King's Inns	Lorcan Price	Áine Hartigan	TCD Law Soc	Mark Thuillier
2012	RCSI	Eoin Kelleher	Elizabeth Ahern-Flynn	UCD Med Soc	Michael Conroy
2013[27]	TCD Phil Bram Stoker Club	Liam Brophy	John Engle	TCD Hist	Kate Brady
2014	SADSI	Dearbhla O'Gorman	Kieran O'Sullivan	UCD Med Soc	William Courtney
2015	TCD Phil	Rónán O'Connor	Hugh Guidera	UCD L&H	Eoin MacLachlan
2016	SADSI	Ross O'Mahony	Aaron Vickery	UCD L&H	Clíodhna Ní Chéileachair
2017	UCD Law	Aisling Tully	Dara Keenan	SADSI	Leah Morgan
2018	UCD Law	Cian Leahy	Aodhán Peelo	UCD L&H	Amy Crean
2019[28]	TCD Hist	Ronan Daly	Daniel Gilligan	King's Inns	Kevin Roche
2020[29]	TCD Phil	Eoghan Quinn	Aislinn Carty	UCD L&H	Rachael Mullally
2021[30]	Maynooth	Rí Anumudu	Chikemka Abuchi-Ogbonda	TCD Hist	Gabrielle Fullam
2022[31]	SADSI	Ross Merriman	Conor White	UCD Law	Bevin Armstrong
2023[32]	SADSI	Ailbhe Noonan	Gavin Dowd	MTU Debating Society	Oliver McKenna
2024[33]	King's Inns	Ciara McLoughlin	Ceara Tonna-Barthet	SADSI	Clíodhna McHugh
2025[34]	UCD L&H	Adrianne Ward	Rob Fitzpatrick	Lit & Deb University of Galway	Liam Boyce

By society

Society	University	Team wins	Individual wins
College Historical Society (Hist)	Trinity College Dublin	15	11
Literary and Historical Society (L&H)	University College Dublin	12	15
Law Students' Debating Society of Ireland	King's Inns	9	10
UCC Philosophical Society (Philosoph)	University College Cork	6	7
Literary and Scientific Society (Literific) –	Queen's University Belfast	3	1
University Philosophical Society (Phil)	Trinity College, Dublin	4	0
Law Society	University College Dublin	3	3
Solicitors' Apprentice Debating Society of Ireland	Law Society of Ireland	3	4
Literary and Debating Society (Lit & Deb)	University of Galway	1	3
RCSI Debating Society	Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland	1	1
–	New University of Ulster	1	1
–	St. Patrick's College, Maynooth	1	1
–	Dublin City University	1	0
Law Society	Trinity College Dublin	1	0
Bram Stoker Club	Trinity College Dublin	1	0
–	University of Limerick	1	0
–	Griffith College Dublin	0	1
–	Cadet School	0	1
–	Dublin Institute of Technology	0	1
Medicine Society	University College Dublin	0	2

Notable participants

Many winners have gone on to have successful careers in law.^[6] Former winners in the legal field include Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ireland Donal O'Donnell, Supreme Court judge Adrian Hardiman, former Managing Partner and Chairman of Arthur Cox (law firm) Eugene McCague, High Court of Ireland judges David Holland (judge) and Cian Ferriter, Senior Counsels Paul Anthony McDermott, Rossa Fanning, John O'Donnell, Dermot Gleeson,^[8] Aidan Browne,^[8] and Gregory Murphy,^[8] King's Counsel at Doughty Street Chambers, Caoilfhionn Gallagher, professors Conor Gearty, Kieran Healy and Charles Lysaght, and Circuit Court judges Esmond Smyth, Kevin O'Higgins,^[8] and Brian Curtin. James Connolly, winner in 1974, was Vice Chairman of the Bar Council of Ireland and recently chair of public inquiries in Dublin.

David O'Sullivan, winner in 1974, became secretary general to the President of the European Commission. Maeve Collins, winner in 1989, is a former Irish Ambassador to Vietnam and now a Director General within the Irish Department for Foreign Affairs. Neville Keery, 1960 winner, was a member of the 12th Seanad, and later Head of Libraries of the European Commission.^[35]

Other well-known former winners include broadcasters Anthony Clare, Henry Kelly, Derek Davis, Cian Ó hÉigeartaigh,^[8] and Marian Finucane; comedian Dara Ó Briain; and writers Eamonn McCann, Gerry Stembridge, Kevin Cahill. The losing finalists in 1966 included future Presidents Mary Robinson and Michael D. Higgins.^[36] Future Tánaiste Mary Harney^[1] and Minister Mary Hanafin^[6] also appeared as finalists.