The line-up for the final of the Irish Times Debate competition was concluded in a series of four recent debates, which saw teams and individual debaters win through.
Caoilfhionn Gallagher and Bernadette Quigley of UCD's L&H were the first team to make it through to the finals, when they opposed the motion "That this House would walk down the Queen's Highway" in a debate at Waterford IT. Padraic Lyons from Trinity made it through from the same round as the best individual speaker. The adjudication was a particularly narrow one, with the UCD Law Society team of Colin Walsh and Maeve Regan pipped at the post by their L&H colleagues.
The King's Inns swept the boards at the round held in their institute, where the motion was the suitably wordy "This House believes that the rise of the New Left has ended choice in modern politics". John Gallagher and Vincent Nolan of the Honorable Society won the team contest, while their fellow Inns student Eoin Mac Giolla Ri took the individual spot in the final.
TCD played host to a debate on the proposition "That this House would bomb Iraq". The home team were victorious again, with Yvonne Campbell and Brid McGrath from the TCD Hist taking the spoils. Darren Lehane of the UCC Law Society was nominated best individual speaker of the night.
The semi-finals were wrapped up on Thursday in Maynooth, when Pat English and Eoin Hyland of the UCC Philosoph and Rossa Fanning of the King's Inns reached the final.
The debates convenor, Seamus Doran, says the calibre of both team and individual speakers this year "is the strongest it's been in a long time. An indication of the standard this year is that in most cases the semifinals have come down to split decisions."
Meanwhile, the Challenging Times competition is midway through the first televised round. NUI Maynooth and the Garda College have reached the quarter-final stage, as have last year's finalists, UCD and the DIT.
Tonight's contest will feature UCC and St Patrick's College of Education, Drumcondra, Dublin; next week, the King's Inns meet the University of Limerick.
Challenging Times goes out every Tuesday on Network 2 at 8 p.m.
