UCD see’s another year of success at the Irish Times Debate Grand Final 2018
The winners of the Irish Times Debating Finals 2018 are Amy Crean of UCD’s L&H, and the team winners are Aodhán Peelo and Cian Leahy of UCD’s Law Soc. In the 58th Grand Final of the Irish Times debate the proposition teams argued that This House Believes That Ireland Has Failed Its Youth. With over 300 competitors battling it out since October, these three students have joined the ranks of notable previous winners such as broadcaster Marian Finucane, comedian Dara O’Briain, and Eoin McCullough SC, as well as Supreme Court Judge Donal O’Donnell and the late Adrian Hardiman.
Not only did UCD take home the top team prize and individual prize, but the runner-up award went to Kevin Brennan of the Literary and Historical Society for his stellar performance!
This years victory builds on on last years success by Aisling Tully and Dara Keenan who won the team competition in 2017. The three winners will now get to travel around the USA in the coming months on a debating tour, courtesy of the National Parliamentary Debate Association of America.
The adjudicators were Irish Times editor Paul O’Neill, Queen’s Professor Adrienne Scullion, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences; Margaret Elliott who is a governor of the Irish Times Trust and Professor Brent Northup, the chair of communications at Carroll College in Montana.
The Irish Times Debate is the oldest intervarsity debating competition in Ireland, established in 1960.
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