Irish_times_national_debating_championship

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 particpants represent institutions in the Republic of Ireland, institutions in Northern Ireland are eligible.

Each year 150-170 teams enter the competition and this is down to 4 teams and 4 individuals by the time of the Final. The preliminary rounds start in November and are held in colleges throughout the country. The final is usually held at beginning of February

The competition is slightly different from other Debating competitions as it has both Teams and Individuals in the latter Rounds. The First round contains debates between teams but the adjudicators put through individuals as well as teams from each round. There can be up to 10 teams per debate in the first round. In 1980 a rule was added preventing former winners from re-entering. The individual winner may be from a team, but not the winning team. The 1972 adjudicators defied this restriction by making Donal Deeny champion in both categories.

The team trophy is called the Demosthenes trophy and the individual prize is the Christina Murphy Memorial trophy. The Winners also tour selected colleges in the United States as guests of the National Parliamentary Debate Association.

Past champions

Notable participants

Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson and former Tánaiste (deputy prime-minister) of Ireland Mary Harney have been finalists in this competition.

References

External links

• List of Irish Times winners

• Current Irish Times Debating Competition Website

• The Irish Times on Colm Flynn\'s website

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia