Internal League Round One

The first round of the 2011/12 Junior Internal League took place last Thursday lunchtime, where we saw two rooms of great speakers debate the motion TTHW Ban Smoking. Both experienced and new speakers pitched an interesting battle against each other, and everything from freedom of choice to the black market to tax and revenue came up. The second round will take place next week or very soon so keep an eye on Mr Hopkins' noticeboard at all times, because all notices, motions and order papers will be put up there first. Best of luck to all involved!!

Denny's Round I and Aoife Begly Teams

Congratulations to the teams of Daire Boyle & Declan King and Ciara Gorman & Aodhán Peelo who both made it through their first rounds of the Denny Leinster Competition last Monday and Thursday respectively, debating on the motions TTHW Make Parents Legally Responsible for the Actions of their Children and TTHW Criminalise Holocaust Denial. Commiserations to Joseph Gregory who was knocked out but congrats to his partner in crime David Bennett, who lives to argue another round in the competition.
   Congratulations also to Alison Fitzpatrick, Cathal Hurley, Heather Fitzpatrick and Ffion Kelly-Rees who will represent the school in the Aoife Begly competition run by NUI Maynooth. First rounds of that will be held the week after the October midterm. These four will fill two teams but we are allowed to send 4, so any seniors interested should tell Mr Auditor, Ellen or Mr Hopkins and preferably turn up with a team-mate. :)

Junior Schools Trials and Teams

Congratulations to all of the Junior speakers who tried out last week for the chance to be on one of our three teams for the Junior Schools Debating Competition this year. It was a tough call, and was especially difficult considering the really high standard of the trials and the fact that we only have six precious places available. So, congrats to Aisling Tully and Chris McMahon, Seán McGuane and Molly Murphy-O'Kane and Ailbhe Kelly and Clíodhna Durand, who have been selected to go through as our three teams, and commiserations to those Juniors who didn't make it through this year.
   The three teams are out next Wednesday night, 26th October at 7pm in UCD. Any Seniors who are available, catch the 39A out to UCD and head along to support them if you can make it!! (See the link on the right to the Dublin Bus website.) Fingers crossed!!

Worlds Trials Results

October 8th saw Ciara Gorman and Aodhán Peelo head to Trinity for the second lot of trials to make it onto the Irish Worlds Debating Team 2011/12. Chucked in with a bunch of people from Cork, we debated on things like TTHB Terrorism is Justified and TTHW Force-Feed Hunger Strikers, and had to do a general-knowledge quiz that wasn't general knowledge AT ALL!! Questions like "What was the case that legalized abortion in the US?" (Roe vs. Wade) and "What is the mens rea?" (intent to commit a crime, sort of like a guilty mind) came up and left everyone wondering how on earth the coaches came up with that one...
   Congratulations to Aodhán as he returns to the Worlds team for the second year running - he will venture to Cape Town in South Africa in February 2012 with the team and we wish him all the best with his training until then! :)

Senior Trials, 7th October 2011

Attention all Senior speakers who put their names down to try out for Denny's and Aoife Begly, don't forget that trials are on this Friday in room 30 after school!! The motion is TTHW Elect Martin McGuinness, and if you're in doubt about the speaking order etc check out the glass noticeboard beside Mr Hopkins' office!

Also a reminder that there is a mace on in UCD on the 14th and 15th of October, if you're interested please see the sign-up sheet on Mr Hopkins' door or contact Aodhán or Ellen.

If in doubt about upcoming dates, check out the swanky new calendar feature I added over on the right!!

Belvedere Mace 2011 and Worlds Trials

Congratulations to Aisling Tully and Rebecca Armstrong who reached the final of the Belvedere Mace on Saturday 3rd October and narrowly missed out on the top spot, losing on a horrible split decision from the judges. Well done also to the other teams from CCC who competed, especially our first-time debaters, and thanks a million to all those Seniors who went over to spectate and adjudicate. For those Junior speakers who unfortunately did not make it through the trials, never fear!! You all did very well, we just didn't have enough places for all of you and there will definitely be other competitions to which we can send you along.

May I just take this opportunity as well to thank Molly Murphy-O'Kane who came along to the first set of trials just to fill in as a dummy speaker off her own bat - what a star of a girl!! And I pass on Mr Auditor's thanks to the Senior adjudicators who came along too.

Speaking of Mr Auditor, congratulations to Aodhán who along with myself somehow managed to claw our way through to the next round of trials for the Irish Worlds Debating team. Aodhán is desperate to retain his place and I'm just along for the ride, really, and commiserations to Daire Boyle who was over with us on Saturday too, but narrowly missed out on a place (it was rigged, I tell you!). If anyone is even remotely interested in coming in to Trinity to watch the next round of trials, it's on at 10.30 in the GMB building (sort of on your left as you come in through the main arch).

Until next time!