Ireland’s longest-running third-level debating competition has been won by Blackhall Place trainees Ailbhe Noonan and Gavin Dowd of the Solicitors’ Apprentice Debating Society of Ireland (SADSI).

Gavan McLaughlin is the current SADSI auditor.

The 63rd Irish Times Debate final was held on Friday (17 February) at St Ann’s Church on Dublin’s Dawson Street.

The topic was that, ‘This house believes it is time for people of the EU to directly and democratically elect a president of the European Commission’.

An individual speaker’s award went to Oliver McKenna of Munster Technological University (MTU).

Final round

A dozen speakers took part in the final of the competition, which began its early rounds last autumn and attracted more than 150 third-level contestants.

Team-contest runners-up were Jack Cummins and Adrianne Ward of UCD’s Literary and Historical Society (UCD L&H). The individual runner-up was Dermot Hamill of Queen’s University Belfast’s Debating Society.

Finalists were:

• Owen O’Grady and Rob Fitzpatrick (UCD L&H),
• Laura Campion and Sara Rafter (UCD LawSoc),
• Ailbhe Noonan and Gavin Dowd (Solicitors’ Apprentice Debating Society of Ireland).

Individual speakers included:

• Liam Boyce (University of Galway’s Lit & Deb),
• Dermot Hamill (Queen’s University Belfast’s Literific),
• Theo McDonald (DCU Debating Society), and
• Oliver McKenna (Munster TU).

Demosthenes Trophy

Speakers were competing for the Demosthenes Trophy for best team, and the Christina Murphy Memorial Trophy for best individual, as well as a place on a tour of the US for the three winning speakers.

The debate final was supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs as part of the Government’s EU50 programme, which aims to encourage discussion on how to best contribute to a strong and shared future in the EU.

Late Supreme Court judge Adrian Hardiman and current Chief Justice Donal O’Donnell were former finalists.