The second finalists in the annual Irish Times Debate have been confirmed as Christina Mohan and David Leahy from King’s Inns, while the winning individual progressing from Friday night’s semi-final is Cian Carew from the Solicitors’ Apprentice Debating Society of Ireland (SADSI).
The competition, now in its 66th year, took place at Rathgar Methodist Church in south Dublin.
Four teams and four individuals representing societies from Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin (UCD), King’s Inns, SADSI and the Army Cadet School debated the motion “this house believes the Labour movement has lost its soul”.
The teams speaking in favour were Maia Nowlan and Prachi Agrawal, from Trinity’s Historical Society and Abby Whelan and Elibhira Jordan from UCD Law Society.
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The individual speakers were Cadet Leahy from the Cadet School and Jessica Brown from UCD’s Law Society.
Speaking against the motion were Ms Mohan and Mr Leahy from King’s Inns and Julia Best and Mr Carew from SADSI. The individual speakers were Caoilinn Devins and James Deasy from SADSI.
The convener of the debate was Ciara McLoughlin, and the chair, Social Democrats TD Sinéad Gibney. The adjudicators were Janine Ryan, Séamus Doran, assistant head of enterprise and economic development at Carlow County Council, Niall Sherry, a digital performance consultant, and Ceara Tonna-Barthet, an associate with Freshfields.
[ UCC and Kings Inns come out tops in first Irish Times debate semi-finalsOpens in new window ]
The final will take place at Dublin City University (DCU) on Friday, February 27th.
The Irish Times competition, which began in 1960, is an all-island debating championship for third-level students. Previous finalists include former presidents Michael D Higgins and Mary Robinson, and broadcaster Marian Finucane.
