This academic year has seen some of the greatest debate successes for the school in its history. In fact, on the evidence below, Coláiste Iognáid nurtures the strongest debaters in the country. Although Ciaran Garrett’s and Manus Lenihan’s victory over every school in Éire in the All-Ireland Debating Competition is perhaps the highpoint of this extraordinary year, there have been other notable achievements:

• The Concern team of Orla Ni Donncha, Jake Hansen-Shearer and Alan Power were led to the Concern National Quarter Finals by their captain Cormac McGuinness.

• Darragh O’Brien, Leah Colclough and Jake Hansen-Shearer were ‘Denny’s West of Ireland’ Finalists.

• Ciaran Garrett, Manus Lenihan and Jake Hansen-Shearer were selected as finalists in trials for the Irish Debate Team

• Ciaran Garrett and Jake Hansen-Shearer were AIB Trinity Finalists. Jessica Hannon was best Junior Speaker (Connacht).

• Alan Power was selected to represent Ireland in the European Youth Parliament, 2008/2009

• Darragh O’Brien won the NUIG Political Society: Public Speaking Grand Final. Gallen Hawkins was third.

• Cormac McGuinness, Jake Hansen-Shearer : NUIG Mace Finalists.

• Cormac McGuinness and the Concern team organised a First Year Debate Competition to end the year.

• ‘Cumann Díospóireachta Choláiste Iognáid’ met twenty-two times over the year. The final motion, ‘That This House Believes That Bertie Ahern Leaves A Positive Legacy’ was successfully proposed.

The Denny’s Grand Final in Trinity deserves a particular mention. Ciaran Garrett and Manus Lenihan were runners-up in the Denny’s All-Ireland Schools’ Debating Grand Final on Tuesday 15 th April. Twenty members of the society travelled to Dublin to support the team.

After fending off Connacht schools in the provincial final in March, the Fifth Year students went on to defeat all the teams from Leinster and Munster in the Grand Final in Trinity College, Dublin.

They were narrowly defeated by the team from Ulster.

Garrett and Lenihan missed the top spot by the narrowest of margins. In a split adjudicating panel, the chief adjudicator delivered his casting vote against the Coláiste Iognáid pupils.

The 30-year -old competition is Ireland’s longest established and most prestigious debating contest. Over 800 pupils from the four provinces compete for one of twelve seats in the final. Coláiste Iognáid is one of the few non-fee paying schools in the country to have ever achieved such a high placing in this event.

 

To conclude the year, TY pupils Cormac McGuinness, Jake Hansen-Shearer, Alan Power and Paddy McLoughlin trained 1 st pupils for the 2008 First Year Debate Championships. 1G (Jack Collins, Ciara Power, Aisling Dunne and Andrew Forde) gained top spot with 1X (Oisin Keogh, Anthony Noone, Siobhan Lenihan and Timmy Malone) as runners-up. Robert Belone won Best Speaker and Siobhan Lenihan won Runner-up Best Speaker.

 

The debating society thanks Sixth Year student Leah Colclough for her enormous contribution to debating in the school. Her co-founding and auditing of the society is recognised as one of greatest contributory factors in the school’s recent National successes. She is also thanked for the hard work she put into organising the recent staff versus student competition that ensured it was a popular and well-attended event. Lastly, the society notes Leah’s success in Concern Debating and her achievement in being a West of Ireland finalist for two consecutive years. The society wishes her well in the future.

 

Ciaran Garrett was elected as the next auditor of the society and takes up the post immediately. He is determined that the school maintain its high profile nationally and encourages students from all years to attend the weekly meetings next year. Since coaching is given before, during and after each debate, there is no experience necessary; just a willingness to argue!

 

 

22 nd Meeting

‘This House believes that Bertie Ahern will leave a positive legacy’

The motion was successfully proposed by Leah Colclough, Darragh O’Brien, Jessica Hannon, Jake Hansen-Shearer and Paddy O’Loughlin.

Senior Awards:
1 stCiaran Garrett
2 ndManus Lenihan
3 rdJake Hansen-Shearer

Best Junior Speaker
Jessica Hannon

Other Awards:
Most Devious Argument: Darragh O’Brien
Most Creative Re-Write of Irish History: Cora Lenihan
Wittiest Rebuttal: Paddy O’Loughlin
For Using The Phrase: ‘His Legacy is Shrouded in Error and Mistake’: Joe Hansen-Shearer

Other Business
The house thanked Leah Colclough for her enormous contribution to debating in the school. Her co-founding and auditing of the society was recognised as one of greatest contributing factors in the school’s recent National successes. She was also thanked for the hard work she put in to organising the recent staff v student competition that ensured it was a popular and well-attended event. Lastly, the house was reminded of Leah’s success in Concern Debating and her achievement in being a West of Ireland finalist over two consecutive years. The house wished her well in the future.

Ciaran Garrett was elected as the next Auditor. He takes up the post immediately.

 

 

Coláiste Iognáid success in
Denny’s All-Ireland Debating Final. 

Ciaran Garrett and Manus Lenihan from Colaíste Iognáid were runners-up in the Denny’s All-Ireland Schools’ Debating Grand Final on Tuesday 15^th April.

After fending off Connacht schools in the recent provincial final, the Fifth Year students went on to defeat all the teams from Leinster and Munster in the Grand Final in Trinity College, Dublin.

They were narrowly defeated by a team from Ulster.

Garrett and Lenihan missed the top spot by the narrowest of margins. In a split adjudicating panel, the Chair delivered his casting vote against the Coláiste Iognáid pupils.

The 30-year -old competition is Ireland’s longest established and most prestigious debating contest. Over 800 pupils from the four provinces compete for one of twelve seats in the final.

Matthew Harrison, the Galway school’s debate coach, was extremely pleased with the result, “The boys worked extremely hard for this and deserve their position heading the best debaters nationally. The Jes is one of the few non-fee paying schools in the country to have ever achieved such a high placing in this event. On top of our successes in other national debating competitions, it’s been a great year for those in the Jes blessed with the gift of the gab!”  

More Debating Photos

A Summary of Debating Success this Year 2008  

Ciaran Garrett and Manus Lenihan : Runners-Up: Denny’s All-Ireland Grand Finals

Ciaran Garrett and Manus Lenihan : West of Ireland Champions

Jake Hansen-Shearer, Leah Colclough, Darragh O’Brien : Finalists West of Ireland Championships

Ciaran Garrett and Jake Hansen-Shearer AIB Finalists

Eddie Mullarkey, Cormac McGuinness, Gordon Clarke, Jake Hansen-Shearer: NUIG Mace Finalists

Eve-Anne Allen: Runner-up Best Speaker: AIB Quarter Finals

Jessica Hannon: Best Junior Speaker: AIB Quarter Finals

Manus Lenihan, Jake Hansen-Shearer, Ciaran Garrett: Qualifiers to Irish International Team Selection

Cormac McGuinness, Orla Ni Donncha, Alan Power, Jake Hansen-Shearer: Concern National Quarter Finals.

Alan Power : Irish Representative to EYP 2008/2009

 

 

 

Congratulations
To
Ciaran Garrett and Jake Hansen-Shearer
Who travel to Trinity College, Dublin (April 10 th)
For the Semi-Final and Final Rounds
of
AIB ‘Philspeaks’ All Ireland Debating Competition

Also congratulations to Eve-Anne Allen (Next Placed)
And
Jessica Hannon (Best Junior Speech)

AND ALL OTHER 14 ‘JES’ SPEAKERS WHO DID THE SCHOOL PROUD!

Further Congratulations:
Manus Lenihan and Jake Hansen-Shearer
Who progress to
The Irish National Team Final Selection
(Trinity College, Dublin, March 30 th)

And for those of you losing track, here is a summary of the state-of-play as of 10 February 2008:

Concern Team (Cormac, Orla, Alan and Jake) : National Quarter Finals 13th February, Portumna

Manus and Jake : National Team Selection (Final), 30 th March, Trinity College

Ciaran, Manus, Leah, Darragh, Jake : Denny’s All-Ireland Semi-Final, 5 th April, NUIG

Ciaran and Jake:AIB ‘Philspeaks’ Semi-Final and Final Round 10 th April, Trinity College

Jake, Cormac, Lugh, Alan : European Youth Parliament Conference 2008 14/15/16 March

 

 

Two Major Wins for Jes Debaters.

In the same week that the Rugby team defeated Sligo Grammar School with such gusto, the debating society fielded debaters who managed to beat Sligo debaters twice on the same evening! In the Denny’s National Quarter Final on 27 th February 2008, Manus Lenihan and Ciaran Garrett beat the Grammar School when proposing the motion ‘THW ban international adoption’ and Leah Colclough and Darragh O’Brien also came up trumps in their competition opposing the motion ‘THW ban the tax-free status of artists’. Jake Hansen-Shearer also won best individual speaker in the same competition. All five speakers have now qualified for the All-Ireland Semi Final for the Denny’s Schools’ Debating Championship. It is the first time in history that two Jes teams and an individual speaker have qualified for the Semis of this competition.

Also for the first time, the day before (26 th Feb 2008), the Jes Concern Debating team progressed to the National Quarter finals of their competition. They defeated Mount St. Michael’s proposing the motion ‘ Ireland should boycott the Beijing Olympics’. Cormac McGuinness, Alan Power, Orla Ni Donncha and Jake Hansen-Shearer meet previous Irish champions Thurles CBS in the competition next week.

16 AIB debaters attend the preliminary rounds of the AIB Philspeaks competition on Saturday 8 th March. We wish them well, particularly junior debaters for whom this will be their first competitive debate.

 

Debating News February 08 08

The Transition Year Concern team are now in the last 16 nationwide in their competition. They soundly defeated Davitt College on Wednesday 6 th February. Cormac, Alan, Orla and Jake debate again on 28 th February to enter the quarter-finals of this competition.

Ciaran Garrett and Manus Lenihan are the latest students from the society to proceed to the Semi-Finals of the Western Schools Debating competition sponsored by Denny’s. They beat debCongratulations to Colaiste Iognaid Denny's Debating Team who placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd in round one of Denny's All-Ireland School's Debating. Leah and Daragh proceed directly to West of Ireland Semi-Finals. Ciaran, Manus, Jake and Cormac proceed to Round Two.aters from Taylors and ‘The Pres’, Tuam. The competition will have two teams from the Jes in the Semi-final this year, for the first time ever. The school aims to continue success at this level by winning the competition for the third time consecutively.

 

Coláiste Iognáid’s debating society, 2007, grows from strength to strength. The society meets every Monday evening in the library and allows speakers from all year groups to develop their debating skills in a relaxed, supportive and lively environment.

With a regular attendance of twenty students, ten speakers pit their wits against each other fighting motions such as, ‘This House Would Ban Gas Guzzlers’ and ‘This House Would Allow Irish Citizens to Defend Themselves and their Property with Lethal Weapons’. The society has met six times since September 2007. The spot at the top of the society’s league is presently held by Ciaran Garrett closely followed by Cormac McGuinness and Jake Hansen-Shearer. Oisin Keogh in First Year shows tremendous promise, as does Cora Lenihan and Owen Shaugnessy in Second Year.

Under the auspices of the society, ten speakers will compete at NUIG’s ‘Talk it Up’ Mace debate on Saturday November 17 th. Successful speakers will have the opportunity to compete for a position on the National Schools’ Debating team.

Cormac McGuinness recently led his Concern team of Orla Ni Donncha, Alan Power and Megan Ryan to second place in the first round heats. They meet the ‘Pres’, Tuam in early December.

Team Trials for Denny’s, Ireland’s most prestigious debating competition, will be held at the end of November. It is anticipated that there will be stiff competition to earn a place in one of three teams. The selection process will be aided by external adjudicators from NUIG Literary and Debating Society. Colaiste Iognaid hope to maintain their record of consecutive wins in the West of Ireland Finals of this competition.

The society has submitted application to the AIB ‘Philspeaks’ competition and await entry confirmation. We also await news of the Law Society’s school debating competitions which are usually held in January.

Coláiste Iognáid clearly remains the top-seeded debating school in the West of Ireland.

 

November 07

Congratulations To

Concern Debaters: Cormac McGuinness (Captain),
Orla Ní Donncha, Megan Ryan and Alan Power.  

They defeated Dunmore Community School and the motion:
‘This house believes that celebrity-led campaigns do more harm than good for the developing world.’  

~

Results of the sixth meeting of the school’s debating society will be posted later.
The motion was:
‘This house would ban gas-guzzlers from our roads.’

There will be a short preparation meeting for Saturday’s NUIG Mace-Style Debating later this week.

Best of luck to:
Ciaran, Gordon, Cormac, Geilish, Eddie, Jessica, Jake, Aimee, Leah and Lugh
in this prestigious all-Connacht competition.

 

October 07

The inaugural meeting of the aforementioned club met yesterday to debate the motion:

‘This house believes that a woman’s place is in the home.’

The motion was successfully defeated, thankfully…

Awards

Best Speaker: Ciaran Garrett

Second: Jake Hansen-Shearer

Runner-up: Cormac McGuinness  

Further awards:

• Sharpest defense of a Point of Information: Eoin Shaugnessy
• Inhabitant of most dubious ground: Manus Lenihan
• Most use of outrageous generalization: Eddie Mullarkey
• Most politically incorrect: Eoin Binchy/Manus Lenihan
• Most inventive use of guile: Emma Van der Putten
• Most use of the phrase ‘it is proven’ and then not proving it: Leah Colclough

Congratulations to all speakers.

 

2006 - 2007

Colaiste Iognaid win in National Debating Competition.

Ciaran Garrett and Manus Lenihan were the only successful debaters from the West of Ireland to reach the final of the AIB 'Philspeaks' debating competition at Trinity College, Dublin. Upsetting the dominance of the Leinster teams in National Debating, Manus Lenihan then went on to snatch second place in these prodigious finals. He successfully proposed that 'This house believes that Public sector workers should be banned from striking'. It is the first time that a debater from the West has been so successful at this level, and he and Ciaran Garrett show remarkable potential being some of the younger debaters in this competion.

 

Next week, (30 April) sees Donncha Lenihan and Jamie Brown travel to UCD in their bid for the championship in the Denny's Irish Schools' Debating Final.