As you may know the Irish Times Debating Championships (Irish National Championships) recently celebrated it's 50th year. One of the key elements in the success of the championships is that the winners get to tour the United States. The key driving force behind this is Professor Gary Holdbrook.
Gary established the US tour back in the early 1980s and has been present at most Irish Times Finals ever since. While much of Irish University Debating has transformed to a Worlds/BP format the Irish Times remains with its unique format and remains the competition to win on the Irish circuit. I believe the attraction of the US tour is a key factor in this. Irish Debating owes Gary a huge debt of gratitute. I hope this post goes some way to expressing that gratitude.
Gary recently sent me a brief history of the tour and included some articles from old newspaper reports.
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FRIENDS OF THE
IRISH DEBATE SERIES
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1980 – 1996
Gary H. Holbrook
Professor Emeritus
Contact Information:
February 15th – February 21
MOLESWORTH COURT SUITES
01 644 7541
Email: ghhugh@ireland.com
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The Perfect
Storm
January 1979,
I walked through the Front Gate of Trinity College for my first of three
sabbaticals – a sabbatical that would be the beginning of the Irish Debate
Series. I was attached to the Higher Diploma Program in the Education
Department and I was allowed by the College Historical Society to conduct
research on the early beginnings of the Society.
I attended
Debates at the Hist and was quite taken by the style and quality of
Parliamentary Debate. I had hosted at Metropolitan State College in Denver, the
1978 National Debate Tournament which brought the sixty-two top teams in the
United States for the National title. When I started attending debates at the
Hist, I had never heard such lively exchanges and heckling in a formal debate
setting before. I remember an exchange where Pat Healy, a UCD L&H
1977 Times individual winner who enjoyed heckling, receive his just reward from
Suzanne Kelly from the L&H who gave it back as fast as he could
heckle. There was an electricity in the air when the Hist and the L&H got
together to see who was the better debating society. Debate was the major
entertainment of that era. I went to Bristol University in England that spring
for the Final of the Observer Mace Debates. (John Smith Memorial Debates). The
Irish teams finished first and second. Conor Gearty and his partner, Donal
O'Donnell, won their second Observer Mace representing the UCD Law Society.
Eugene McCague and Suzanne Kelly for the UCD Law Society, were
runner ups. At the end of the debates, I had a general discussion to see if
there was any interest in a tour of the United States of Irish Debaters.
The English
Speaking Union had sponsored a yearly tour of the States since the 1920s. But
to my knowledge an Irish team had never toured representing the Republic of
Ireland. It was Eugene McCague who proposed that this discussion
continue in Dublin. A series of meetings were held in my rooms at Trinity as
described by Maeve-Ann Wren, in her chapter in the L&H 1955-2005. ―So
lively is the Dublin debating scene that a visiting American academic takes an
interest. Gary Holbrook invites some of us to tea in his rooms in
Trinity to discuss the possibility of Irish debaters visiting the US. We find
the concept exotically improbable. From this beginning opens an amazing world
of debating competitions‖. (p.216)
In attendance
on a regular basis were Eugene McCague, representing the UCD Law Society,
Alex Owens, Auditor of the Hist, Dermot Quinn, senior member of the
Hist and Maeve-Ann Wren, Auditor of the L& H. It was decided
that if this tour would go forth that the winners of the Irish Times Debate
would be the best representatives for the tour. I scheduled a luncheon meeting
with Christiana Murphy, the Education Editor of the Irish Times and she supported
the idea if sponsorship could be found. I had an idea of a potential sponsor in
Golden, Colorado. On my return to Colorado in late May, I scheduled a meeting
with Norm Dominguez, who was in charge of college marketing for the
Adolph Coors Company. Norm had worked with me when Metro State hosted the
National Debate Tournament. Coors hosted an elaborate reception at the Brewery
for coaches and judges. Norm saw Coors’ potential sponsorship as a positive way
of showing Coors' commitment to academic endeavors and was able to convince the
company to sponsor a tour of the winners of the Irish Times Debate. I returned
to Dublin in August of 1979 with sponsorship in hand and the 1980 tour of the
United States became a reality. Coors underwrote the tour for three years. I
was more 3
than happy for the three years of sponsorship as it gave us a
national tour recognition that we could not have ever achieved otherwise.
I then formed
the Friends of the Irish Debate Series which allowed fundraising, and with the
support of Metro State and the participating schools, the tour continued. The
Irish Times and Aer Lingus provided roundtrip flights to New York for the
debaters and I arranged funding for transportation in the States. Metro State
acted as the host for the first fifteen years of the tour. In 1995, The
National Parliamentary Debate Association became the sponsor and host in the
United States. I continued to act as the coordinator of the tour through 1996.
All of the right pieces and players were in place for the beginning of this
International Debate Series and now we can celebrate the 30th Anniversary.
The 1980
winners of the Irish Times Debating Competition were the first debaters to tour
the United States. Thirty years later we celebrate the oldest international
tour of the United States of the winners of a national debating competition.
Ninety Irish Debaters will have traveled to the United States with the end of
the 2010 tour, unique in many ways, from the fact that this tour was funded in
the beginning by the Adolph Coors Company and subsequently the Irish Times, Aer
Lingus and the Friends of the Irish Debate Series, Metropolitan State College,
Denver and today, the National Parliamentary Debate Association and the Irish
Times Newspaper with Aer Lingus.
The following
pages will give you a brief history as how things fell into place for the first
tour with photographs and articles on ―Team '80‖, Eugene McCague, Charles
Meenan and Brian Havel. An article written by Christina Murphy on
her visit to Denver in the 1990s and Christina's obituary gives us a clear
insight as to her many important contributions to Ireland.
It is our hope
to develop a dedicated webpage that will include photos and articles of the 17
years that I was a part of the series.
Gary H.
Holbrook
Professor
Emeritus
Founder of
the USA Debate Tour
The first
stop on the 1980 Debate Tour was the
University
of Wyoming in Laramie. 5
6 7
THE IRISH TIMES, April 19, 1991
Christina
Murphy, Irish Times journalist prepared the following article after travelling
with the Irish Times Debate winners on their tour of US universities
The three
American debaters from Metropolitan State College in
Denver
Colorado, (from left) Jeff Howard, Sean Goode and
M.J. Coots;
photographed with Tim O”Leary, Barren Faughnan
and Pat
Treacy, the winners of the Irish Times competition,
who debated
against them.
METROPOLITAN
State College in Denver, Colorado, may not be the best known university in the
United States, and Prof Gary Holbrook of its speech and communications
department may not be the most famous academic, but both are household names
among many Irish students — particularly those involved in student debating.
Each year the winners of the Irish Times Debate, the main national student
debating competition, go on a debating tour of US universities in the west and
mid-west. The tour is organized by Holbrook and the Friends of the Irish
Debate, both based in Metropolitan State College otherwise known as
"Metro". This year's Irish Times winners, Pat Treacy and Tim
O'Leary of the Kings Inns Debating Society (winning team) and Barra
Faughnan of the L & H at University College Dublin (individual winner)
has just returned from the annual three week American tour, during part of
which they were accompanied by this writer. The Irish Times competition has
been in existence for thirty years, with teams from all the major third level
debating societies competing for the Demosthenes trophy and gold medals for the
best speakers.
In 1979,
Holbrook, who teaches debating skills or "forensics" as part of his
speech and communications course, came to Trinity on sabbatical. Irish student
debating was on a crest at the time. Two law students, Conor Gearty and Donal
O'Donnell, winners of the Irish Times trophy, had just beaten every
university team in Britain in two successive years. Holbrook was mesmerized.
"The Irish debaters were fantastic yet nobody had heard of them in the
States. The English Speaking Union brought teams from Oxford and Cambridge to
tour the US campuses each year, yet here were guys who regularly beat these
colleges." He conceived the idea of an Irish student debaters' tour and
came to us with a proposal that the winners of the Irish Times trophy should
travel to Denver each year and engage in a debating tour of US colleges
organized by him. It was an attractive idea but sounded at first prohibitively
expensive. But Aer Lingus liked it too and came on board as joint sponsors
looking after travelling costs, and the first tour took place in 1980.
Holbrook set
up a ―Friends of the Irish Debate organization — complete with leprechauns,
shamrocks and shillelaghs on their logo — to raise funds and organize the
debate. In reality most of the funding now comes from Metro itself, and
Holbrook handles the organization. He travels to Dublin each January to
adjudicate at the Irish Times debate semi-finals and assess the talent for the
tour, which always takes place before St Patrick's Day, and the Irish debaters
then travel to places like Laramie, and Cheyenne, Wyoming; Fort Collins,
Boulder and Colorado Springs, Colorado, where they debate teams from various
other universities. But Metro and Denver are the really big event. Denver may
not sound like a very Irish city, but St Patrick's Day is as big there as
anywhere 8
in the States. It has its quota of Irish-American politicians
and to be of Irish ancestry carries the same cache as in Boston or New York.
The level of interest in the debate was amazing. We arrived at midnight on
Thursday night, exhausted after an l4-hour journey from Dublin — but the three
debaters had to be up at the crack of dawn next day to participate in an 8 am
radio chat show. Every time I looked at the television or turned on the radio
all week they seemed to be talking about Ireland or St Patrick's Day on the
debate.
The Metro
president, Dr. Thomas Brewer, hosted a dinner in honor of the‖ Friends
of the Irish Debate‖ at which a formal, framed, leprechaun-bedecked scroll was
presented to yours truly in recognition of The Times' involvement, and Pat
Treacy made a presentation and a lovely speech to the president from the Irish
visitors. The dean of the arts faculty hosted a dinner, the women's studies
department made me guest of honor at their International Women's Day reception,
and the debaters sat with the mayor, Frederico Pena on the reviewing stand for
the St. Patrick's Day parade and made a televised presentation to him at the
end of the parade. Television producer and script writer, Gerry Stembridge (of
Scrap Saturday fame), is one of the more famous tour "old boys",
having travelled to Denver as a student on one of the earliest tours. He had
been invited back this year to run some television production workshops for
students on the Metro campus and whenever the debaters were not on the talk
shows, Stembridge seemed to be there!
The big debate
between the Metro team and the Irish debaters was broadcast live on the campus
TV network and relayed on public television throughout Colorado the following
week. And the campus television recorded a 45-minute discussion program on
Ireland with Stembridge and me chaired by Prof Holbrook. This too went out
first on campus and later on state-wide public television. To Stembridge's
amazement, all of this filming and recording was done by students under the
direction of a faculty member. He didn't think the RTE unions would take too
kindly to such practices! Everywhere we were interviewed or had discussions,
people wanted to talk about our new woman president. They were all fascinated
by the idea that Ireland had been one of the first countries to elect a woman
president and they all thought she enjoyed the same powers as
George Bush!
The motion for
debate at all of the venues was That This House Favors a Palestinian State. a
motion which drew quite a bit of indignant criticisms for even daring to raise
the question, let alone support it. But, President George Bush had just made
his New World order – Peace in the Middle East speech as we arrived, even
mentioning a home for the Palestinians, so the topic became more respectable.
As it happened, the Irish were drawn to speak against the motion in any case —
though they had to support it on some of the other campuses. The Metro debate
took place in a large hall with a big American flag on one side of the platform
and the Irish flag on the other side; top-hatted leprechauns cavorted on the
logo on the front of the podium. The hall was packed, with many more outside
watching it on television monitors. Lots of business people, local politicians
and other assorted non-campus adults turned up. The Metro team was very good.
It consisted of Jeff Howard, an Afro-American studying broadcasting; Sean
Gooden, a tall blond pony-tailed communications student, and M. J. Coots,
a woman student also studying communications. On facts and information I
thought they were better than the Irish students, but in presentation, delivery
and wit the Irish had the edge. American student debaters on the whole tend to
have a more plodding style, heavy on facts and weak on delivery. But Howard, in
particular seemed to have mastered the technique of lively delivery, throwing
his arms around the place, much body movement and lots of humor. There is no
adjudication in American debates and, therefore, no winners or losers. The
debate took place at lunchtime. "You wouldn't get students to come back to
the campus in the evening,‖ Holbrook 9
pointed out, "and in any case many of them have evening
jobs." After the debate, there was a reception with more presentations and
huge jugs of vivid; green fruit drink — alcohol strictly prohibited.
President
Brewer and his faculty and students were all extraordinarily friendly and
helpful to their Irish visitors and they put a lot of resources, both time and
money, into organizing the Irish Debate series. Why, one might well wonder.
Brewer speaks of "expanding our knowledge of a multicultural world",
bringing a greater international dimension to the campus. Denver a most
beautiful city of one million people, is a four-hour flight from New York or
Washington" so, unlike Ireland is or other European countries, they don't
get many foreign students visiting their campus. For the Irish students, too,
the tour is an opportunity to widen their horizons and build links with young
American people. Particularly valuable is that it is in a different part of the
United States to the traditional Irish venues of New York, Boston or Chicago.
Meanwhile, we continued on our celebrity trail, your reporter was invited to
address the Denver Forum, a sort of Rotary Club of business people and public
figures; Gerry Stembridge was asked to give a creative writing seminar, the
debaters were invited to meet the governor of Colorado and asked to State
Senator Dennis Gallagher's St Patrick's Day party, where they had to give a
little demonstration of the ―gift of the gab". We were all invited down to
the State House and presented on the floor of both the State Senate and the
House of Representatives.
Gallagher
stood up and asked to introduce a special motion. They all knew the week that
was in it, he said, and St Patrick's Day was the day after tomorrow, so he
would like to introduce some distinguished guests from Ireland . . . and our
names were called out and we were solemnly presented. It was marvelous and for
al1`l the world like Cork Co. Council; they all applauded and jumped up, shook
our hands, slapped us on the back and told us their name was McCormack or
Murphy and their great-granny came from Roscommon. Everyone should have the
chance to be Irish and famous in Denver for a week. 10
Coors was the sponsor of the Debate Tour for the first
three years, 1980 – 1982, then the Friends of the Irish Debate Series was
formed. Below is an example of a topic that was debated in that series and the
influence of the Friends of the Irish Debate Series logo. 11
DEBATE WINNERS AND TOPICS DEBATED 12
SCHOOLS AT WHICH THE IRISH DEBATED 1980 – 1996
In the
first seventeen years of the Series, the Irish appeared in 133 debates at 46
schools
Adams State
College, Alamosa, Colorado
Arizona State
University
California
Polytechnical State University
Cherry Creek
High School, Denver, Colorado
Chico State, California
Claremont McKenna University, California
Colorado State
University, Fort Collins, Colorado
Creighton
University, Omaha, Nebraska
George Mason
University, Virginia
Georgetown
University, Washington, D.C.
Gonzoga
University, Washington
Harvard
University
Iowa State
University
Kansas State
University
Kearney State
College, Nebraska
Metropolitan
State College of Denver
Middle
Tennessee State University
Northern
Arizona University
Northwest
College, Powell, Wyoming
Odessa Junior
College, Texas
Oregon State
University
Pacific
Lutheran, Washington
Portland
Community College
Regis
University, Denver, Colorado
Rice
University Southwest Missouri State University – (1996 National Parliamentary Debate)
The Colorado
College (1994
National Parliamentary Debate)
Trinity
University, San Antonio, Texas
United States
Air Force Academy
University of
Alaska
University of
Arizona
University of
Arkansas
University of
Colorado, Boulder
University of
Denver
University of
Nevada, Reno
University of
New Mexico
University of
Northern Colorado
University of
San Francisco
University of
Southern Colorado
University of
Texas, El Paso
University of
Wyoming (location of
the first debate in 1980)
Vanderbilt
University, Tennessee
Western State
College, Colorado
Wichita State
University, Kansas
Willamette
University (1995
National Parliamentary Debate) 13
Journalist who pioneered education coverage dies in
Dublin
Mon, Sep 16,
1996
THE death took
place in Dublin yesterday of Irish Times journalist Christina Murphy who
was a pioneer of educational coverage in the newspaper and one of the country's
leading commentators on education issues.
She was a duty
editor of The Irish Times, editor of the Education and Living supplement and a
former education correspondent of the newspaper. She joined the staff as
women's editor and before that had been the editor off Young Citizen Magazine,
the Institute of Public Administration, publication.
She was a
member of the interim local radio commission, An Coimisiun Raidio Aitiuil, set
up in the mid 1980s to plan and organize local and community radio, and was
author of two books on careers, Careers and Living 1 and 2 and another guide to
the education system, School Report.
Christina
Murphy had overall responsibility for the education coverage in The Irish
Times. She developed the education services section, the first in any Irish
newspaper, which organises the annual Higher Options careers exhibition and
conference - due to begin on Wednesday in Dublin - the Music in the Classroom
musical programme, the biennial Harvard The Irish Times colloquium and the
Trinity College The Irish Times debate.
Born in Breaffy,
near Castlebar Co Mayo, in 1941, she was educated at the local national school
and the Convent of Mercy, Castlebar. After school she worked for three years in
Germany and two years in Spain before returning to Ireland to take an arts
degree in history and politics at University College, Dublin.
While she
worked to put herself through college in a series of jobs including
waitressing, she also took an active part in college life and was editor of the
student newspaper, Campus.
For five years
she was editor of Young Citizen, the current affairs magazine for schools, and
her abiding interest in education developed at that stage. She joined The Irish
Times as women's editor in 1972 and a few years later became education
correspondent. During her period as women's editor she changed the whole thrust
of women's page coverage, concentrating on health, rights and family issues.
As education
correspondent she pioneered a new style of education coverage, delivering a
much needed consumer oriented service to students and their parents, as well as
writing for teachers and policy makers. Her contribution to education coverage
was recognized in 1981 when she received the main award in the national press
awards for her series Education for What?
She wrote
widely on examinations, the points system, college entry and careers. The
Points Race, column, which she started in 1983 to help students applying for
college places, was so incisive and, 14
comprehensive that even officials of the Department of
Education had to consult her on the intricacies of the recently introduced
points system in the early days.
In conjunction
with the series, which ran each September, she provided a telephone help line
for parents and students. Her last article in this year's Points Race series
appeared last Friday, exposing problems with the accreditation of third level
courses in a Co Donegal college.
She was the
first editor of the weekly Working and Living supplement and later became
editor of the Education and Living supplement, to which she contributed a
weekly advice column for students and parents.
Christina
Murphy was constantly in demand as a speaker on education topics and careers
and, as often as work permitted, accepted invitations to speak at
parent/teacher meetings, careers con and school prizegivings.
In 1979, she
wrote a booklet, The Newspaper in the Classroom, to highlight the way
newspapers could be used in classroom situations. This led to the production of
a regular Newspaper in the Classroom and from there developed the education
services section of The Irish Times.
In 1987, she
was promoted from assistant editor to duty editor in the editor's office, the
first woman to hold such a senior position.
In spite of an
underlying serious illness, she had lived a very full and normal life,
professionally and privately, for many years.
Our
everlasting appreciation to Christina Murphy and the Irish Times for making our
Irish-American Debate dream come true. 15
SPECIAL THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE:
Janet
Stafford, Marketing Education – Irish Times, for her understanding and
assistance throughout this project
Sean Moran,
GAA Correspondent – Irish Times and 1981 Winner of the Irish Times for his
photographic memory
TEAM 80 –
Eugene McCague, Chairman, Arthur Cox Solicitors; Brian Havel, Professor of Law,
DePaul University, Chicago; Charles Meenan, Senior Counsel - their memories and
articles from Tour 1980 made this history possible.
Frank Kennedy,
Convenor of the Irish Times Debating Competition 2009-10. Frank, you put a
dance in my step and brought my memories alive.
To my wife,
Judy, whose professional abilities and patience with me contributed to the
completion of this article.
