Posted 23 February 2015
UCD student scoops individual winner award at Irish Times debate
The Auditor of the UCD Literary & Historical Society, Eoin MacLachlan has been announced as the individual winner of the 55th Irish Times debate final. MacLachlan proposed the motion: “This house believes that the fourth estate failed the Irish people in their hour of need.”
He said the media had become “spectacularly good cheerleaders for the boom” and the occasional warnings by economists like UCD’s Prof Morgan Kelly were just “patchwork examples in a sea of adoration for what was going on”.
He also highlighted that the media depended on estate agents and other professionals with a vested interest in the property boom to provide “expert” commentary and did not make these connections clear to the public.
Eoin MacLachlan was presented with the Christina Murphy memorial trophy.
The Irish Times debate final took place at Maynooth University. It was chaired by Fine Gael MEP, Brian Hayes and the awards were presented by Irish Times Editor, Kevin O’Sullivan.
The team winners were Ronan O’Connor and Hugh Guidera of TCD Phil, who also proposed the motion, and runners up were William Dunne of TCD Hist and Shane Cummins and Conor Kelly from NUI Galway.
Other team finalists were UCD Independents Susan Connolly and Muireann O’Dwyer; and Peter Murphy and Robert MacCarthy of UCD Literary and Historical Society. Other individual finalists were Matthew Collins of TCD Phil; and Christopher O’Reilly of the Solicitors’ Apprentices Debating Society of Ireland.
(Produced by UCD University Relations)
