UCD crowned team winners of The Irish Times Debate
4 March 2025
UCD’s Adrianne Ward and Rob Fitzpatrick, who were crowned team winners of The Irish Times Debate on Friday night Credit: Steven Davison/ Pacemaker, courtesy of The Irish Times
Adrianne Ward and Rob Fitzpatrick of (opens in a new window)UCD’s Literary & Historical Society (L&H) have taken home the team award at the The Irish Times Debate, Ireland’s longest-running third-level debating competition.
Held at Queen’s University Belfast and hosted by the university’s Literific debating society, the final was the culmination of a competition that began last autumn and attracted about 250 contestants.
Twelve speakers competed for trophies for best individual and best team, as well as places on an all-expenses-paid tour of the United States for the three winning speakers. Liam Boyce of University of Galway’s Lit & Deb society won the individual speaker’s award.
The judging panel – which included the editor of The Irish Times, Ruadhán Mac Cormaic – praised the high standard of this year’s finalists. The debate was chaired by Mrs Justice Siobhán Keegan, Northern Ireland’s chief justice.
Contestants were challenged to debate the motion: “This house believes that dialogue is dead.”
Those arguing in favour of the proposition said that social media had created a world where disinformation was rife and fewer people were listening to each other, creating “monologue, not dialogue”.
Students who argued against the motion said that healthy debate was still alive and well in society, and that key political achievements such as the Belfast Agreement could be attributed to dialogue.
“Rob and I have done The Irish Times Debate for the last couple of years, so we were delighted to finally win,” said Ward.
“It takes a lot of time to prepare for the rounds of the competition, so it was great to have our hard work pay off. We also enjoyed competing against another L&H team, Stéphane and Coleman, in the final – they put on a great performance and were runners-up.”
The Irish Times Debate competition, which began 65 years ago, is open to any full-time third-level student across the island of Ireland.
Many notable UCD alumni have won the competition, including comedian Dara Ó Briain and film director Gerry Stembridge, as well as the late broadcaster Henry Kelly and Supreme Court judge Adrian Hardiman.
By: Rebecca Hastings, Digital Journalist, UCD University Relations
To contact the UCD News & Content Team, email: newsdesk@ucd.ie
