UCC Philosophical Society - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The UCC Philosophical Society, Commonly known as the Philosoph, is the largest debating society at University College Cork, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

. The Philosoph was founded in 1850, making it the oldest society at UCC. The Society carries out a number of functions, including weekly debates with high profile guest speakers, participating in debating competitions, running workshops for the students of UCC to develop their public speaking

Public speaking

Public speaking is the process of speaking to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain the listeners...

skills and running debating competitions and workshops for schoolchildren (including the Denny Schools Debating Competition). In the 1960s Seán MacBride

Seán MacBride

Seán MacBride was an Irish government minister and prominent international politician as well as a Chief of Staff of the IRA....

SC and Nobel Peace Prize

Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...

winner called the Philosoph “the centre of independent thought in Ireland” when discussing the state of the nation. It has been a feature of scholarly life in Cork

Cork (city)

Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...

for generations.

In 1986 Siobhán Lankford and Brian Hassett won the World University Debating Championship at Fordham University

Fordham University

Fordham University is a private, nonprofit, coeducational research university in the United States, with three campuses in and around New York City. It was founded by the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York in 1841 as St...

Weekly House meetings

House meetings of the society are held every Monday evening during UCC's term time at 7.30pm, usually in the Kane Science Building- though larger meetings are sometimes moved elsewhere. The meetings usually begin with the reading of minutes of the previous meeting, followed by private members time. This is then followed by the main Debate.

Guests

Guests have included Judge Maureen Harding Clark of the International Criminal Court

International Criminal Court

The International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression .It came into being on 1 July 2002—the date its founding treaty, the Rome Statute of the...

, Iar-Thaoiseach

Taoiseach

The Taoiseach is the head of government or prime minister of Ireland. The Taoiseach is appointed by the President upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas , and must, in order to remain in office, retain the support of a majority in the Dáil.The current Taoiseach is...

Dr.Garret FitzGerald

Garret FitzGerald

Garret FitzGerald was an Irish politician who was twice Taoiseach of Ireland, serving in office from July 1981 to February 1982 and again from December 1982 to March 1987. FitzGerald was elected to Seanad Éireann in 1965 and was subsequently elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fine Gael TD in 1969. He...

, Gerry Adams

Gerry Adams

Gerry Adams is an Irish republican politician and Teachta Dála for the constituency of Louth. From 1983 to 1992 and from 1997 to 2011, he was an abstentionist Westminster Member of Parliament for Belfast West. He is the president of Sinn Féin, the second largest political party in Northern...

, Michael Foot

Michael Foot

Michael Mackintosh Foot, FRSL, PC was a British Labour Party politician, journalist and author, who was a Member of Parliament from 1945 to 1955 and from 1960 until 1992...

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

, Adrian Hardiman

Adrian Hardiman

Adrian Hardiman has been a justice of the Supreme Court of Ireland since 7 February 2000. He received the rare honour of being appointed directly from the Bar to Ireland's highest court. Many commentators were surprised by his appointment as he was a relatively young man making it likely he would...

, Catherine McGuinness

Catherine McGuinness

Catherine McGuinness , is a former President of the Law Reform Commission and a former judge of the Circuit Court 1994-1996 , justice of the High Court 1996-2000 and Supreme Court of Ireland 2000-2006...

, Michael McDowell

Michael McDowell

Michael McDowell is a Senior Counsel in the Bar Council of Ireland and a former politician. A grandson of Irish revolutionary Eoin MacNeill, McDowell was a founding member of the Progressive Democrats political party in the mid-1980s...

Teachta Dála

A Teachta Dála , usually abbreviated as TD in English, is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas . It is the equivalent of terms such as "Member of Parliament" or "deputy" used in other states. The official translation of the term is "Deputy to the Dáil", though a more literal...

, Seamus Mallon

Seamus Mallon

Seamus Frederick Mallon born 17 August 1936, in Markethill, County Armagh, is an Irish politician and former Deputy Leader of the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party in Northern Ireland...

, Sen. David Norris, Iar-Thaoiseach

Taoiseach

Liam Cosgrave

Liam Cosgrave is an Irish Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach and as Leader of Fine Gael . He was a Teachta Dála from 1943 to 1981....

, Princess Anna Radziwiłł, , George Galloway

George Galloway

George Galloway is a British politician, author, journalist and broadcaster who was a Member of Parliament from 1987 to 2010. He was formerly an MP for the Labour Party, first for Glasgow Hillhead and later for Glasgow Kelvin, before his expulsion from the party in October 2003, the same year...

(who walked out mid-debate) Nobel Laureates Mairead Corrigan

Mairead Corrigan

Mairead Maguire , also known as Mairead Corrigan Maguire and formerly as Mairéad Corrigan, is a Northern Irish peace activist. She co-founded, with Betty Williams and Ciaran McKeown, the Community of Peace People, an organisation dedicated to encouraging a peaceful resolution of the Troubles in...

and Seán MacBride

Seán MacBride

Seán MacBride was an Irish government minister and prominent international politician as well as a Chief of Staff of the IRA....

Famous members

The list of former Auditors includes Sean O Riada

Seán Ó Riada

Seán Ó Riada , was a composer and perhaps the single most influential figure in the revival of Irish traditional music during the 1960s...

, Eoin "The Pope" O' Mahony

Irish presidential election, 1952

In the Irish presidential election of 1952, the second held since the creation of the office in 1937, the outgoing president, Seán T. O'Kelly decided to seek a second term. No party opposed him, though independent satirist Eoin O'Mahony tried and failed to be nominated. With only one nominated...

and Ralph G Sutton SC. Former Presidents include Charles Haughey

Charles Haughey

Charles James "Charlie" Haughey was Taoiseach of Ireland, serving three terms in office . He was also the fourth leader of Fianna Fáil...

. See List of Auditors Auditor RC Webster won TV's Brain of Britain

Brain of Britain

Brain of Britain is a BBC radio general knowledge quiz, broadcast on BBC Radio 4.-History:It began as a slot in What Do You Know? in 1953 before becoming a programme in its own right in 1967. It was chaired by Franklin Engelmann until his death in 1972.-Format:The format of the quiz is simple...

. Other members include Prof. Donnchadh Ó Corráin of UCC, Prof.. Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy is an Irish sociologist at Duke University and a regular visitor to the Research School in Social Science at the Australian National University. He earned his PhD in sociology from Princeton University having begun his studies at University College Cork, in Ireland. He is married to...

of the University of Arizona, Dr Kieran Holland of the University of California

University of California

The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...

, Colm O'Cinnéide http://www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/academics/profiles/index.shtml?ocinneide No other Irish Debating Society can boast that one of its former committee members has had a #1 hit in the Irish singles charts. Former Recording Secretary Brendan O' Connor

Brendan O'Connor (journalist)

Brendan O'Connor is an Irish journalist, comedian, media personality and retired pop star. Since 2010 he has presented The Saturday Night Show on RTÉ One. O'Connor is a columnist for the Sunday Independent, and is editor of the newspaper's Life Magazine.O'Connor's pop career has included a stint...

achieved this feat with "Who's in the House?", continuing the long established tradition of eccentrics in the Philosoph.

Competitive events

The Society runs a number of internal competitions for members, such as the Lord Mayor's Gold Medal (individual competition), the Philosoph Mace (team competition) and UCC Maidens (competition for new speakers held with The UCC Law Society).
In addition, the Society funds speakers in competitions throughout Ireland and internationally. A number of Intervarsity competitions are hosted throughout Ireland and the UK which the society participates in such as the UCD Vice-President's Cup, the Oxford Union

Oxford Union

The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford, Britain, whose membership is drawn primarily but not exclusively from the University of Oxford...

and Cambridge Union Intervarsities and the National Law Debates in Galway. The Society also enters the John Smith Memorial Mace

John Smith Memorial Mace

The John Smith Memorial Mace is an annual debating tournament contested by universities in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales....

and the Irish Times competition.
Internationally, the society participates in the World Universities Debating Competition and the European Universities Debating Competition.
The society has enjoyed considerable success in international debating, with a team EUDC Semi-Finals and two teams in the World University Debating Championship Quarter-Finals in the past, while Auditor of the society for 2006/07, Diarmuid Early, won the Irish Times final in February 2006.
As well as participating in competitions, the Society has a good record of hosting competitions. It became the first Irish Society to host the European Universities Debating Championship

European Universities Debating Championship

The European Universities Debating Championship is an annual debating tournament for teams from universities in Europe. The competition uses the British Parliamentary Debate format .The championships as they are known today were first held in Rotterdam, Netherlands at Erasmus University from 8–11...

s in 2005, with what is widely considered to have been the best Championships to date. It has also held the World University Debating Championships in 1996 and the John Smith Memorial Mace

John Smith Memorial Mace

The John Smith Memorial Mace is an annual debating tournament contested by universities in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales....

Final in 2003.
The Philosoph hosted the 2009 World University Debating Championship in partnership with The UCC Law Society. Additionally, the society hosts its own Inter-Varsity each December. It dates back to the Mercier Cup of the 1970s whose winners include Charles Kennedy

Charles Kennedy

Charles Peter Kennedy is a British Liberal Democrat politician, who led the Liberal Democrats from 9 August 1999 until 7 January 2006 and is currently a Member of Parliament for the Ross, Skye and Lochaber constituency....

. Noted for its atmosphere, the Cork IV has become the biggest IV in Ireland.

Committee of the 162nd Session

Auditor: John Beechinor
External Vice-Auditor: Davy Jones
Internal Vice-Auditor: Gearoid Wrixon
Finance Officer: Ben English
Social Secretary: Ciara Grant
PRO: David Finn-Orde
Schools Convenor: Eva Cummins
Recording Secretary: Brendan Finucane
IV Convenor: Becky_West
Development Officer: Sophie Scannell
Archives and Alumni Officer: Kieran Murphy
Webmaster: Not yet elected
Schools Development Officer: Not yet elected
First Year Rep: Not yet elected
Ex-Officio: Not yet elected

External links