Using humor and wit, national-award-winning debaters from the Republic of Ireland were challenged by the University Forensics Team to debate the justification of pre-emptive military strikes in front of approximately 150 people Monday night.
The University team invited the Irish team to debate on behalf of the Concerned Faculty for Peace and Justice. The debate was one of several planned by the faculty group to publicly discuss aspects of the war on terrorism and the
University’s role in research and recruiting for the military. This debate marked the end of the season for the University team, although several debates are planned for the off-season.
“The great thing about debate is the ability to think through things,” said Aaron Donaldson, the University team’s assistant coach.
Donaldson said the debate
did not necessarily reflect the views of the participants but instead
created a “devil’s advocate” for public discussion.
Despite boos, hisses and shouts of “shame,” the team from University College Dublin cited moral and historical grounds in its defense of the Bush administration’s pre-emptive stance on military action.
“In the history of the world, no liberal democratic nation has ever invaded another liberal democratic nation,” UCD’s Ross McGuire said.
University juniors Jason Lear and Brad Krupicka debated that pre-emption has caused the world to become less stable and Iraq to become a quagmire that has hurt its citizens more than helped them. They also pointed to the 100,000 Iraqi civilian casualties they said have come from military
action so far.
Following the debate, both teams fielded questions from the audience, town-hall style, regarding their
respective positions.
McGuire said debate in Ireland is a national pastime and is significantly different from U.S.-style debate.
“American structure focuses more on structure and clinical logic,” McGuire said. He said this style also places more emphasis on analysis and is intended to convince an expert the debater has control of the subject.
“Debate in Ireland is more centered on convincing the layperson,” McGuire said, adding that Ireland’s style is slower and more rhetorical.
Irish National Debate Champion Frank Kennedy agreed.
“We’re much more used to debating from the crowd,” he said. “This originates from Wednesday night town-hall meetings.” He added that everyone is entitled to a point and anyone is allowed to ask a question.
Kennedy said debate in Ireland has a long history. He said most Irish colleges have societies where people discuss and debate issues in weekly public forums. The oldest debate society in Ireland began at Trinity College in Dublin 235 years ago; University College Dublin’s
society is 150 years old.
“Every single chief justice of the Supreme Court (in Ireland) and four of eight prime ministers debated with UCD,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy and McGuire have
traveled to colleges around the
United States, including the
National Parliamentary Debate
Association’s national tournament at Texas Tech University on March 17-20. In past debates, the pair
have debated with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Norm Chomsky, Colorado Gov. Bill Owens and Mary
Robinson, former high commissioner for Human Rights in the
United Nations.
Debate at the University began in 1876 with the creation of the University Forensics Program. The team pioneered a style of debate commonly used in competitions called “Policy Debate,” University assistant coach Donaldson said, adding that the team’s heyday was in the early 1900s.
“They used to be so popular they could charge admission to help pay for football uniforms,” he said.

[email protected]