Seamus Ryan and Ivan Moran recently travelled to Oxford to compete in the International competition there. After two days of competition they reached the Quarterfinals where they were eventually knocked out by the eventual win ners. To have reached this stage in a competition which attracted 90 of the top teams in the world is a great achievement.

On the Irish Circuit Colm Flynn and Aoife Gibson travelled to Galway (via the U.L. Law Soc.) to compete in the National Law Debates while Seamus Ryan and Tracey Cooney travelled to Trinity to compete in the Kingsmill Moore. Un fortunately, dispite good performances, none of these teams made it into the prizes.

Marcus Lynch and Claire Mc'Carthy competed in the U.L. Heineken Intervarsity which was eventually won by a Scottish team from Strathclyde
The Observer Mace is also underway but none of our teams managed to make it into the latter stages of this competition.

In the Irish Times, dispite having lost almost all our experienced Times speakers, we have succeeded in getting a team and an individual through to the Semi-Finals. The old reliables of Seamus Doran and Padraig O'Halloran have , for the second year, made it into the last 16 teams

On the Domestic front the Allied Irish Banks Freshers Debate was won overall by Caroline Timmons. Claire Mc'Carthy and Barbara Whooley also finished in the prizes. We are very grateful to A.I.B. for their continued sponsorshi p of this event. We would like to congratulate all who took part in this competition. This years first year squad is one of the best and largest we have had in quite some time and this is very encouraging as we have reached a stage where our existing sq uad of speakers has grown very small due to graduations etc.

Internally we recently had Dr Edward Walsh address the house for a second year. We would like to thank Dr Walsh for speaking once again as it is hard to imagine any other college president taking time out to address the studen t body. In Week 11 we will hold a General meeting to elect a new committee and ratify a new constitution. The elections will be held to replace members who are leaving to go on Co-Op & Erasmus and due to the "retirement" of some of the longer lasting committee m embers due to academic pressures. Any existing committee member who wishes to remain on for a second term may do so without seeking re-election.