Winners of the Irish Times Individual Debating Competition 
Last updated Mar-98 by Colm Flynn
Link to Irish Times Website
The Irish National Championships are sponsored each year by The Irish Times Newspaper.  Each year 150-170 teams enter the competition and this is down to 4 teams and 4 individuals for the Final.  The preliminary rounds start in November and are held in colleges throughout the country.  The Semi-Finals & final are usually held at the end of January/ start of February
The competition is slightly different from other Debating competitions as it has both Teams and Individuals in the latter Rounds.  The First rounds contain only teams but the adjudicators can put through Individuals as well as teams from each round.
The speaking order for the final & semi-finals is as follows.

The team trophy is called the Demosthenes trophy and the individual prize is the Christina Murphy Memorial trophy.

Individual Competition
 
Year Winner College
1960 Neville Carey Hist TCD
1961 Peter Donnelly L&H UCD
1962 Ian Black Hist TCD
1963 Desmond King RCSI
1964 Terry McMahon Kings Inns
1965 Eamonn McCann QUB
1966 Esmonde Smyth L&H UCD
1967 Kevin O'Higgins Kings Inns
1968 Henry Kelly L&H UCD
1969 Anthony J Adolph Philosoph UCC
1970 Adrian Hardiman L&H UCD
1971 Marian Finucane DIT Bolton Street
1972 Donal Deeny Hist TCD
1973 Adrian Hardiman L&H UCD
1974 Alex Lowry NUU
1975 Brian Curtin Kings Inns
1976 Deirdre Murphy Maynooth
1977 Patrick Healy L&H UCD
1978 Turlough O'Donnell Kings Inns
1979 Maurice Biggar L&H UCD
1980 Brian Havel Kings Inns
1981 Sean Moran Hist TCD
1982 Liam Plant Philosoph UCC
1983 Bill Maguire Hist TCD
1984 Pat Whyms L&H UCD
1985 Gideon Taylor Hist TCD
1986 Brendan Wilkins Lit & Deb UCG
1987 Conor Bowman Lit & Deb UCG
1988 Robert Plant Philosoph UCC
1989 Julian Clare Law Soc UCD
1990 Tom Clonan Cadet School
1991 Barra Faughnan L&H UCD
1992 Cian Ferriter Law Soc UCD
1993 Kieran Healy Philosoph UCC
1994 Bernard Dunleavy Kings Inns
1995 Gerry Hyde Philosoph UCC
1996 Douglas Clarke Hist TCD
1997 Matthew McCabe SADSI
1998 Paul Gleeson Hist TCD
1999 Rossa Fanning Kings Inns
Last Updated on 06/03/99
By Colm Flynn


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© 1999 Colm Flynn. All Rights Reserved.