CBC wins National Junior Debating Championships

On Saturday, CBC 3rd year student Conor Coveney won the National Junior Mace Debating Championships.  Over 500 students have competed in the competition this year from all around the country. The finals day was held in Coláiste na hInse in Bettystown, Co. Meath and feature 100 of the best speakers from 1st to 3rd year from around Ireland. In order to qualify for the day, students had to finish in the top 30 speakers in Leinster at the recent Leinster Finals Day, which was held in CBC in March and won by our own James O'Donoghue. 

CBC was represented by Conor, James as well as fellow 3rd years Leon Reilly and Charlie Garland O'Connor. The boys took part in four preliminary debates on varied topics which included human rights, trade, prison and sexism in music. In a mace competition, they only receive their motion and side 20 minutes before the debates begin. After these rounds, the top eight speakers based on the points they had earned over the day went on to compete in the final. Conor, James and Leon all qualified for the final, which was chaired by the European Parliament's Vice President Mairead McGuiness MEP. They debated whether Ireland should rescind our invitation to President Trump to visit. The debate also featured speakers from Belvedere College, Loreto College Beaufort, Colaiste na hInse, Sutton Park and Loreto Crumlin.  After a hard fought debate, Conor was named the winner by the judges.
We're incredibly proud of Conor for his achievement as well as the other three who performed so well and represented us with great distinction. CBC has finished runner-up in this competition in the last two years and adds to the senior team of Jack Palmer and Luke Holmes who won the National Senior Mace two weeks ago. This means CBC has made a clean sweep of the national mace competitions.