Dalriada Debaters head to Stormont Final

As usual it has been a busy and successful year beginning with a winter term full of Friday lunchtime debates, covering topics such as This House would Wrestle a Bear, Women are the Weaker Sex, The West has the Right to Intervene and Islam is the Problem. A new and very strong set of Fourth Year pupils has emerged during these debates and Arguendo Coach Rachel Millican has very high hopes for the school's continued success in the competitive arena.

The spring term saw the commencement of the Wreath Cup which is awarded to the Best Individual Debater in the school representing their House. Last year this cup, the oldest in Dalriada's history dating back to 1937, was re-introduced into the life of the school and was won by one of Dalriada's Irish Finalists, Charlotte Norton. Charlotte is now heavily involved in the Oxford Union Debating Society where she is part of the coaching and managing of the schools' debating scene across England and Wales. This year Mrs Millican decided to open up the competition to the whole school, not just the Sixth Form, and accept entries from first year up. That resulted in a number of very well fought rounds one of which consisted of a couple of balloon debates, as there were so many entries. Characters such as "Mr Jonny Ashe", Harry Potter, Bernard Black, a robot – in full cardboard costume! – House, an alien and "your conscience" all made an appearance in various rooms with various judges. In the end six finalist were announced with one Wild Card slot – Craig Gilmore, Ben McCabe, David Kane, Carla Hunter, Sarah Laverty and Patrick McIlveen, with Joel Hunter in Year 11 as the Wild Card.

Other key events of the spring term included the annual Pupil-Teacher Debate in association with the World Aid Group. Dr Hunter from the English Department and Mr Doherty from History were persuaded this year to take part and propose the challenging motion that "Ninjas are better than Pirates" against Ben McCabe and Matthew Drennan from the Upper Sixth. It was a great turn-out with all the 50ps collected going to the World Aid Group and in the end after much drama and showing off (the teachers!) the House voted by an enormous majority that Ninjas are in fact much, much better than Pirates. The final debate of spring was centred on the marriage bed and we were "honoured" to have proposing one "Beyonce Knowles" urging us to "put a ring on it" and "Russell Brand" who has recently abandoned his wild oats and settled into a happy engagement with Katy Perry. These were fully costumed performances which brought the House down but also won the House's vote at Dalriads decided they still firmly believed in the institution of marriage.

This term has seen the culmination of the inter-House debating competition with the final of The Wreath Cup. The motion was that "The Apocalypse is Nigh" and the judges were Mrs Mary Doherty from the English Department in Dalriada and Mr Leo McKee from McKee Solicitors in the town. Mr McKee is a former Dalriad himself and, like all Dalriads, continues to take a keen interest in the school, in particular the Debating Society, as he has been their sponsor nearly since its inception. The pupils who enjoy Arguendo's activities are very grateful for his on-going sponsorship and his support of their coach, Rachel Millican. After a healthy competition Mr McKee announced the judges' decision that the Highly Commended runner-up was Patrick McIlveen and the 2010 winner of The Wreath Cup for the Best Individual Debater in the school was Sarah Laverty, both in the Upper Sixth, see photo. Regular readers will recognise Sarah and Patrick as the senior team who progressed well to the Quarterfinals in this year's NI Schools Debating Competition, finishing in the top 8 out of 86 teams. Sarah was, at that round, selected to compete in the Best Individual Final in Parliament Chamber in Stormont this coming Friday with both Sarah and Patrick being nominated for the prize for the team which best encapsulates the spirit of the competition.

So, the Dalriads are off again to another Northern Ireland debating final this week. The motion is that "The Parliamentary elections would benefit from an injection of the X Factor." Do look out next week for news of how they got on and in the mean time – all the best to Sarah, representing Dalriada and the town in a competition dominated by the big city schools.