On Friday and Saturday, 25^th and 26^th of November, six of our Senior Debaters took part in Trinity College's Hist Mace Competition. Congratulations to Ludivine Rebet who won Best Speaker. Ludivine and her team-mate Erica Duffy came second overall. To read more from our Senior Reporter Aoife Datta, just click the link.

Trinity Hist Debate

On Friday, November 25^th Loreto Foxrock was represented by the senior students, Shauna Fenton, Louise Murray, Shannon Buckley Barnes, Aoife Dodd, Erica Duffy, and Ludivine Rebet at the Hist Mace debating competition in Trinity College. The competition spanned from Friday to Saturday with six motions to be debated. The girls arrived in Trinity College around twelve in the evening, they were first presented with a workshop on debating to prepare the students for the long day ahead, they were then shown a debate entitled “This house will legalise prostitution”.

The first round began with the amusing motion “This house would legalise duelling”. Each team was then assigned either opposition or proposition and are given fifteen minutes to prepare their debate. Following this, round two’s motion was entitled “This house believes that it is unethical for parents to secretly monitor their child’s online browsing history”. Round two ended Friday’s debating period and at half eight the girls left, exhausted but content with their work.

At half one on Saturday afternoon, round three’s motion entitled “This house should re-introduce third level fees” kicked off the day’s proceedings. Two hours later round four was underway, the motion being “This house would exclude children from religion until adulthood”. After a heated debate they received a break, giving them time to rest up and prepare themselves for the semi-finals and then perhaps the finals. Eight schools then proceeded to the semi-finals; these schools included CBC Monkstown, Wesley, Belvedere, Loreto on the Green, Loreto Foxrock, Mount Sackville, Conlets and CBC Cork.

For the semi-finals the students were giving the motion “This house would ban in schools all literature that re-enforces gender roles”. Here we’re proud to say students Erica Duffy and Ludivine Rebet came first. They of course then proceeded to the finals along with schools Wesley, CBC Monkstown and Loreto of the Green. They were given a complicated motion for the finals, simply put as “This house would forget”. Here Ludivine Rebet and Erica Duffy came second, just behind CBC Monkstown in the debate. Ludivine was awarded ‘Best Speaker’. Congratulations to Erica and Ludivine for their win, and to all the girls who participated in this two day long debate. Loreto Foxrock is very proud.