De La Salle Wicklow

All-Ireland Phil Speaks Debating Competition

On Thursday 21st April 2005, Niall O’ Connor and myself, Fiachra Fallon Verbruggen, represented our school in the prestigious Phil Speaks debating competition held in Trinity College Dublin. We drove into Dublin very early that morning with Ms. Chambers and Padraic O’ Meara who came along to support us. After registering we had time to go over our speeches for the first event which was Persuasive Speaking. The first topic we had prepared for was one very close to our hearts school uniforms! This was followed by an After Dinner Speech beginning with the words "One day I was walking to school when...". Both events went very well and then it was time for a break and lunch.

The Impromptu Speech was next, we were given two minutes to prepare our thoughts on a random topic. I was given the title of The Pope to prepare and Niall had to speak about The Simpson's. Finally it was time for the British Parliamentary round, the title to be debated was that 'This house would ban fox hunting'. While we had time to prepare for this before the day we did not know until immediately before hand whether we were for or against.

After this we awaited the judge's deliberations with great anxiety. Not only did we both make it through to the grand final that evening but Niall came first winning himself a trip to Oxford to take part in another debating competition with Trinity students. I came in second winning a work placement with Talk FM which I am looking forward to.

At 3 O' Clock exactly we were given the title of 'the GAA rule 42'. Based on this we had to prepare a persuasive speech for the final at 7.30pm that evening, as well as find time for dinner. Our hard work paid off as Niall received first prize of an I pod and a chance to shadow his idol Pat Rabbit for a day. I came third and also won an I Pod and a chance to shadow a Minister for a day. It was a great experience and we are looking forward to doing equally as well next year. Niall, Padraic, and myself would like to thank Ms. Chambers for all the time, energy and hard work she devoted to preparing us for the competition.