Two Bower debaters, Bairbre O’Dwyer and Katie McClean, have qualified for the finals of the All Ireland Schools’ Debating competition organised by NUI Galway. In the semi-finals held in NUIG on 23 January, four Bower debaters competed against schools in the region that included Taylor’s Hill and Colaiste Iognáid. Bairbre and Katie competed as a team while Máirín Ryan and Caoimhe Bracken Price debated as individuals on the motion “That This House Would Limit Prison to Violent Offenders”.
Our Lady’s Bower had already hosted the first round of the competition against CBS Roscommon in November, debating on the topic of nuclear power. Máirín and Caoimhe proposed the motion while Katie and Bairbre opposed it. After a lively and heated debate, the adjudicators from the university‘s Literary and Debating Society concluded that the motion had been defeated. On this occasion, all four Bower debaters qualified for the semi-final in January. The girls are active members of the Bower Alpha deBeta Society, which holds lively debates in Mr Hughes’ history classroom during lunch break.
