Anyone who believes the expression that “youth is wasted on the young” would have been confounded at Trinity College Dublin on Monday, as members of the College Historical Society, the Hist, enthusiastically claimed the Guinness world record for a marathon debate.
After 27 hours and 58 minutes of debate – not at its end a fiery kind of raucous argument, but more a good-humoured “I respect your right to disagree, even if you are wrong” kind of discussion – Joanne Brent of the Guinness Book of World Records declared the attempthad been successful.
Despite exhaustion, society auditor Áine Kennedy, who had been awake throughout, was in lively form. “I was lucky – one of the motions was that ‘This House Believes that the Continuance of the Auditor in Office is an Obstacle to an Efficient, United and Extended Administration of the Society’. It was defeated,” she said with a smile.
Around the debating chamber, students gave an impressive demonstration of staying attentive, aided by catering-sized supplies of Red Bull, biscuits and vegan crisps.
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Eight speakers, two teams of four, were required to debate each motion. They include Kate Henshaw, Mary Woods, Tom Francis, Anna Sawicka, Daniela Williams, Ziyad Anwer, Caoimhin Hamil and Sebastian Dunne-Fulmer.
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The rules include that speakers could speak for up to eight minutes each on individual motions and, even to the last debate, all remain present and engaged, frequently interrupting and asking to be heard.
Each of the 26 motions was taken from a decade of the 253 year-history of the Hist which has also recently been declared by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s oldest college debating society.
Among the motions, one originally debated in February 1832, was that was ‘The House Should Abolish the Restriction of Political Sentiment at Meetings’. The passing of the original motion brought the Hist into conflict with college authorities who tolerated the debates just as long as they were not political.
Over the centuries, TCD authorities expelled the Hist twice, but it continued even if it had to sometimes relocate its meetings outside the college walls.
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In the last of the 26 debates, that ‘This House Believes There is a Future to look Forward To’, Ms Henshaw told the society “optimism is the key; there is a future to look forward to, because we believe there is a future to look forward to”, she said.
As the debate drew to a close, debater Mr Francis told The Irish Times that he knew his name was Tom – but after his lack of sleep he said most everything else was less certain. Eoin Connolly and Lorenzo Cheasey said they were “only in support” but had managed to stay the course.
Now in its 254th season, the Hist has a long list of distinguished past members. Edmund Burke was founding member; Wolfe Tone and Robert Emmet joined later; Mary Harney and Mary Robinson were among the first women members; and, more recently, Leo Varadkar and Sally Rooney were members.
