Literary and Debating Society (NUI, Galway)
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| Founded | 1846 |
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| Home Page | The Literary And Debating Society |
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Committee Of The 170th Session, 2016-2017 |
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| Auditor | Chris Kirwan |
| Vice Auditor | Kate Muldowney |
| Treasurer | Alex Burke |
| Debates Secretary | Nat Jay |
| Recording Secretary | Jack Malone |
| External Convenor | Thomas Creamer |
| Internal Convenor | Frank O'Neill |
| Literary Convenor | Niamh O'Brien |
| Schools Convenor | Eoghan Finn |
| Public Relations Officer | Darra Deane |
| Clerk of the House | Christopher Collins |
Committee Of The 170th Session, 2016-2017
The Literary & Debating Society (often referred to as the "Lit & Deb") is located at NUI Galway. The society was founded as the Literary and Scientific Society in 1846, and incorporated into the then Queen's College, Galway, in 1852. It has as its objective "the promotion of oratory among the students of the University, and the faculty of clear thinking and sound reasoning upon matters which may be deemed to be of vital importance". All students, professors and lecturers of the college are members of the society.
The exact circumstances of the foundation of the society are unclear, but it is thought that the organisation evolved from an informal discussion set up in the city of Galway in the early 1840s. The foundation by the Westminster government of a college of higher education at Galway, by means of the Colleges (Ireland) Act of 1845, seems to have inspired the members of this group to put it on a surer footing with the formal foundation of the Literary and Scientific Society in 1846. Meetings of the society were held in public from 1850, by which time the society had become dominated by students of the new college, despite having no formal connection with the new institution. At an introductory meeting on 4 May 1850, chaired by Bernard Norton, John J. Gibson outlined to the assembled public the role and purpose of the society:
"If this Society will elicit the latent sparks of genius in a few individuals, and send forth men of enlightened views and cultivated tastes, to reflect credit on itself and celebrity on our country, then it shall have contributed its mite in tending to elevate your pining, distressed and poverty-stricken country to that literary rank which, from the genius of her sons, she is entitled to hold among the nations of Europe... You have founded a Society, may its results be unprecedented, worthy of their origin, its celebrity unbounded. May men issue forth from this hall, who, vying with the great spirits of the past, shall illumine the future, shall confer benefits on their species and ennoble the land of their birth... And full of years to your last resting place may you retire, conscious of having left behind you a monument – a memorial which shall live ever fresh in the grateful recollection of posterity."
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