Ciara crowned debate champ
LORETO student Ciara Foster won the UCD Junior Schools Individual Debate Competition on Thursday, March 28.
The final of the competition was held in the UCD Sutherland School of Law, and consisted of the final 4 teams and 6 individual speakers left in the competition. The motion being debated was that ‘ this house would cease to commemorate all acts of violence (for example: the 1916 Rising, World War 1 and the 9/11 Attacks)’, which Ciara had to propose.
The UCD Junior Schools Debate Competition, which is run by the L&H and Law Soc in UCD, is the largest debate competition in Ireland. It involved over 70 schools, from 8 counties across Leinster. 394 speakers took part in the competition, which started last October. Ciara was among six students who represented Loreto Bray in the competition. Her teammates included fellow 3rd year student Ciara Donohue, and 2nd years Aoife O’Grady, Isabel Lynam, Emma Collins and Laura Murphy.
The competition involved all speakers taking part in an initial three debates. Motions debated included: ‘ this house would introduce a 30% minimum gender quota in parliament’ and ‘ this house believes Northern Ireland should become an independent state’. After three rounds, the top 32 teams and 32 individuals, including Ciara Foster and Ciara Donohue, progressed into the Octo Finals. Ciara Foster then progressed onto the Quater and Semi-Finals, before taking part in the final last Thursday.
Ciara was presented with a trophy depicting the Children of Lir and a scholarship to the UCD Debate Camp this summer. She has added to the continued success of the debate teams in Loreto Bray, who won the Junior Inter-Loreto Competition in 2017 and 2018. BRAY local author Jackie Burke was at Enniskerry Library last Friday morning entertaining the children from fourth class at St Mary’s and St Gerard’s National School with stories from her Grindlewood series of books.
Spring Into Storytime is a National story-time initiative. It celebrates the importance of families reading together and sharing stories. This initiative will be run county wide throughout April.
Wicklow Libraries are holding lots of children’s story-time sessions for classes, children and their parents/carers to join in and experience the joy of stories with lots of exciting tales. Go to Wicklow.ie for a schedule of events.