On Wednesday 24th January, St Paul’s NS competed against Mullaghbuoy NS, Dundalk to debate the motion “Ireland is the best country to live”. The children of St Paul’s NS proposed the motion while the visiting team opposed it. Both schools were represented by six students from 5th and 6th classes. The six students who represented St Paul’s were Cormac as Captain, Hannah as second speaker, Oscar as third speaker while Shaun, Sarah and Isabel acted as time keepers on the day. As Captain, Cormac introduced the other speakers and outlined what they would be talking about. He himself spoke passionately about the culture, mythology and importance of the Irish language. The second speaker, Hannah, referred to the advantages of our climate, our geographical location and the validity of having English. She also highlighted the OECD results on how happy Irish people are in the world. The third speaker, Oscar, presented facts on the tourist industry and the success of the Irish food industry and how many Irish products are being sold world-wide. There was a lot of whip lashing from the opposition team as facts about the health crisis, employment figures, crime rates and the impact of the recession on Ireland were emphasised. However, after a long conference, the adjudicators announced St Paul’s NS as the winners. The proposition arguments carried the motion that “Ireland is the best country in the world to live”. The debating team will take part in the semi-final of the competition on Tuesday, February 27th against St Kevin’s GNS, Kilnamanagh, Dublin. They will be debating the motion “Boys’ or Girls’ schools are better than Mixed Schools”. Fingers crossed they will succeed in the next round.
