Link to Irish Times Website

The Irish National Championships are sponsored each year by The Irish Times Newspaper.  Each year 150-170 teams enter the competition and this is down to 4 teams and 4 individuals for the Final.  The preliminary rounds start in November and are held in colleges throughout the country.  The Semi-Finals & final are usually held at the end of January/ start of February
The competition is slightly different from other Debating competitions as it has both Teams and Individuals in the latter Rounds.  The First rounds contain only teams but the adjudicators can put through Individuals as well as teams from each round.
The speaking order for the final & semi-finals is as follows.

The team trophy is called the Demosthenes trophy and the individual prize is the Christina Murphy Memorial trophy.

Team Competition