Literary and Scientific Society (Queen's University Belfast)

QUB Literary and Scientific Society
Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Established	1850
President	Matthew Leigh
Website	Official website

The Literary and Scientific Society (commonly referred to as the Literific) of the Queen's University of Belfast is the university's debating society. The purposes of the Society, as per its Laws are to "encourage debating, oratory and rhetoric throughout the student body of the University and beyond".[1]

History

The Society was founded in 1850 as a paper-reading society for students of the new Queen's College, with its first president being Edwin Lawrence Godkin.[2][3] The Literific was also used, during its early years, as a democratic body which could negotiate with the College on behalf of the students until the formation of the Students' Union Society and the Students' Representative Council in 1900.[4]

The Society established itself as the principal debating body of the University, however in the 1960s the Literific came under fire and was banned for several weeks in 1964 "in view of the disorders and improprieties of conduct and obscene language".[5] Later in the decade the Society merged into the Union Debating Society (later the Debating and Mooting Society) from which it re-emerged in 2011.[6]

Currently the Society operates as the sole debating society at QUB and has an affiliation with the Queen's University Belfast Students' Union as well as to the University itself. The Society holds weekly meetings on a particular motion of interest during term.[7]

Events

Irish Times

In 2018 the Literific, supported by the QUB Law Society, hosted the 58th Grand Final of the Irish Times Debate[8] at which the Training Officer of the 170th session spoke as an individual finalist.[9] The Event saw 12 speakers discuss the motion: “This House Believes That Ireland Has Failed Its Youth”. The debate was chaired by Lord Justice Stephens and judged by Irish Times editor Paul O’Neill, Queen’s Professor Adrienne Scullion, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences; Margaret Elliott who is a governor of the Irish Times Trust and Professor Brent Northup, the chair of communications at Carroll College in Montana.

Notable people

Edwin Lawrence Godkin - First president of the Society, later editor of The Nation and the New York Evening Post.
Robert James McMordie - President 1871-72, barrister, M.P. and Lord Mayor of Belfast.
Thomas Teevan - President of the Society, barrister and Ulster Unionist West Belfast MP - Youngest Chairman of a local Authority in Northern Ireland at 21 (Limavady Urban Council). He was also President of the Queen's Law Society and Chairman of the Unionist Association.[10]
Sheelagh Murnaghan - President 1946-47, first female president of the Society, barrister and Ireland Women's hockey player, later Northern Ireland M.P. for the Ulster Liberal Party.[11]
Eamonn McCann - President 1964-65, writer and political activist.[12] Only individual Q.U.B. winner of the Irish Times Debate.
Cyril Toman - President 1965-66, Northern Irish political activist.[13]

References

"Constitution". The Literific. 28 January 2016. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
Brian Walker and Alf McCreary, 'Degrees of Excellence, The Story of Queen's Belfast 1845-1995', (1994) The Institute of Irish Studies, Belfast, pp. 16, 19.
'The Life and Letters of Edwin Lawrence Godkin', (1907) The Macmillan Company , p. 10.
Brian Walker and Alf McCreary, 'Degrees of Excellence, The Story of Queen's Belfast 1845-1995', (1994) The Institute of Irish Studies, Belfast, p. 30.
Brian Walker and Alf McCreary, 'Degrees of Excellence, The Story of Queen's Belfast 1845-1995', (1994) The Institute of Irish Studies, Belfast, p. 124.
L.A. Clarkson, 'A University in Troubled Times: Queen's Belfast, 1945-200, (2004) Four Courts Press, Dublin.
"Debates". The Literific. 23 May 2017. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
"UCD student wins Irish Times Debate grand final". The Irish Times. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
"UCD Sutherland School of Law". www.ucd.ie. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
Campbell, WS (1963). "The early history of the Samaritan Hospital (1872-1892)". Ulster Med J. 32: 61–77. PMC 2384899. PMID 14018157.
The Irish Times, 15 May 1946, p. 4.
The Irish Times, 2 November 1964, p. 13.
The Irish Times, 6 April 1965, p. 7.

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[1] "Constitution". The Literific. 28 January 2016. Retrieved 30 December 2018.

[2] Brian Walker and Alf McCreary, 'Degrees of Excellence, The Story of Queen's Belfast 1845-1995', (1994) The Institute of Irish Studies, Belfast, pp. 16, 19.

[3] 'The Life and Letters of Edwin Lawrence Godkin', (1907) The Macmillan Company , p. 10.

[4] Brian Walker and Alf McCreary, 'Degrees of Excellence, The Story of Queen's Belfast 1845-1995', (1994) The Institute of Irish Studies, Belfast, p. 30.

[5] Brian Walker and Alf McCreary, 'Degrees of Excellence, The Story of Queen's Belfast 1845-1995', (1994) The Institute of Irish Studies, Belfast, p. 124.

[6] L.A. Clarkson, 'A University in Troubled Times: Queen's Belfast, 1945-200, (2004) Four Courts Press, Dublin.

[7] "Debates". The Literific. 23 May 2017. Retrieved 30 December 2018.

[8] "UCD student wins Irish Times Debate grand final". The Irish Times. Retrieved 30 December 2018.

[9] "UCD Sutherland School of Law". www.ucd.ie. Retrieved 30 December 2018.

[10] Campbell, WS (1963). "The early history of the Samaritan Hospital (1872-1892)". Ulster Med J. 32: 61–77. PMC 2384899. PMID 14018157.

[11] The Irish Times, 15 May 1946, p. 4.

[12] The Irish Times, 2 November 1964, p. 13.

[13] The Irish Times, 6 April 1965, p. 7.