Yesterday evening saw the Graduates Memorial Building (GMB) play host the first-ever Societies Liferaft debate. It was the penultimate evening event for Trinity Arts Festival (TAF) which was held in association with the University Philosophical Society (the Phil). The premise for this debate was identical to that of the one held during Fourth Week of last term in which professors from different disciplines took part: the world has ended and these societies must argue for their place on the raft for survival.
DU Comedy’s Conor Nevin was first to take to the podium, claiming that the society used to essentially run campus back in their heyday and this is the primary reason as to why they should be saved. He argued that DU Comedy does not require encyclopaedic knowledge of current affairs or politics, and that they simply bring people together in an organic way. Their potential is evident from their previous successes, which include hosting their own fringe festival and producing a publication.
The second speaker of the evening, Hannah Crowley representing DU Players, took an unsurprisingly theatrical approach to the debate. Beginning her speech by dramatically eating a banana, claiming it as “theatre”, and then dropping it on the floor, “also theatre”, she argued that theatre is undoubtedly the finest of arts. Without the theatre or Players by extension, she stated that all the other societies vying for this spot on the liferaft wouldn’t even be here. As you’d imagine, each speaker took this golden opportunity to hurl abuse at the other societies and speakers present, with comments flying across the table such as the suggestion that the Phil is lacking in genetic diversity and that “Comedy Soc is the only one of you fools who doesn’t make me laugh”.
Orla Delaney spoke for the Phil itself, giving a truly self-aware speech about how the debating society is regarded on campus. She admitted: “I’m one of the middle class arts students, drinking wine much cheaper than we can afford.” She sold the Phil as an utopia where you can pretend you hate debating, but “deep down you love it”. Touching on some of the smaller societies being represented, she called them out on being “low-key” the same as the Phil even though they all probably level resent them on some level. Having provided arguably more reasons to kick the Phil off the hypothetical liferaft, she did highlight how we’d all be missing out on their infamously “debauched” events.
DUDJ’s Katie Cogan highlighted how techno music has shaped how we listen to music in the 21st century. She traced many historical events like the fall of the Berlin Wall and illustrated how trend in electronic music at those particular moments in history tended to bring people together in times of unrest. She rejected discrediting DJs for playing recorded music because we live our lives online now anyway. Noting that DUDJ is also Trinity’s digital arts society, she argued that our newest form of art undoubtedly deserves a place on the liferaft.
TAF themselves were represented by Jack Farrell, who began his speech by dramatically tearing up a bundle of oratory sheets. These same sheets happened to contain his speech notes. Admitting he “hadn’t prepared a lot for this debate”, he applauded TAF for being “weird and disorganised but we get the job done”. They curate a week of events like no other that undeniably make the best out of the other societies. He concluded by saying “we do things for the love of it and to see if they’ll actually happen”.
Ben Ferrity took to the podium, speaking for Improv, She Wrote, a society that many in attendance didn’t recognise, including Central Societies Committee (CSC). Ferrity contended that without improv the world would be without sustainable life. By not being able to act in the moment and not plan every move, he concluded that worldwide famine would result from a future deprived of the art of improv. Being one of the most impassioned speakers of the evening, he hit back against TAF, arguing “how can they be the purest form of art when their main event is pitting forms of art against each other?”.
The Architectural Society (Arc Soc) made a surprising appearance, with Robbie Doyle as representative. The crux of his argument for a place on the liferaft on why architecture is the best form of art was that all the other societies need buildings. Expanding on this, he put forward the scenario, “Hey, the Phil, nice chamber. It would be a shame if someone was to never have designed it.”. Summing up his brief argument in favour of cement over organic matter, he stated that “although people die, buildings live on”.
The final speaker of the night was Martin O’Donnell of the Biological Society, speaking as the Devil’s Advocate. After hearing all the other arts-based societies argue for their lives, he concluded that none could compose a coherent argument, and that hell would be better than having one of these options in the hypothetical dystopia that awaits us. His final piece of advice was “be like Rose from Titanic” and don’t share the raft.
The motion was put to vote, and it was announced that DU Comedy had survived the apocalypse.
