The University Philosophical Society (the Phil) and the College Historical Society (the Hist) have some of the most impressive guest speakers and celebrity guests of all the university societies across the country. Both societies present awards to several high-profile guests and welcome several guest speakers to the Graduates Memorial Building (GMB) each year. This academic year, the Phil has welcomed Brittany Broski, Daniel O’Donnell and Rhys McClennaghan. In the recent past, Merry Berry, Michael D Higgins, and Joe Biden have visited. The Hist has welcomed an equally impressive guest list this year, including Mary Beard, Bryce Dessner, Alexander Stubb. Before this year, they’ve welcomed guests such as Hank Green, Bernie Sanders, and Sinead O’Connor. With such and impressive lineups of guest speakers and medal awardees alike, one might wonder how they manage it
Both the Hist and Phil attribute their great variety in guests to the interests of their committee and members. According to Hazel Mulkeen, Auditor of the Hist, the guests and award recipients “always reflect the interest of the committee (…) if you look back over past winners, past invitees (…) it will be who the committee think are the most important people”. Similarly Liam Corcoran, President of the Phil, said that “if we are trying to book guests that are interesting (…) we aren’t just bringing in politicians or journalists or media figures”.
So what is the criteria to be honoured with a medal? According to Liam, “the sort of official, unofficial, line is that these guests are nominated for a gold medal of honorary patronage on a basis of their significant contribution to discourse,” but also noted the “ambiguity” of such a term as “discourse”.
To secure such a wide scope of guests, both societies invite major international figures to accept awards, and the journey from selecting their invitees up to accepting the award in the GMB can be a long one. It seems to be an identical situation for both societies; some guests have been invited by the previous committees, sometimes only materialising into in-person acceptance years later. Corcoran admits, “Some guests take years in the making. We will have guests come this year who have been interested in receiving an award from the Phil for half a decade. Bernie Sanders came on two weeks’ notice”.
Both the Phil and the Hist attribute much of this delay to the schedules of their guests. Mulkeen granted “if they’re somebody really cool, they’ve probably got a really busy schedule, so you’re gonna have to work with that, especially with people travelling internationally”. Matilda Brewe, Secretary of the Phil, seemed to echo these sentiments: “we are very much at the mercy of their touring schedules”, she said. Both societies admit to receiving rejections for their awards and rejections by guest speakers, sometimes due to scheduling conflicts.
The Phil and the Hist see awarding medals as hugely meaningful for their societies. Their guests have all contributed, in some form, to discourse, and as Mulkeen put it, “our main purpose is we want to promote discourse”, adding “that’s our ultimate goal”. Corcoran said, “We are consistently thinking ‘Is this guest someone that will make the average Phil member’s experience much richer?’”. When Mulkeen spoke about the meaningful quality of these awards, she said, “These people often have very interesting lives, very interesting takes, and so there’s a huge benefit for the student members getting to meet (…) and experience these people. And then in terms of discourse, it’s a really valuable opportunity for students”.
Both societies see having guests as something that appeals to members “I think a lot of people join the Phil because they are interested in the awards we give out or the opportunity that we offer to see these people”, said Brewe, adding “These awards also have a great, meaningful impact on those who receive them.” Mulkeen said, “We’ve had guests come and say, it’s really, really fantastic and rewarding”, noting,“They know that they are doing good work because young people care enough to invite them”.
When asked about what the awards meant to their recipients, both Corcoran and Brewe referred to their love of a quote that is used in the email sign-off of the Phil President: upon receiving her Gold Medal of Honorary Patronage at the Phil in 2012, Whoopi Goldberg is quoted as saying: “This award meant more to me than my Oscar”.
When presenting an award, both societies host the recipient with a presentation ceremony, mostly consisting of an address, outlining why they have been given the award, then guests are given the opportunity to say a few words before sitting down for questions about themselves and their careers, concluding with questions from the audience of students. Neither society stick to rigid sets of prepared questions for these events, Corcoran emphasised that he enjoys interviews that are “as free flowing as possible”, adding “I’ve tried to minimise the preselected [questions], I think Brittany Broski was a great example of that: I had 15 questions ready to go, I thought I would’ve used eight, I ended up using two”. Brewe also praised the benefits of not sticking to any strict set of questions, admitting, “Maybe it’s a better idea not to go into this with preconceived notions of what you know you’re going to talk about”.
The committees of the Phil and Hist are busy writing to a plethora of people, hoping that they will be interested and available to accept an award or willing to take the opportunity to be a guest speaker. As Brewe put it, “We really do just throw shit at the wall and see what sticks in a big way, obviously, you know, throwing very talented and…honourable, shit, at a very storied wall with centuries of history”.
Finally, Mulkeen, Brewe, and Corcoran were asked, out of all those who have accepted, who have been the favourite guests? Mulkeen said Joan Baez, who sang during her time at the Hist, and Bernie Sanders. Brewe praised chamber guests like Ivana Bacik and Laurence McKeown, but she “was so geeked” to interview Daniel Sloss. Corcoran’s favourites include Robbie Lawlor and John Gibbons because of their ability to “capture the room”, but he also recalled joining the Phil in his first year to see Jeremy Corbyn.
When asked who their dream guest would be, Mulkeen exclaimed, “We’ve probably already invited them!” but noted that she would love to see more gold medals for outstanding contributions to the arts, a medal which has recently been revitalised by former correspondence secretary, Adam Rainbolt, but her “absolute dream guest” is Paul McCartney. Brewe and Corcoran mentioned plenty of guests that they’d love to host, including Mae Martin, David Wengrow, and Michelle Obama, but they admitted that Malala Yousafzai is their “big fish”.
