Literary and Historical Society (University College Dublin)
oldest debating society in University College, Dublin
The Literary and Historical Society (L&H) is the oldest society in University College Dublin (UCD), which according to its constitution is the 'College Debating Union'. Founded in 1855 by Cardinal John Henry Newman, as of 2017 it had over 5000 enrolled members, and was previously the largest student society in UCD.
History
The L&H was founded in 1855, a year after the foundation of the Catholic University of Ireland, the precursor to UCD. Both the university and the debating society were founded by Father John Henry Newman (future Cardinal Newman). One of the society's most famous members from this era was James Joyce, who presented his paper "Drama and Life" before a crowd of assembled members in 1900. A number of the college's societies, including the UCD Student Union itself, can trace their roots to the L&H.
In 1961, the L&H was temporarily "suspended" by the academic council of UCD.
The society's debates were originally held in the Physics Theatre in Earlsfort Terrace. Following the move of UCD's main campus to Belfield, the society relocated its activities in 1972.
A 150th anniversary book, edited by Frank Callanan SC, was published in 2005 to update James Meenan's centenary history of the society, published in 1955. The book, together with the reprinted centenary history, covers the society's history and includes articles by personalities from its past, including Maeve Binchy, Owen Dudley Edwards, Vincent Browne, Kevin Myers, Adrian Hardiman and Michael McDowell.
Activities
Guest speakers and awards
The L&H regularly invites speakers outside of debates. Former speakers have included actor Roger Moore, economist Paul Krugman, linguist Noam Chomsky, Irish politician John Hume, LGBTQ+ activist Rory O'Neil aka Panti Bliss, photographer and blogger Brandon Stanton, writer Bill Bryson, economist John Nash and British writer Neil Gaiman.
The society awards Honorary Fellowships and James Joyce Awards to individuals who have "contributed significantly to a field of human endeavour".
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This entry incorporates text from “Literary and Historical Society (University College Dublin)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.