Meath students praised for debating skills in Paris
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Mai Hitillambeau, Muireann Smith, Inga McGann with Minister Lescure.Image 2 of 4
Ava O’Connor, Lorna O’Neill, Aoife Farrell with Minister Lescure.Image 3 of 4
Eureka, Massillon and EJM students.Image 4 of 4
Minister Lescure signing the Irish tri-colour for Caoimhe Mynes and Toiréasa Foley.Students from Eureka Secondary School in Meath have been praised for their high skills of persuasion by France’s Minister for Industry and Energy, Roland Lescure.
Minister Lescure and H.E. Niall Burgess, Ambassador of Ireland to France, led a distinguished team of Irish and French judges drawn from the worlds of media, politics, business and academia, as part of the second annual Wolfe Tone Debate Tournament held in Paris to coincide with La Semaine de l’Irlande, or Ireland Week.
Thirty students from Eureka Secondary School in Kells, 11 students from Ecole Jeannine Manuel and 33 students from Massillon Secondary School aged between 12 and 18, took part in the competition, which was held on Saturday 16th March at the historic Ecole Massillon in Paris. Minister for Industry and Energy, Roland Lescure, praised the participants for their skills in persuasion and teamwork: “As politicians, we all have something to learn from your generation, your care for the issues, the environment, each other and how carefully you listened to each other."
Divided by age group, the students debated motions including, “Should graffiti be decriminalized?”, “Are we looking forward to hosting the Olympic Games in Paris?” and “Is it desirable to define yourself solely by your work?”
“As a founding member of the Wolfe Tone debate tournament, Eureka Secondary School students are delighted to travel to Paris and engage in great debates on contemporary topics with their French peers,” said John Lynn, head of debating at Eureka.
Meath native Maeve Jennings, coach with the Massillon Debate Club in Paris, said the debates were an essential exercise in the training of future citizens: “The practice of debate involves an exchange, an effort to convince others, which makes it distinct from eloquence courses, which are about oratory in its purest form.”
The inaugural Wolfe Tone Debate Tournament was jointly organised in March 2023 by Eureka Secondary School and Massillon Secondary School. Hosted by Eureka in Kells, it was attended by Minister Thomas Byrne and H.E. Vincent Guérend, Ambassador of France to Ireland.
“I would like to thank all the students and teachers involved in this fantastic event and last but not least, I would like to say merci beau coup agus go raibh míle maith agat to a former Eureka pupil, Maeve Jennings, without whom this wonderful connection would not have happened”, Mary Mullaghy, acting principal of Eureka Secondary School.