History of the Society:

What follows is a history of the Society up to 1980 as delivered to the Society by Donal Godfrey.

Debates of some kind or another surely have been held near the site of University College Cork since 622 AD when Finbarr founded his University school in Cork. The College motto is after all “where Finbarr taught let Munster learn.” If his university school had not dissolved it would now be older than the present oldest university in the world, which is said to be the University of Karueein in Fez, Morocco founded in 859 AD.

More recently however the Philosophical Society, the debating society in college, was founded soon after the university’s foundation. Mr John Reidy, later better known as Seán Ó Riada, when auditor of the society in 1951 said there was no direct evidence of the society’s existence before 1859 but in all probability it went back to 1850. This makes it the second oldest debating society in Ireland, the oldest being the College Historical Society, TCD, founded in 1770, and the third oldest being the L & H, UCD, founded in 1855.

The society was founded by the college’s resident chaplain who was annoyed by the superior attitude of Trinity College Dublin to the “new” Queen’s College Cork. Therefore he founded the Philosophical Society with a sufficiently grand sounding name. It is the oldest society in the college. Indeed, tradition has it that the first meeting of the Philosoph under Mr. Bullen’s auditorship, the first motion passed was that the house should adjourn to the quadrangle to light a fire to protest against the dangerous dampness in the “new” Med building. It is not known what happened, but as the college rules then stipulated that all students were to be in their lodgings by 9 pm, there was probably little time to light a fire.

One of the pastimes which men have enjoyed for a very long time is commentating on how things are going to the dogs. Orators are particularly partial to this. Demosthenes insisted again and again that Athens was likely to fall to Phillip. Cicero used all his eloquence to persuade the Romans that the Republic was in dire peril and honorary secretaries of the Philosophical Society for some time had been predicting its collapse into ruins. Indeed in the late nineteenth century it did collapse into ruins for several years until Mr Kelleher restored it. Then, in the 1920s the society was banned by the authorities but continued under a new name the College Debating Union, until allowed to revert again to the old name. On another occasion Professor O Rahilly changed the name of the society for several years. A student publication AIRE reported in 1975’s “whither the philosof?”:

“The Philosophical Society has degenerated further this year, if that is possible. After the events of the previous year one would be inclined to believe that to believe that it was impossible for the society to get worse. (…) The committee was elected in some cases by sheer corruption (…) indeed it may not be an exaggeration to say that it is currently in its death throes” What can one say?”

Simply that the dogs have had a long wait!

The Philosoph has always been controversial down the years in all its activities. Finance has been a source of some problems. In 1905, the first ever student publication called QCC recorded the following grants:

Rugby Club £100 
Hurling Club £25 
Philosophers £3

Although the obvious discrepancies have thankfully been reduced, the 1979 grant of £1,100 is still inadequate. But finance is always a touchy point. In 1968 the society’s grant was withheld as the society refused to comply with college regulations in regard to the sanctioning of expenses. Mr Dan McCarthy, the Auditor, was quoted in “the Irish Times” as saying “apparently they consider that students are far more harmless chasing balls than improving themselves in discussion and intellectual activity.” In 1922 Mr Dillon passed a motion seeking suitable apartments in College for a reading room. In 1980 the society is still waiting! It is amazing that there is not yet even one room for the societies to share. Even dress has been controversial. After Victorian formality the 20s was informal but atEoin "The Pope" O'Mahony’s suggestion, formal evening dress was reintroduced in 1927 and has remained since. Poor Seán Ó Riada was however as auditorcensured by Mr Barry for the manner in which he wore his hat, the loudness of his socks, the angle at which he smoked his cigarette and for smoking Turkish cigarettes. In 1956 the Auditor was even censured for wearing a ready made bowtie which was “contradictory to the traditions of the society.” It was pointed out by Mr Scully that it was 9d worth from Woolworths but was not of British origin and therefore not a pro-British emblem.

As with most student societies pranks have been common as, for example, when the auditor RC Webster, later to become TV’s Brain of Britain, was gagged in the quarry on his way to the meeting. Another auditor Eoin "The Pope" O'Mahony KM BL made his mark by being the only person ever elected both auditor of the Philosophical Society, and the Historical Society, Trinity College in the same year! He was impeached but before he left he insisted that for the inaugural address being given my Mr McSweeney, the examination hall should be latinised. Since that meeting of the Philosoph the name Aula Maxima has stuck. Not only wasEoin O Mahony gold medallist at the Philosoph, but he was a triple gold medallist at the College Historical Society at Trinity and a double Gold Medallist in the Literary and Scientific Society there. The activities of the Society have been very diverse, although the mainstay has been the delivery of papers and debates. Symposia have been held, radio debates, mock trials, ladies’ nights, old boy’s nights, a Dáil under the society’s auspices, dances, impromptu debates, the publication of a student journal in 1905, and even social outings and picnics. Looking in at the 1904 inaugural, Sir Rowland Blennerhasset Bart was th e President and took the chair. Other guests included the Earl of Barrymore, the Anglican bishop and Archdeacon, Major General Stubbs, Mr & Mrs Ludlon Beamish.

In the same year “a very good attendance of 35” attended a debate – “Is Cork Athens?” Another motion was that “the progress of the yellow races is a menace to western civilisation.”

The next year, 1905, it was proposed that the modern craze for athletics is detrimental to intellectual progress. In the same year Professor Hartog “with the aid of limelight illustrations” spoke on karyokinesis, and in 1906, apart from a motion from Mr Nunan declaring that peasant proprietorship was not an unmixed blessing, Mr Hogan warned of the war spirit in German Universities.

Later in the 1920s, Professor Renouf was invited to deliver a paper on evolution but it was banned by the resident chaplain, and the Philosoph took the matter to an ecclesiastical court.

In 1922 the minutes mention that, in view of the prevailing state in the city and the impossibility of holding meetings nightly, it was decided to an augural meeting only during the first term

In the 1930s a motion was passed in 1934 that the time had come for the declaration of an Irish Republic, and in the 1940s the following poem appeared in the 1945 Quarryman by Churchmouse

Close to St Fin Barre’s three majestic towers
Are spread the city’s academic bowers
And here the youth of Munster come to learn
Arts of the pen, the knife, the rule, the churn.

And when the moon a quarter course has run
And anxious students their weeks’ work have done
Within thy house discussion are evolved
And the problems of Philosophy are solved
Here the last word on politics is sealed
And here each local scandal’s revealed.

Thy maiden's muse, are silent all the while
Despite the Auditor’s inviting smile
Their silence is the gathering only shows
Their idle liberty to be an idle pose
But well the shining hours improved by them
(the warning finger stands at five to ten)
The auditor a vain, self conscious pup
Begins a patronising summing up.

In the 1950s the most publicised night was probably one in 1950 in which Mr Sean McBride SC and Nobel Peace Prize winner called Cork “the centre of independent thought in Ireland” in discussing the state of the nation. Other speakers to speak on another night with Mr McBride were Liam Cosgrave, Erskine Childers and Tom O Higgins.

In the 1960s the Auditor Mr Anthony Joynson- Adolph, with Donnacha O'Corrain won the televised Irish Times final. As Auditor Mr Joynson- Adolph was as striking in dress as he was in his style of delivery. He would sometimes arrive wearing white tie and tailcoat, with his top hat, opera cloak, and carrying a silver-topped cane.

In the same decade, in 1968, the College President Dr McHenry threatened to resign as Vice President of the Society if the following letter was sent to Pope Paul VI:

“Your Holiness, 
The Philosophical Society, which is the premier debating society in this University, with a membership of some 704 people…”

The Letter went on to complain of the ban under pain of mortal sin of Catholic students attending Trinity College Dublin.

In the 1970s a new subject was openly debated, that of homosexuality. In 1977 a motion had to be changed to satisfy the authorities but, by the end of the decade a motion “this house supports gay rights” proposed by David Norris was overwhelmingly passed and caused no trouble.

Presidents down the years have been as diverse as Daniel Corkery, Garret Fitzgerald and Professor MacConnaill, who is the only man to have written an anatomy textbook in Irish. Guest speakers have been as varied, from Charles Haughey to Princess Radzivill, Mairéad Corrigan to Count Della Rocco, who spoke on the Italian youth movement in 1940, no doubt praising Mussolini! Both lists could be lengthy but only known lady President was a Miss Neville in 1952, who resigned before the Michalmas term even began.

Women have perhaps provoked most controversy within the society. The 1905 secretary Mr Kelleher wrote: 
“the other very interesting development of the society has been the inclusion of several lady members. this year’s executive took the liberty of electing all the lady speakers at Queen’s to honorary membership and if woman has not yet usurped the whole oratorical ability of the College Philosophical Society, it is consoling at least that several male members never miss a meeting now for varied reasons ”

Some debating societies such as the Glasgow Union Society still did not admit female members in 1980 and in those that do, males still dominate. Mrs Thatcher unlike most leading politicians in Britain was never President of the Oxford Union Society but she did take an active part. The Cambridge Union Society, founded in 1815, has only had three women Presidents and the Philosophical Society likewise has had three known lady Auditors. The first was Miss K. Murray at the surprisingly early date of 1928. The society was progressive even in 1905 when Miss Christie on Saturday the 16th of March delivered a “shocking” paper “Buchez la femme” on the suitability of women for the professions. However in 1906 the minutes record that “women rarely come – and only on, literally and metaphysically speaking, stands up for her own sex.” However in the same year Mr Rahilly gave a paper on women’s suffrage in which he felt that women should be able to vote as they could in Australia.

To that end, I can only quote again Mr Kelleher, who finished the secretary’s report in 1905-06 with these words:

I doubt not but that some of you will yet fling out the banners of your eloquence in the courtroom or the Senate house and men will speak with bated breath of the little debating society in the far off city where first your burning words shook fire into the listener’s ear