The Literary and Scientific Society (commonly referred to as the Literific) of the Queen's University of Belfast is the university's debating society. The purposes of the Society, as per its Laws are to "encourage debating, oratory and rhetoric throughout the student body of the University and beyond".[1]
The Society was founded in 1850 as a paper-reading society for students of the new Queen's College, with its first president being Edwin Lawrence Godkin.[2][3] The Literific was also used, during its early years, as a democratic body which could negotiate with the College on behalf of the students until the formation of the Students' Union Society and the Students' Representative Council in 1900.[4]
The Society established itself as the principal debating body of the University, however in the 1960s the Literific came under fire and was banned for several weeks in 1964 "in view of the disorders and improprieties of conduct and obscene language".[5] Later in the decade the Society merged into the Union Debating Society (later the Debating and Mooting Society) from which it re-emerged in 2011.[6]
Currently the Society operates as the sole debating society at QUB and has an affiliation with the Queen's University Belfast Students' Union as well as to the University itself. The Society holds weekly meetings on a particular motion of interest during term.[7]
Elected President at an extraordinary general meeting in November 2014.
167th (2015-16)
Ms. Marie-Louise Synnott
168th (2016-17)
Mr. Benjamin Murphy
169th (2017-18)
Mr. Calvin Black
170th (2018-19)
Mr. Hugh Dobbin
171st (2019-20)
Mr. Matthew Bradley
172nd (2020-21)
Mr. Matthew Leigh
173rd (2021-22)
Mr. Daniel McCormick
Elected President at an extraordinary general meeting in January 2022.
174th (2022-23)
Mr. Matthew Taylor
Resigned as President in January 2023. Secretary Mr. James Orchin served as acting President prior to new elections.
Ms. Tailte McSparron
Elected President at extraordinary general meeting in February 2023.
175th (2023-24)
Resigned as President part way through new session.
Mr. Daniel Toft
Elected President at an extraordinary general meeting in January 2024
176th (2024-25)
Mr. Dermot Hamill
Events
Irish Times
In 2018 the Literific, supported by the QUB Law Society, hosted the 58th Grand Final of the Irish Times Debate[9] at which the Training Officer of the 170th session spoke as an individual finalist.[10] The Event saw 12 speakers discuss the motion: “This House Believes That Ireland Has Failed Its Youth”. The debate was chaired by Lord Justice Stephens and judged by Irish Times editor Paul O’Neill, Queen’s Professor Adrienne Scullion, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences; Margaret Elliott who is a governor of the Irish Times Trust and Professor Brent Northup, the chair of communications at Carroll College in Montana.
In November 2020, the first Great Debate was held on the motion: This House Regrets the Decriminalisation of Abortion in Northern Ireland. The debate attracted much controversy on social media, particularly due to the inclusion of former Shadow Home Secretary Anne Widdecombe on the proposition.[11] The motion was defeated by 472 votes to 159.
Thomas Teevan - President of the Society, barrister and Ulster Unionist West Belfast MP - Youngest Chairman of a local Authority in Northern Ireland at 21 (Limavady Urban Council). He was also President of the Queen's Law Society and Chairman of the Unionist Association.[12]
^"Constitution". The Literific. 28 January 2016. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
^Brian Walker and Alf McCreary, 'Degrees of Excellence, The Story of Queen's Belfast 1845-1995', (1994) The Institute of Irish Studies, Belfast, pp. 16, 19.
^'The Life and Letters of Edwin Lawrence Godkin', (1907) The Macmillan Company , p. 10.
^Brian Walker and Alf McCreary, 'Degrees of Excellence, The Story of Queen's Belfast 1845-1995', (1994) The Institute of Irish Studies, Belfast, p. 30.
^Brian Walker and Alf McCreary, 'Degrees of Excellence, The Story of Queen's Belfast 1845-1995', (1994) The Institute of Irish Studies, Belfast, p. 124.
^L.A. Clarkson, 'A University in Troubled Times: Queen's Belfast, 1945-200, (2004) Four Courts Press, Dublin.
^"Debates". The Literific. 23 May 2017. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
