German Debating Club was established in the academic year 2013/2014 and has been successfully competing in the All-Ireland National Competition sponsored by Siemens and Goethe Institute Dublin every year since.
Debating in your own language is not easy – debating in German is even more difficult. Yet between 39 and 50 school teams (which adds up to approximately 230 to 300 students and teachers) enter the All Ireland German Debating Competition in September every year, organised by the Goethe-Institute Ireland, the German Culture Institute.
The competition is in its 24th year. The debate offers the students the opportunity to use and expand their German language skills and develop confidence, team work and debating skills. Also, students get to meet their peers from all over Ireland in a competitive language environment.
Our competitive journey usually starts in October in participating schools and the final debate takes place in May 2019 at SIEMENS in the DCU Innovation Campus, Old Finglas Road, Glasnevin.
Five rounds later, and after many arguments proposed and defended, new phrases learned and a great deal of team effort, the finalists emerge.
Our greatest achievements so far are 2 All-Ireland Finals in 2018/2019 and in 2015/2016 and 2 Semi-Finals in 2016/2017 and 2014/2015.
We have a German Debating Club from which we select a team of 4 debaters, with one captain and 1 or 2 subs. The team is mentored by Mr. Kajic and other Scoil Mhuire teachers help us with the ideas for our speeches and arguments. Here is the video clip of our 2015 Final:
