photopol: JOUTES ORATOIRES 2018/19

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Having been at last year's debate I was keen not not to miss it this year.

My interest stems from my own participation in inter-schools debates in a second language (Irish) and from my general interest in what the French modestly refer to as Langue et Civilisation Française. I have had on-off contact with this culture for some fifty years, have given a talk in French at the Alliance and have another, in English this time, in the oven, though it is unlikely to see the light of day at this late stage.

Stéphane Crouzat & Pat Cox

This years audience, apart from being packed out with parents of the lads and lasses who took part in this year's competition, and particularly those who made it to the final, also included some heavy hitters, such as Pat Cox and the French Ambassador, Stéphane Crouzat. As it turned out they were to prove more than mere spectators as you'll see below.

Thierry Lagnau

The Alliance Director kicked off by welcoming all to the joust. He was clearly proud of this particular branch of the Alliance's activities. Some 40 schools from around the country participated in this year's competition and there were more applications than could be accommodated.

I learned at a book launch here just over a year ago that the French education system puts a premium on teaching pupils to present themselves well in the world. They should at all times, and irrespective of the circumstances, be able to project the confidence of a winner.

Impressions count for a lot and in his speech, where he praised the work of the Alliance in general, and of this competition in particular, the Ambassador gave us a masterclass in projection.

Now, I know the French wave their arms around a lot and the Ambassador, himself an Énarque, is a winner. Nevertheless, I thought you might enjoy his performance as encapsulated in these few images.

And that, lads, is how it's done.

Pat, whose talents are more verbal than gesticular, is the Président (Chairman) of the Alliance, and proud he is of it. I think he said it was the largest Alliance in a non-French-speaking country. In fact, the Dublin Alliance Française is the world's third-largest Alliance, behind only those in francophone Paris and Brussels.

Conor Harper

The Reverend Chairman of the Joutes Steering Committee gave us a quick run down on the competition and its rules .

Les Joutes Oratoires Interscolaires, créées au début des années 1990 dans le cadre de l’Alliance française de Dublin, ont pour but de donner aux élèves une plus grande assurance, de les préparer à l’oral du Leaving Cert, et de dynamiser les cours de français. En effet, depuis leur fondation, plus de trois mille élèves ont participé aux Joutes. L’idée de base est simple: il s’agit de permettre à des élèves de français de Transition Year, Fifth Year au Sixth year, issus d’établissements différents, en République d’Irlande mais aussi en Irlande du Nord, de se rencontrer pour débattre, en français, sur des sujets extrêmement divers.

À chaque fois, deux équipes de quatre membres défendent un point de vue opposé sur une question particulière. Chaque membre d’une équipe développe un argument particulier et peut être interrompu à tout moment par l’équipe adverse. À l’issue du débat, chaque capitaine résume les arguments développés par son équipe et un jury de trois professeurs de français déclare l’une des deux équipes gagnante.

and we're off.

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I have outlined a lot of the background to the competition and my own reactions in my blog post on last year's final.

Last year we had two girls' schools debating Free Speech. This year it's two boys' schools debating whether La Parité (equality?) is just a utopian idea or whether it is a realisable objective. This is a potentially vast subject which could cover gender, wealth, minorities of various sorts and so on. And the debate did cover a lot of these, though my impression was that the gender theme tended to dominate.

Belvedere had the task of showing that this was a pipe dream which would never be realised. For this they relied on human nature, the cruel world we live in, and increasing disparities all over the place.

St. Michael's, on the other hand, relied on current progress in a number of areas as indicators of the way the world was moving and they asserted that, on the basis of these trends and sometime in the future, La Parité would become a universal reality, thus challenging Belvedere's case.

Given that the subject and sides were known well in advance, it is no surprise that both sides mustered batteries of statistics and examples in the cause.

It would be difficult to say who won the argument as that answer lies in the future. What counted here was the debate: effectiveness in presentation, robustness of response and resilience in the face of killer heckles.

You must remember that this is all taking place in what is a second language to all the debaters and some of the advantages that one might think of which would subvert a level playing field are actually grounds for disqualification. For example

A team member must
not be born in a French-speaking country.

not have a parent/guardian whose mother tongue is French.

not having lived in a francophone environment for more than 2 years.

not be a previous winner.

Nathalie-Zoé Fabert

When all was said and done I expected St. Michael's to win, based on their performance aimed at convincing the audience and their resilience under heckle. This was based on an overall feeling on my part and not on any strict marking system.

In the event, when Nathalie-Zoé delivered the verdict on behalf of the jury, the prize went to Belvedere and St. Michael's had to console themselves with their rugby double this year. As Pat put it, Belvedere for debates, St. Michaels for rugby. Or as I might imagine it St. Ignatius Loyola versus The Holy Ghost.