JOUTES ORATOIRES 2021-22

2021-22 Final line-up
Click on any image for a larger version.

So, once again the final of the Alliance Française inter-schools debating competition comes around. I have an interest as I was involved in inter-schools debating in my day, but in the Irish language. The French version is a bit different from what I had to cope with but both versions had their virtues. I've discussed this in a report on a previous final.

You can get the general message from the picture above that a whack of schools around the country participate in this competition. You'll see the current 26 best speakers from all over the country listed in the pic. The competition has been on the go since the early nineties and more than three thousand students have participated in it to date.

Unlike the debates in which I participated in the early 1960s, the students here get their subject and side about three weeks in advance which allows for discussion and research in advance. This adds to the impact of the competition in each individual case. In my debates you only got the subject matter 20 minutes in advance, so you were relying on previously acquired knowledge and a brass neck to talk for 3 minutes uninterrupted. In the French version speakers can be challenged by the opposition and this adds quite an edge and also tests both their actual level of spoken French and how well they can think on their feet.

This year there was one boys' and one girls' school in the final, an indication of the gender neutrality of both the conditions of entry and the adjudications along the way.

The presence of the French Ambassador at the final conveys a sense of status to the event. More on this anon.

The girls are from St. Leo's College, Carlow, and a quick look at the school site suggests a very progressive environment.

Another team from the College ended up around this time in the final of the Gael Linn senior inter-schools debate. Unlike this year's French debate, the Gael Linn event was a hybrid one, both in-person and online. This is something the Alliance might consider for the future.

The boys are from Gonzaga College, a Jesuit institution which has expanded massively over the years. The Jesuit attributes of rhetoric and discernment should stand to them well in this debate.

I was glad to see the almost universal wearing of masks at the event, and this was after the Government lifted all mandatory restrictions and misled a significant proportion of the population into thinking the pandemic was over.

I have the impression from photographs of the event that the masks were dispensed with at the social gathering afterwards but that may have been only momentarily to eat, drink, or be photographed.

I mentioned the Ambassador earlier. The Alliance acts in concert with the French Embassy to promote the use of French in Ireland. I have drawn attention elsewhere to how the French view their language in a wider cultural setting and tend to speak of the language not just in isolation but as "langue et civilisation française". They also promote the idea of "La Francophonie" uniting French speakers everywhere, and there are a lot of them and they are everywhere, in a global community. Perhaps we might follow up with a sort of global gaeltacht sometime.

The presence of the Ambassador lends a formality and status to the occasion, cements co-operation between the two institutions, and hopefully plays a part in attracting a wider audience and range of participants in the Alliance's activities and in these debates in particular.

I can't comment on the debate itself, not having been present. I am not yet ready to attend indoor in-person events.

The result was victory to St. Leo's College - congratulations girls. It's good to see the girls coming out on top in this age when women generally are being written back into the history which ignored so many of them for so long.

The Joutes website, which includes a link to more photos, is here.