Literary and Scientific Society (Queen's University Belfast)

QUB Literary and Scientific Society
Institution Queen's University Belfast
Established 1850
President Hugh Dobbin
Website Official website

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".

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.[1][2] 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.[3]

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".[4] 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.[5]

Currently the Society operates as the debating society of Q.U.B. with an affiliation to 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.

Current Council of the Literific

The Council of the 170th Session

  • President: Hugh Dobbin
  • Secretary: Matthew Bradley
  • Treasurer: Shea Glasgow
  • External Convenor: Tara Grace Connolly
  • Internal Convenor: Matthew Bryson
  • Outreach Officer: Chloe Ferguson
  • Technology Officer: Jake Kieran
  • Training Officer: Russell Nairn
  • Social Officer: Edmund Doherty

List of Councils of the Literific

The Council of the 169th Session (2017-2018)

  • President: Calvin Black
  • Secretary: Peter Beck (until 27 September 2017), Peter Dunn (After 27 September 2017)
  • Treasurer: John McDonald
  • External Convenor: Hugh Dobbin
  • Internal Convenor: Peter Dunn (until 27 September 2017), Matthew Bryson (after 27 September 2017)
  • Outreach Officer: Lauren Carberry O'Neill
  • Technology Officer: Matthew Bradley
  • Training Officer: Lili Vetter
  • Social Officer: Conn Ó Néill

The Council of the 168th Session (2016-17)

  • President: Benjamin Murphy
  • Secretary: Rob Whitehurst
  • Treasurer: Jeremy Mueller
  • External Convenor: Andrew Hanoman
  • Internal Convenor: Lili Vetter
  • Outreach Officer: Andrew Dillon
  • Technology Officer: Chris Spratt
  • First Year Representative: Matthew Bryson
  • Second Year Representative: Peter Dunn
  • Open Representative: Craig Miller

The Council of the 167th Session (2015-16)

  • President: Marie-Louise Synnott
  • Secretary: Robert Whitehurst
  • Treasurer: Craig Miller
  • External Convenor: Eoghan Mulholland
  • Internal Convenor: Benjamin Murphy
  • Outreach Officer: Lilianna Vetter
  • First Year Representative: Sinead Burns
  • Second Year Representative: Gemma Canham
  • Open Representative: James McNaney

The Council of the 166th Session (2014-15)

  • President: Tara Pouryahya
  • Secretary: Alexandra Philpot
  • Treasurer: Harry Adair
  • External Convenor: Emma Chadwick
  • Internal Convenor: Sophie Stratful
  • Outreach Officer: Marie-Louise Synnott
  • First Year Representative: Margarita Petkova
  • Second Year Representative: Aisha Sobey
  • Open Representative: Oran Kennedy

Until November 27 2014, Naomh Gibson was President of the Society. She is the first and to date only President of the resurrected Society to have been removed from office by vote of no confidence.

The Council of the 165th Session (2013-14)

  • President: Adam Kydd
  • Secretary: Tara Pouryahya
  • Treasurer: Marie-Louise Synnott
  • External Convenor: Julia Andrade Rocha
  • Internal Convenor: Naomh Gibson
  • Outreach Officer: Marie-Louise Synnott
  • First Year Representative: Aisha Sobey
  • Second Year Representative: Sophie Stratful
  • Open Representative: Conor Conneally

The Council of the 164th Session (2012-13)

  • President: Andrew Carruthers
  • Secretary: Adam Kydd
  • Treasurer: Julia Andrade Rocha
  • External Convenor: Torr Coggan
  • Internal Convenor: Marie-Louise Synott
  • Outreach Officer: Andrew Carruthers
  • First Year Representative: Naomh Gibson
  • Second Year Representative: Conor Conneally
  • Open Representative: Stephen Goss

The Council of the 163rd Session (2011-12)

  • President: Paul Shannon
  • Secretary: Paul Shannon
  • Treasurer: Deaghlan Agnew

Notable people

See also

References

  1. ↑ 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.
  2. ↑ 'The Life and Letters of Edwin Lawrence Godkin', (1907) The Macmillan Company , p. 10.
  3. ↑ 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.
  4. ↑ 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.
  5. ↑ L.A. Clarkson, 'A University in Troubled Times: Queen's Belfast, 1945-200, (2004) Four Courts Press, Dublin.
  6. ↑ Campbell, WS (1963). "The early history of the Samaritan Hospital (1872-1892)". Ulster Med J. 32: 61–77. PMC 2384899. PMID 14018157.
  7. ↑ The Irish Times, 15 May 1946, p. 4.
  8. ↑ The Irish Times, 2 November 1964, p. 13.
  9. ↑ The Irish Times, 6 April 1965, p. 7.
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