A team from the College Historical Society (the Hist) have won the European University Debating Championships (EUDC), becoming the second team from Trinity in three years to do so.
The event took place in Glasgow earlier this month with 185 teams from across Europe taking part.
Martha McKinney-Perry and Andy Cullinan claimed victory having debated the motion “This House opposes the recent rise in distrust of state institutions”. They faced teams from the University of Oxford, The University of Manchester and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
In individual speaker rankings, McKinney-Perry came second and Cullinan was ninth.
This is the fourth consecutive year in which Trinity students have reached the final of the competition, and the second win in three years following Dylan McCarthy and Jack Palmer from the University Philosophical Society (the Phil) in 2022.
Mckinney-Perry and Cullinan’s marks the first time that a team from the Hist has won the event as well as the first time that an Irish woman has won the championships.
Speaking to Trinity News Mckinney-Perry said: “I’m really delighted to have won! For me, this comes as the culmination of four years of hard work, and to finish as the second best speaker overall and one of the European champions feels almost too good to be true.”
When asked if she will debate in the future, Mckinney-Perry said she will not quit anytime soon, but that her time as a Trinity debater has come to an end and this is a wonderful way for it to have ended.
Cullinan said: “I was absolutely stunned following our victory. As a fresher, I’ve grown up idealising many of the speakers we beat along the way. Being in the same room as them was surreal. Having our names announced instead of theirs felt like an April Fool’s prank – in the best possible way.”
He added that the team’s historic run was “a fitting representation of the world’s oldest student society’s enduring relevance”.
The Hist has had previous success at the championships before with Caoimhin Hamill and Jack Synott reaching the final in 2021, and Daniela Williams and Naomi Panovka reaching the final in 2023.
The Hist currently holds the record for most team points earned at the Championships, set by the 2021 team. The previous holders of the record were fellow Hist members, Sally Rooney and Michael Barton in 2013.
