Numbers, winners, facts and pictures! That and more is to be found in international media about the European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC or Euros) that were held at Galway, Ireland from August 7 to 13. Since we assume that our appreciated readers do not want to waste their precious time on thorough research, but still wanna know what’s going on – well, your Achte Minute team provides you with a quick overview.

Pictures, yay! Manuel Adams – you might have spotted him behind his camera – shot loads of pictures at Galway Euros, a fine selection of which he presents on his homepage.

The Galway Independent mentions mere names and numbers under the headline of „Debate Success“:

„The Oxford A team of Ben Woolgar and Hugh Burns were the overall winners at the European Universities Debating Championships hosted by the NUI Galway Law Society last week. Over the week 464 debates took place involving 360 speakers from 23 countries, all overseen by 160 judges.“

The Irish Times is especially proud of the success that debaters from Ireland had at Galway Euros. This headline reads „TCD student top speaker at debating competition“.

„A Trinity College Dublin student has been judged top speaker at this year’s European Universities Debating Championships. Catherine Murphy of TCD Historical Society was conferred with the award at the championship final in Galway on Friday night. Ms Murphy and fellow student Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin represented the society in the final, competing against Oxford, Durham and Cambridge on the motion ‚this house believes that the State should pay reparations to women‘. […] There were five Irish in the top 10 speakers. Ms Ní Mhaoileoin was third, with Seán Butler and John Beechinor of University College Cork and Ian Boyle Harper of King’s Inns also ranked.“

After the final, the Irish Times had probably not known about Achte Minute – we sure did Twitter and Google during the final. Ok, well, the debaters are not allowed to use it. Hence, the Irish Times went „No tweets, no Google as top European university debaters pitch for glory“:

„Hitler’s Mein Kampf should or should not be published in Germany after 2016 when the copyright runs out. Media ‚personalities‘ must or must not wait four years before running for political office. What’s more, this house should never fight for ‚king or country‘ – or perhaps it should? Such was the flavour of fevered argument in Galway over the past six days, as some 360 students engaged volume, pitch, speed and reasoning in the European Universities Debating Championships. The 180 teams from educational institutions had been narrowed down to eight yesterday, with Oxford and Cambridge facing Durham and Trinity College Dublin to dissect the motion that ‚States should pay reparations to women‘.

Our convener, Nollaig Ó Scannláin, or Lord Nuggles as he was called by the CA team and soon enough by pretty much everybody. (Picture: Manuel Adams)

A week ealier, with Euros still under way, the Irish Times had titled „European debating event is talk of the town“. Back then, the convener Nollaig Ó Scannláin felt under pressure with „a full-on week with plenty of stress ahead“. And Irish participation is emphasized here as well: „The Irish flag is being flown by Trinity College, UCD, UCC, DCU and UL, while hosts NUI Galway have their hands full with ensuring the show goes on, says convenor Nollaig Ó Scannláin.“

The German newspaper Allgemeine Zeitung described how the debate on Hitler’s „Mein Kampf“ was fought with German participation: Robert Lehmann and Nicolas Eberle from Mainz had to argue from side opposition – they were contra an indefinite prohibition of the publication of Hitler’s book:

„Robert Lehmann muss in seiner Rede neue Inhalte liefern. Er votiert für Diskurs statt Verbot: ‚Mit wissenschaftlichen Methoden kann man einfach zeigen, welchen Unsinn Hitler geschrieben hat.‘ Dafür muss jedoch das Buch erhältlich sein. Eberle spricht über die Symbolwirkung, wenn das Werk weiter verboten bleibe, sei das ein falsches, ein Signal der Angst.“

The online edition of the German newspaper Aachener Zeitung, az-web, picked the very same debate. They feature a team from the local debating society, Marc-André Schulz and Anna Heynkes from Aachen. The article says:

“Die beiden Aachener hat das Los auf die Oppositionsbank gesetzt, ob Marc-André Schulz nun persönlich für oder gegen die Publikation von ‚Mein Kampf‘ ist, spielt keine Rolle, jetzt muss er überzeugend gegen ein Verbot argumentieren. Nach seiner Rede spricht wieder die Regierungsseite und beschwört noch einmal die Gefahr, die mit einer Publikation von Hitlers ‘Mein Kampf‘ einhergeht.“

Last but not least, we ourselves from Achte Minute feel very honoured: The blog Israel Idag, the blog of the Israeli Embassy in Sweden, mentions of course the strong competition that the Israeli teams were to the others and how the brothers Sella and Omer Nevo from Tel Aviv won the final on the existence of god – „Israel Vinnare i EM i Universitetsdebatt“. In addition to that, the blogs directs those interested to Achte Minute – thank you, tack, תודה and danke!

„Under veckan som gick avgjordes European University Debating Championship i Galway, Irland. 180 lag från 26 länder deltog i den årliga tävlingen som såg Oxford och Tel Aviv som vinnare. Israel var starkt representerat under tävlingen och efter de preliminära omgångarna så stod det klart att av de 16 lag som gått vidare till kvartsfinal för lag med engelska som andraspråk så var 6 israeliska. Tel Aviv, Ben Gurion, Hebrew University och IDC var de Israeliska universitet som stod bakom denna bragd. Trots att Israel är regerande världsmästare två år i rad så var detta första gången sedan 2003 som ett israeliskt lag vann EM. Finalen avgjordes på fredagen och stod mellan Erasmus från Holland, Babes Bolay från Rumänien samt två lag från Tel Aviv. Det avgörande debattämnet var huruvida gud existerar. Denna debatt fick avsluta en veckas kamp där allt ifrån dödsstraff till könsroller och internationella relationer har debatterats. När debatten så var slut så stod det klart att bröderna Omer och Sella Nevo stod som vinnare.“

The European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC or Euros) have been held annually since 1999. It was started in Rotterdam where 32 teams of two competed for the title. For the records: In Amsterdam, 192 teams competed for the very same title in 2010, in Galway it was 180 teams. Format has ever since been British Parliamentary Style(BPS), language of debate is English. Debaters from all over Europe as well as from Israel and Qatar take part in Euros and compete with each other in two categories: the open break (mostly for native speakers) and “English as a Second Language” (ESL).There is a good chance a team may break in the two categories as happened to be the case with Tel Aviv A this year: They broke first in the ESL break and sixth in the open break.

Current champions are Ben Woolgar and Hugh Burns (Oxford), ESL champions are Sella and Omer Nevo, two brothers from Tel Aviv University. This year’s Euros were held in Galway, located at the western coast of Ireland, from 7 to 13 August. Chief adjudicator was Ruth Faller (Ireland), her deputies wereShengwu Li (Singapore), Simone van Elk (The Netherlands), Steven Nolan (Ireland) and Yoni Cohen Idov (Israel). Isabelle Loewe from Debattierclub Bonn and Tony Murphy (Ireland) served as equity officers. Galway’s tabmaster was Harry McEvansoneya, an Irish as well. During the Euros, the EUDC Council assembled and decide for instance about the host of next year’s championship. Belgrade (Serbia) was assigned hosting the European Universities Debating Championships 2012.