Debating Gold Medal at Knock

Patrick J. Brady, M.P.

The minutes of the 1908 Debating Society at Knock concluded with:

Continuing, the Rev. President said that during the session many great questions had been settled. The spirit of Napoleon was laid to rest; the Sinn Fein policy was rejected; as was the execution of Charles I. He took the opportunity of telling the members of the Society that a more valuable prize would be competed for next year as a past pupil of the College had promised to give each year a large gold medal.

That past pupil was Patrick J. Brady, class 1885, who was then a prominent Dublin solicitor who served as President of the Incorporated Law Society and as M.P. for the Stephens Green division. He was a loyal past man and an inaugural member of the 1896 committee that led to the formation of the Castleknock College Union under the presidency of Charles, Baron Russell of Killowen. In 1935 he replenished that bursary to mark the centenary of the founding of the College. He died in 1944. The medal then became known as the 'Brady Centenary Medal' and has been debated for almost every year since.

In 1935 it was also decided that the first three years of the House should have their own Junior Gold Medal debate. In 1970 post the departure of 1st & 2nd years to their newly built 'Junior School', an Intermediate Debating Society for 3rd & 4th years emerged. It initially prospered but lapsed in the early 80's until revived by an energetic new English Professor, one James H. Murphy, C.M., who when a pupil at the College won the 1976 medal. In 2006 in recognition of the new Junior Certificate and Transition Year structure, it was decided to revert back to the model of a Senior and Junior Society.

The Castleknock Chronicle was first produced in 1886 and it is our primary source for ascertaining medal winners. It however only documents medal winners with any regularity from 1928 onwards with the introduction of what was then the new Leaving Certificate syllabus. The early recipients of the Oratory Medal, as it was known in the 19th century, are thus only known to the possessors of those family heirlooms.

Subject to those limitations, listed below are the known Debating Gold Medal recipients.

Amongst other things it highlights one Walter J. Treanor as the first to secure back to back Brady Centenary Medals in 1939 & 1940. Only two past men have managed this feat since, Maurice Mason in 1980 & 1981 and Cian McGoldrick in 2013 & 2014. A number of brothers have also completed the double: Eoin Tiernan in 1983 followed by his brother Lorcan in 1987; Brian Hanrahan in 1958 and Denis in 1962; and the Whitty brothers, Richard H. in 1909 and Thomas A. in 1911 (who sadly was then killed in action, Gallipoli, 16 Aug 1915 whilst serving with the “Pals" Battalion, 7th Dublin Fusiliers). Also John Cooney won the medal in 1944, and Garrett in 1952, and that was very close to a treble for their brother Paddy was runner-up in 1948. As far as we can ascertain, our eldest living recipient is former Taoiseach, Liam Cosgrave, who won the medal in 1938, and his son Liam repeated that success in 1974.

A patron is essential to the success of all such societies and the most recent pillar in that respect was Dick Wafer who taught at the College for the 37 years from 1970 through to 2007, and was patron of the Senior Debating Society for most of those years. Dick has thus fine tuned several generations of debaters, and perhaps his greatest reward for so doing, was to witness his own son Brian win the 1990 Brady Centenary Medal and the 1988 Intermediate and 1987 Junior gold medals. It would also be remiss of us not to mention two other past men who went on to be College Professors - Clement Passmore, class '62 who was patron of the Junior Debating Society over a similar time frame, and Jim McElroy, class '98 who won the Brady Centenary Medal in 1998 and in 2007 succeeded Dick as patron of said society.

-