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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

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

E.L. Godkin - First president of the Society, later editor of The Nation and the New York Evening Post.
Robert James McMordie - President 1871-72, barrister, M.P. and Lord Mayor of Belfast.
Thomas Leslie Teevan - President of the Society, barrister and Ulster Unionist West Belfast MP - Youngest Chairman of a local Authority in Northern Ireland at 21 (Limavady Urban Council). He was also President of the Queen's Law Society and Chairman of the Unionist Association.^[6]
Sheelagh Murnaghan - President 1946-47, first female president of the Society, barrister and Ireland Women's hockey player, later Northern Ireland M.P. for the Ulster Liberal Party.^[7]
Eamonn McCann - President 1964-65, writer and political activist.^[8] Only individual Q.U.B. winner of the Irish Times Debate.^{[citation needed]}
Cyril Toman - President 1965-66, Northern Irish political activist.^[9]
Paul Francis Shannon - President of the 163rd Session (2011–12).^{[citation needed]}

References

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

[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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