Presidential Debate on Thursday

Seren_

Facebook event

So there is a presidential debate being held in NUIM this Thursday. Serious well done to the society (NUIM Elsa) who have organised it!

Anyone planning on going?

Kiwi_knock

It seems like all the candidates will be there apart from Gay Mitchell so that is a massive success for them. I am disappointed I will not be there, I enjoyed the election debate that the Bizz Soc held last year where all the independents and lesser candidates turned up.

I wonder which candidate will get targeted the most, probably McGuinness or Dana.

Jimmy Iovine

Gutted I won't be there. Would love to have gone to it. Went to most of the debates during my three years there and they were all very good.

Planemo

Where do you get tickets?

LeixlipRed

Should head along. I'll have a special question reserved for FF's finest, Sean Gallagher

BuroniKiisu

hawaiichair wrote: »

Where do you get tickets?

It explains that in the Facebook event, hawaiichair!

LeixlipRed

I can't make either of the times there, could someone pick me up a ticket if anyone is going along?

Michellenman

Can access FB in college, could someone post here as to how we can get tickets?

How so Joe

Hi Everyone,

The debate will take place this Thursday from 1.30Pm. Everyone who gets a ticket shoudl arrive to Iontas at 1.15pm and be seated by 1.25pm.
As there is such high demand, we are making the event a strictly ticket only event. Tickets are free and will be available to ELSA members from Tonight at 6pm in CS2, tomorrow at the ELSA Open Day in Iontas from 11am. Certain societies on campus have also been given a limited number of tickets for their members.

For non-elsa members, tickets will be avaliable from tomorrow(Tuesday) afternoon. More information to follow as to where to go to get those!

Keep checking in for more information as the event progresses, were working around the clock to make sure it's a complete success and doing everything we can to keep it interesting so keep checking out our page over the next few days

The event will be recorded so we ask that once everyone is in Iontas they do not leave / eat / drink until the end of the debate!

That's the info from the event page.

Aldebaran

To be more exact, the Elsa table is the first one on the right when you go through the main entrance to the Iontas building, you can get them there.

Crom_Abú

Well done ELSA, should be really good. As far as I know Dana can't attend either. Think it's on the same time as mass

LeixlipRed

Crom_Abú wrote: »

Well done ELSA, should be really good. As far as I know Dana can't attend either. Think it's on the same time as mass

Careful Now!

Seren_

Sure would Dana not be right at home in Maynooth

I'm quite looking forward to this now I must say.

Crom_Abú

Must be careful? Nothing wrong with mass, sure I was at 11.30 mass on Sunday!

In all seriousness should be class.

unclejunior

i dont think mcguinness, dana or the other female candidate will be attending. its just gona be gallagher, higgins and norris.very undemocratic imo and nuim elsa have issued a ''directive'' that none of these candidates will be taking questions on their past (gallagher and his fianna fail background, norris and the famous letters and higgins on his reputation for being an absolute t0sser). seems like nothing more than a publicity campaign endorsed by elsa (unsurprisingly, most of elsas members have political affiliations with the parties the candidates represent). for that reason alone i will not be attending ''the presidential debate''

LeixlipRed

A directive? So no questions from the audience? Rubbish.

Seren_

Where did you hear this unclejunior? Has it actually been confirmed that those are the only people attending? I've asked on the fb page, so will post when I hear a response.

Crom_Abú

If there is an open Q+A after, I'm sure they will answer questions they don't like just to save face!

Would look worse if they ignored a question!

It is a pity all candidates aren't coming though

LeixlipRed

If there's no open session a bit of heckling will suffice. Sean Gallagher has to get it for me, the fact he's winning too. Or maybe the relatives of the disappeared would like us to inquire into where McGuinness and his chums buried the bodies? :pac:

Kinski

If Gallagher can't be asked about FF past, then someone should ask him how he earned just €12,133 in 2010.

Crom_Abú

Sure McGuinness left the IRA in 1974 :P

LeixlipRed

Kinski wrote: »

If Gallagher can't be asked about FF past, then someone should ask him how he earned just €12,133 in 2010.

Kept the rest under Bertie's mattress?

irish_goat

The girl giving out the tickets said that they have Higgins, Norris and Gallagher confirmed and that they were hoping to have McGuinness out next week if he's not there tomorrow.

Kinski

LeixlipRed wrote: »

Kept the rest under Bertie's mattress?

He won't be seeing that again so...

Seren_

irish_goat wrote: »

The girl giving out the tickets said that they have Higgins, Norris and Gallagher confirmed and that they were hoping to have McGuinness out next week if he's not there tomorrow.

Yep, this is what I was told too. She said that there would be Q+A with the audience too, time permitting.

Crom_Abú

Let the heckling commence!

How so Joe

Posted on NUIM Elsa's facebook

Would anyone be interest in directly asking the candidates a POLICY RELATED question tomorrow ? mail us if so. PS. last few tickets available from arts block tomorrow morning

That would appear not to indicate an open Q&A session... =/

LeixlipRed

The President's role has nothing to do with policy, surely as law students they'd know that?

Kiwi_knock

So is it prepared questions that the candidates will know in advance. Makes a bit of a joke of the whole event, not going to be as good as I thought.

The questions from the audience were the only good bit about the General Election debate, really showed how incompetent the candidates were.

XxMCRxBabyxX

Quite disappointed to see such limits being imposed. Makes the whole thing look like it's going to be very scripted.

Seren_

Aye, it really doesn't look like it's going to be great now >.<

LeixlipRed

Still go. Throw snaps onto the stage for lolz, everyone will take it's Martin and the boys bombing the gaff :pac:

Seren_

You mean they won't be? O__O

Still going to go, harrrrdly going to waste one of the tickets they gave specially to us "journalists"

Kinski

IMO Maynooth needs to lose its inferiority complex in relation to this kind of thing. Since we so often miss out on things like guests who might consider putting in an appearance at Trin or UCD, when we get some presidential candidates in, the attitude seems to be that we have to be respectful, not ask any tricky questions, and just generally appreciate the fact that they turned up at all.

Screw that. What's the worst that could happen? Michael D. or whoever might storm out and refuse to ever come to Maynooth again? How likely is it that the society will ever be asking any of these people back anyway? I think it would rock if a candidate got really pissed off with a question and walked out. That would be really cool.

LeixlipRed

The minute you fall prey to the PR gurus and give into any of that restricting questions bull**** you've essentially failed. The President is an elected official and hence should be well capable of answering any question posed by a potential voter. None of these bastards ever answer a straight question, I hope there's ructions tomorrow.

Kiwi_knock

If they are brave enough to run for the presidency they should be brave enough to answer a few questions. It is going to be a nice relaxing day for the candidates tomorrow, give a nice spiel and then answer a few simple questions.

Is a wasted opportunity, we will most likely never see any of these candidates in Maynooth again, certainly not in this type of atmosphere.

How so Joe

Can someone post to tell me who chairs the debate, please? Turns out the head of the Law department was supposed to chair it, but he decided to come on a jaunt to France for a few days instead. :pac:

Seren_

How is it going/did it go? I ended up having to cover the mental health soc stand in the arts block so couldn't go over.

I'm still here with some of our fabulous info leaflets if anyone wants some

Crom_Abú

John O'Brennan chaired the debate.

Was just Norris and Higgins, Gallagher pulled out!

Heard rumours that McGuinness was never actually invited :O

BuroniKiisu

Crom_Abú wrote: »

John O'Brennan chaired the debate.

Was just Norris and Higgins, Gallagher pulled out!

Heard rumours that McGuinness was never actually invited :O

ELSA told me that he was. He'll apparently be on campus himself next week, with a short Q&A section as part of the visit. That's gonna be fun to cover for The Print.

Seren_

Aw that would have been good I'd say, John O'Brennan is some buck!

I heard McGuinness was going to be around next week though? And apparently Norris was serving food in the Phoenix :pac:

BuroniKiisu

Your Text Here wrote: »

And apparently Norris was serving food in the Phoenix :pac:

Norris served at least two people curry. Pretty amusing. I'd originally thought he'd just take the photo and move on like Gallagher.

Alt_Grrr

BuroniKiisu wrote: »

Norris served at least two people curry. Pretty amusing. I'd originally thought he'd just take the photo and move on like Gallagher.

I agree with his giving me curry policy, that must be said.

Outside of Curry, I'll keep my opinions to myself

LeixlipRed

Debate in university, check, students are mostly liberals, check, not too much press about, check, no right wing candidates about to interject, check, posture about how evil neo liberalism is, check. Michael D should be ashamed of himself, he's a member of the Labour Party who are as we speak attacking students through increases in the reg fee and through their Minister for Social Exclusion, Joan Burton, attacking the elderly and unemployed. Yet he's up there spouting on like he's an actual socialist.

The whole thing was cringeworthy. But there was some good banter between them and I do believe that those two are the best of an appalling bunch. I'd vote for Norris but then I just can't bring myself to

CaoimH_in

LeixlipRed wrote: »

I'd vote for Norris but then I just can't bring myself to

Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it.

What I don't like is apparently an English lecture was cancelled for that farce.

Baile an Locha

Really really enjoyed the debate! Fair play to ELSA!

LeixlipRed

Baile an Locha wrote: »

Really really enjoyed the debate! Fair play to ELSA!

Yeh, in fairness it was enjoyable.

BuroniKiisu

It was more a banter session than a debate, especially considering they argreed upon everything, but it was definitely entertaining.

seriousfizz

Norris was at the 66 bus stop earlier today, having a chat to all of us waiting on the bus.

Seren_

I wish I got to meet him

casper456789

I am a first yr involved with elsa, business and law soc. have to say i am loving elsa dn business loads. i feel like i am getting to know people n make friends. loved the debate today, elsa put in so much hard work to ty=ry get all candidiates the candidates just pulled out. same happened in galway and all. was great to have a q&A session. i am loving all these activites hope college stays like this. love maynooth