The College Historical Society (popularly referred to as The Hist) is one of two main debating societies at Trinity College, Dublin in Dublin, Ireland. It was established within the college in 1770, but traces its origins to the society founded by the philosopher Edmund Burke in Dublin in 1747. It is often cited as the oldest undergraduate student society in the world.
The society occupies rooms in the Graduates' Memorial Building at Trinity College, which it shares with the University Philosophical Society, and the College Theological Society. Prominent members have included many Irish men and women of note, from the republican revolutionary Theobald Wolfe Tone and the author Bram Stoker, to founding father of the Northern Irish state Edward Carson and first President of Ireland Douglas Hyde, and in more recent times Government Ministers Mary Harney and Brian Lenihan.
History
The College Historical Society was founded by Edmund Burke, first meeting on Wednesday, 21 March 1770, with James Reid as its first Auditor, when Burke's Club (founded 1747) merged with the Historical Club (founded 1753). It was a time of great change in Ireland and the Western World, at the height of the Enlightenment and before the American War of Independence and the French Revolution. From its inception it showed itself to be at the forefront of intellectual thought in Ireland, and many of its members later went into politics.
Restrictions and expulsions
Theobald Wolfe Tone, later leader of the United Irishmen, was elected Auditor in 1785, and Thomas Addis Emmet was a member of the committee. The society was briefly expelled from the College in 1794, but readmitted on the condition that "No question of modern politics shall be debated". In 1797, the poet Thomas Moore and the nationalist Robert Emmet were elected as members. Eight members of The Hist were expelled in 1798 in the run-up to the Rebellion, and a motion was later carried condemning the rebellion, against their former Auditor.
Tension between the society and the College flourished in the early nineteenth century with the Auditor being called before the Provost in 1810. In 1812 the Provost, Dr Thomas Elrington, objected vehemently to the motion 'Was Brutus justifiable in putting Julius Caesar to death?'. After a number of members were removed at the request of the College Board, the society left the college in 1815.
The Extern Society
The Society continued from 1815 as the Extern Historical Society. Among its members at this time were Isaac Butt, who tried unsuccessfully in 1832 to have the Society readmitted, Joseph Sheridan LeFanu, Thomas Davis and John Blake Dillon and many other notables of the nationalist cause . In 1843 the Society was refounded within the College after a student petition, again on the condition that no subject of current politics was debated. This regulation remains to this day, however its spirit is often broken by the controversial topics discussed regularly in The Hist.
The 19th century
The Society continued successfully after that with many lively debates, including the motion on June 10, 1857 'That the Reform Bill of Lord Grey was not framed in accordance with the wants of the country', proposed by Isaac Butt and opposed by Edward Gibson. This era was considered by many to be the high point of the Society, with many of its members moving to high political positions. It was common for the Members of Parliament for the University to have served on the Committee of the Hist, such as Edward Gibson and David Plunkett, who were both Auditors, and Edward Carson, who was the Librarian. Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, became Auditor in 1872. In 1864 the Society collected money from its members to erect statues outside the College of Edmund Burke and Oliver Goldsmith.
The Society moved to the Graduates' Memorial Building (GMB) in 1904, which it shares with the University Philosophical Society and the College Theological Society. The College Board relaxed its rules, allowing such motions as 'That the Gaelic League is deserving of the support of every Irishman' in 1905 and 1906.
The 20th and 21st centuries
The society continued well through the twentieth century, although the First World War hit it badly, with 136 of its former members killed. Eoin O'Mahony was elected Auditor in 1930 and faced impeachment when he raised a toast to Ireland instead of the King. Interestingly, Eoin O'Mahony offered Lord Carson the Presidency of the Society in 1931, although Carson declined due to ill health, recommending that the position be offered to former Gold Medallist and future President of Ireland Douglas Hyde, who was elected to the position. The current President is Prof. David McConnell, a former Librarian and Auditor of the Society and a winner of The Irish Times Debating Competition, and now Chairman of The Irish Times Trust and one of Europe's foremost geneticists.
Women had been refused membership of the society until 1969, when the motion "That this House reveres the memory of Mrs Pankhurst" was debated with Rosaleen Mills participating (the motion, however, was defeated). The first female Auditor, future Tánaiste Mary Harney, was elected in 1976. Since then the Society has had four female Auditors. The Society's Bicentennial Meeting in 1970 was addressed by US Senator Edward Kennedy at which he called the Society "The greatest of the school of the orators". Recent developments have seen the re-opening of the Resource Library, operated in conjunction with the Phil, which holds over 200 books and is made available as a general study area and library for the use of the members of the Society. The Society has also extensively re-developed the Conversation Room with the addition of better facilities such as wireless Internet access. The Society now also holds regular Debating Workshops which teach the various styles of debating and the basics of writing both a competitive debate and a speech for the Wednesday night debates. The Society remains a force in competitive debating at both a national and international level, having been represented in the Grand Final of The Irish Times Debating Competition in 2006, and winning it in three consecutive years, in 2007, 2008 and 2009. The Society has now won this competition on both the individual and team positions more times than any other debating society in Ireland. The Society also won the UCD IV in six consecutive years, 2006-2011. The Society hosted the Worlds' Debating Competition in the 1990s.
Current Committee
| Auditor | John Engle |
| Treasurer | Emma Tobin |
| Correspondance Secretary | John Doody |
| Record Secretary | Cormac McGuinness |
| Censor | Chris Rooke |
| Librarian | Briony Somers |
| Debates Convenor | Ian Curran |
| Senior Memeber of Committee | Isobel D'Arcy |
| Deputy Correspondance Secretary | Michael Coleman |
| Pro-Treasurer | Tosy Mahapatra |
| Pro-Correspondance Secretary | Lorcan Cullen |
| Pro-Record Secretary | John Prasifka |
| Pro-Censor | Caoimhe Stafford |
| Pro-Librarian | Jonathan McKeon |
| Pro-Debates Convenor | Alexa Donnelly |
Gold Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Public Discourse
The Gold Medal is the highest honour that the society can bestow upon an individual and has traditionally only ever been awarded to members within the College Historical Society. In 1780 Wolfe Tone's impassioned plea's for Irish freedom earned him the Gold Medal for Oratory, later Bram Stoker would earn a Gold Medal for his composition. Ireland’s first President, Douglas Hyde was a medallist of the society, as was Frederick Boland, the former President of the UN General Assembly, during their time in the society while undergraduates at Trinity College. This honour would allow them both to go on to serve as President of the CHS, overseeing the long term in-terests of the world’s oldest undergraduate society.
In 2000, a fire broke out in the Graduates’ Memorial Building, which houses the society, and the dies used to cast the Medal were lost. In 2006 however, medals dating back to the 18th Century were found in the college’s Long Library and a new cast has been made from these originals.
In keeping with the CHS’s commitment to discourse, the society’s committee concluded that the society’s prestigious medal should be awarded to those in the world who have embodied those values inherent within the society - free speech, intellectualism, curiosity and the pursuit of truth.