The SIUC debate team will exchange words with the Irish.

At 7 p.m. April 4 in the Hiram H. Lesar Law Building auditorium, Ireland’s national debate team will spar with the university’s team, which is ranked 16th of 200 nationwide.

Todd Graham, director of debate at SIUC, said the debate will be an important event and of interest to students.

“It should be a really fun, a really good time,” Graham said.

Graham said Ireland’s national debate team is invited to compete against a U.S. team every year. He said SIUC, along with three other U.S. teams, has a chance to compete against them.

Katie Thomas, a sophomore from Fort Collins, Colo., studying political science, will combine forces with Kyle Dennis, a junior from Kansas City, Mo., studying economics, Justin Hingtgen, a senior from West Des Moines, Iowa, studying business management. Dennis and Hingtgen make up the nationally ranked individual team.

Thomas said Ireland’s team includes the country’s top three college-level debaters. She said she expects the team to be very competitive.

“They won their national championship in Ireland, so they’re going to be pretty good,” she said.

Thomas said the Irish team has a reputation for making fun of Americans and using witticisms in debate against the opponent while maintaining a serious demeanor toward the debate. She said one goal for her team is to fend off the blows.

“We’re just hoping we can keep up with them and defend our honor,” Thomas said.

Thomas said she would head to Colorado College at the end of this week to compete at the National Parliamentary Debate Association open invite tournament with her partner. She also said Hingtgen and Dennis would be at the National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence, an invitation-only tournament.

These tournaments have taken time away from preparing for the Irish team, she said.

“We have very little time when we get back so we’re hoping that there’s at least some things we can get out of the way before we leave and then have to come back and deal with that,” she said.

Graham said the Irish team is more experienced and consists of doctoral students, but he hopes the SIUC team will debate well. He said there is no official scoring, and said the crowd might be used to vote on a winner.

“It should be fun,” he said. “We are going to try and debate some serious topic.”

Thomas said she is eager to debate the Irish. She said she looks forward to meeting the well-known team.

“I’m really excited to have them and to make that something that SIU got to be a part of,” she said. “I think that’s really cool.”

Thomas said students should come to the event because it would be a good time, and would show respect for the Irish team.

“We’re inviting as many people as we can get to come because we think it would be really important to show the Irish that we respect them by having people show up and make this an important thing,” she said.

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