People need to be able to express their beliefs without the fear of being cancelled, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has told a student debate at Trinity College Dublin.
Speaking at the College Historical Society – better known as the Hist – Mr Varadkar told the audience: “The core principle of free and open debate has never been more fragile, and never more important. I fear that, increasingly, debating chambers have been replaced by echo chambers. We have prevailing ideologies, accepted norms and unsaid rules about what is and what is not acceptable to believe let alone say.”
“Increasingly there are subjects that people are afraid of speaking about for fear of causing offence,” Mr Varadkar said.
“It is right that we are sensitive to those around us and choose our words carefully. But we also need to accept that we need to be able to educate, to persuade and to understand. And for that, people need to be able to be free to express their beliefs without fear of being cancelled.”
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The event was held to mark the 253-year-old Hist’s official recognition as the world’s oldest student society by Guinness World Records.
Mr Varadkar’s remarks come at a time of heightened debate on university campuses about free speech. The Hist was criticised in recent years for rescinding an invitation to author and scientist Richard Dawkins owing to his views on Islam. At the time, the society’s auditor – or chairman – said the society “values our members’ comfort above all else”.
But Mr Varadkar offered an argument to the contrary.
“Today too many of us want to hear eloquent and powerful oratory – but only if the person agrees with our view of the world,” he said.
“Today we want to hear bright new ideas – but only if they confirm the validity of the ideas we already have.
“Today we want to shout loudly in favour of our causes – while sometimes denying those who disagree with us any voice at all.”
“Debate should be dangerous, though not harmful,” Mr Varadkar said. “It should challenge and provoke. It should test our beliefs and our principles. It should shatter bad thinking and strengthen great ideas. Being required, as student debates have to, to make a passionate and coherent case for a motion you do not agree with is a useful skill and discipline. It greater understands, confirms and questions.”
Mr Varadkar was also critical of a Trinity Students’ Union boycott of The Irish Times, initiated after some transgender activists objected to an article published in 2021, as well as the Hist’s decision to withdraw from The Irish Times Debate competition for third-level students.
“Even in the finest and oldest universities mistakes can be made. A newspaper should not be boycotted because it once published an article that some people disagree with,” he said.
“Even in the finest and oldest debating societies mistakes can be made. A national debating competition should not be boycotted because it is sponsored by that same newspaper, in my opinion.
“If we turn our backs on alternative perspectives, then we are revealing that our commitment to student debate is only skin deep. It is a confession that our ideas are so fragile they cannot be tested in public. It is an admission of defeat.”
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Mr Varadkar’s speech was responded to by world champion debater and author Bo Seo and student members of the Hist society.
László Molnárfi, president of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union – who wore a “Fine Gael out, Fianna Fáil out, Greens out” T-shirt – criticised the Government’s track record in tackling homeless and protecting vested interests and landlords.
Maggie Larson, who was auditor of the Hist when it withdrew from The Irish Times Debate, defended the society’s decision.
“It was not an uncontroversial position at the time and it was very much in the spirit of student protest and debate. Sometimes you do have to stand behind your convictions and stand with those who are marginalised and who are suffering,” she said.
