It's something of a ritual: every few years some student society invites someone really contentious to speak. The person at the top of the list is often right-wing historian David Irving.

Last week he made his fourth attempt to speak at UCC and was prevented from doing so because college authorities feared damage to college property. However, the UCC University Examiner secured an interview with him.

Irving told the paper that he would return to UCC if another invitation was offered, even fund the expedition himself, "because it is an important principle at stake".

Despite the fact that some reports estimated the number of very angry protestors as being around 600, Irving was critical of the decision to stop him speaking. "This is the way my opponents work: they will put pressure on the insurance company to put pressure on the university authorities," he said.

Irving denied he was trying to establish a fascist element in Cork and said he simply intended to "provide a speaker in a debate . . . where the opposition has a chance to state its case . . . but obviously they decided their case was weaker than mine, and they decided to use violence instead."

College news is compiled by Paul Tanney