University Philosophical Society
The University Philosophical Society, commonly known as The Phil, is a student paper-reading and debating society in Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. Founded in 1683, it describes itself as the oldest student, collegial and paper-reading society in the world.
The society is based within the Graduates Memorial Building of Trinity College. Throughout its history, it has welcomed many notable guests and some of its members have included Ernest Walton, John Butler Yeats, Samuel Beckett, Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde.
Society
The Phil's members meet every Thursday during term to discuss a paper, debate a motion or hear an address. Traditionally a paper-reading society, meetings sometimes continue the format of responses to a paper rather than debate on a motion.Its rooms are within the Graduates' Memorial Building of Trinity College, which it has shared with the College Historical Society since the building's construction in 1902, where it provides facilities for its members such as a games and a conversation room. The Phil shares the use of its Bram Stoker Room with the College Theological Society. It holds most of its meetings in the GMB's Debating Chamber with meetings having an expected audience of above two hundred being held in the larger lecture theatres of the college.
The society also hosts social events, internal competitions, sporting events, blood drives and the occasional concert. It also holds debating workshops and developmental competitions for members and school children. It has a "strong history" in intervarsity debating competitions, at both an international and national level.
Membership of the society is open to all Undergraduate and Postgraduate students, as well as all staff members of Trinity College. It offers four year membership to students of the university.
The society publishes "The Philander" as an annual freshers' guide to the society.
History
The history of the University Philosophical Society spans over three centuries, several guises, identities and name changes.Origins
In 1683, natural philosopher and political writer William Molyneux founded the Dublin Philosophical Society, with the assistance of his brother Sir Thomas Molyneux and future Provost St George Ashe. They intended it to be the equivalent of the Royal Society in London as well as the Philosophical Society at the University of Oxford. The society was traditionally a paper reading society; however it also included many demonstrations of the latest science and mathematical endeavour of that era. The first meeting on 15 October 1683 was in the Provost's lodgings at Trinity College Dublin, a location where members continued to meet.Sometime after December 1683, Provost Robert Huntington became the society's first Senior Patron, promising protection and assistance, a role the Provost of Trinity College still holds. While at the time no particular precedent existed for Trinity College to recognise it, it can be considered the college's first such society.
On 1 November 1684 William Petty was elected as the first President of the society, and William Molyneux elected as its first Secretary. The current numbering takes this as the first session of the University Philosophical Society.
Reformation in the 19th century
In November 1842, to mark the original session date the Dublin Philosophical Society was fully reformed under its original name, traditionally meeting on Mondays, to cater for those Trinity College students too young to join other societies in Dublin. The first meeting took place in Marlborough Street.At the time, undergraduates were not allowed to join most College societies, such as the College Historical Society. It then became the Dublin University Philosophical Society in February 1843 when it was recognized by the college, with then Provost Franc Sadleir reassuming the traditional role of Senior Patron.
During this time the society had its rooms in No. 4 in Parliament Square with larger meetings taking place within the Examination Hall.
In 1860, the Dublin University Philosophical Society changed its name to the University Philosophical Society. The society claims to be the oldest, student, paper-reading, and collegial society in the world. As of the 1960s, the society still dated its foundation back to 1853, describing the 1969 session as its "116th". The current numbering of sessions emphasises the societies’ historical connection to the Dublin Philosophical Society, and treats the foundation of The University Philosophical Society as a reinstatement of that society, rather than the foundation of a new society.
Among the notable events held was the demonstration of an early telephone by Stephen Yeates in 1865.
20th century
The society suffered greatly, with the rest of Trinity College during the First World War. Ireland was still part of the British Empire during the outbreak of the war and so many Irish enlisted. However, there was a diverse mixture between members who predominantly described as being part of the Protestant Ascendancy and those who believed more in Irish republicanism.File:1937 Reading Room.jpg|thumb|right|The 1937 Reading Room, a memorial to members of the college who died during the First World War
The meetings and overall strength of the society was massively diminished during the period, with there being no Inaugural Meeting from 1913 until 1919 after the end of the war.
From 1913 to 1916 ten officers of the society resigned their positions to enlist. Minutes from the time mention that many more members of the society would go on to enlist, however their names went unrecorded.
In 1919 the names of eight past officers and members of council of the society who had been killed during the war was read aloud at the Opening Meeting.
- James Austin, President 1913–1914.
- AEL West, President 1915–1916.
- Reverend Everard Digges La Touche, Secretary 1907–1908.
- JHF Leland, Treasurer 1909–1910.
- Walter Osborne Varian, Treasurer 1915–1916.
- JS West, Registrar 1914–1915.
- Francis George McGibney, Member of Council 1912–1913.
- William Kee, Member of Council 1914–1915.
The Second World War, had a lesser effect on the society, though one notable President of the early 1940s was lawyer, Nigerian independence activist and Supreme Court Chief Justice Udo Udoma.
In 1953, the society held a centenary celebration, commemorating its "First Hundred Years".
Dublin University Elizabethan Society ("The Eliz")
The first female students were admitted to the college in 1904; however, they were unable to join any of the student societies that existed at the time. In response to this, the Dublin University Elizabethan Society was founded in 1905 by the first woman student of the university Isabel Marion Weir Johnston. The society was a female-only debating society, having sent teams to the Irish Times National Debating Championship from relatively early in the competition's history. It also hosted many debates, paper discussions, group discussions and the Eliz Garden Party, considered one of the social highlights of Trinity term in the college. Each year the society welcomed esteemed guests to speak on topics regarding the history, the societal limitations of women, and feminism. These included such guests as Ninette de Valois, dancer and founder of The Royal Ballet, who visited in late 1964 to celebrate the society's 60th year.The society had its rooms in House 6 in Parliament Square, housing many amenities for female students within the college, including one of only a handful of female toilets on the campus.
Over the years there were numerous debates within both the University Philosophical Society and the Dublin University Elizabethan Society regarding a merger of both societies into one. There was strong individual opposition within both societies however, with a vote in 1968 by the Eliz rejecting a merger. However, in 1981 the Dublin University Elizabethan Society merged with the University Philosophical Society, which vastly increased female membership and increased debating within the society.
Previously, the highest ranking female officer of the Phil was accorded the honorary title of President of the Elizabethan Society as a symbolic gesture but beginning in 2024, elections were held to elect the Chair of the 119th session.
Inclusion of women
In Trinity News’ edition of 25 November 1953, an anonymous female contributor declared that "The bar to the admission of women to major societies...is a real deprivation to everyone––to College women, to the members of the societies, themselves and, most important, to the University". The 1953/54 session of the Phil made long-overdue advances in gender equality. Women were at last allowed to attend public business meetings and to speak at them, provided that Standing Orders were suspended. At the end of that session, membership was opened up to women. This final breakthrough proved short-lived as the College Board voted down female membership in early 1955 for that year – although it had no direct constitutional jurisdiction in this matter – pending possible reorganisation of the Major Societies. Although it was perhaps an understandable decision from the Board's point of view, the Board never subsequently enacted such restructuring. At periodic intervals, mergers were suggested between the Phil and the Hist; the Phil and the Eliz; and the Phil, the Student Representative Council, and the Eliz. Nothing ever came of these proposed mergers and the Phil and Hist remain separate entities. Due to a number of factors, including divisions between the various factions, the college never addressed this issue, nor did they address the creation of student union-type facilities, as are commonplace in the debating unions of other institutes of higher education.It was not until the 1963/64 session that a further vote was taken by the Phil on the admission of women, although it was lost by only three votes. However, some advances were made: from that session onwards, it was agreed that women could reply to papers read to the Society. In 1965, Joanna Walmsley became the first woman to present a paper to the society, entitled "Tolstoy––Realist or Moralist?". One of concerns raised over the years had been that the Society's facilities were generally inadequate for a larger mixed membership. In session 1967/1968. opposition caused then-President of the Phil Gordon Ledbetter to resign over the issue. At the first Council meeting and a subsequent private business meeting in the following session, this concern again featured prominently. Many in the Phil also felt that the way forward could be achieved by revisiting the idea of a merger with the Eliz to form a Major Society. However, regardless of the issue of finding satisfactory accommodation for such a body, the Eliz still were not sufficiently interested in such a proposal.
In subsequent years the existing compromise with regard to female participation was found to be unsatisfactory within the active membership. A motion calling for women to be admitted as full members was proposed and debated at a private business meeting on 30 November 1967 and was passed. President of the Phil Geoff Goolnik remarked that restrictions on female membership had in actuality been a matter of convention, as gender had never been mentioned in the Laws of the Society, unlike those of the Eliz and the Hist.
At the following private business meeting held on the 5th of December, three women were proposed and voted in as members, including President of the Eliz Elizabeth Hall. Hall was nominated by Goolnik and the motion was seconded by Auditor of the Hist ‘Gully’ Stanford in his capacity as an Ordinary Member of the Phil. Gráinne Monks was the first female member to address the society after the full inclusion of women, and she was elected the first female Member of Council in February 1968.