NUI Galway to Host Major US Presidential Election Debate

NUIG LawSociety · 17-10-2008 11:19am #1

NUI Galway to Host Major US Presidential Election Debate
Republican Grant Lally to go head-to-head with Democrat Bruce Morrison

Washington comes to NUI Galway on Thursday, 30 October, when the University hosts a US Presidential Election Debate featuring senior representatives of the Democrat and Republican parties. Just four days before the closely contested election, Grant Lally, national co-chairman of the Irish American Republicans, will go head-to-head in a debate with Bruce Morrison, former US Connecticut Congressman and author of the Morrison Visa Program.

The event, which is open to the public, will be hosted jointly by NUI Galway’s Law Society and Literary and Debating Society and takes place in the University’s Áras na Mac Léinn at 8pm.

Grant Lally is former president of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform and McCain Delegate to the 2008 Republican National Convention. Recently he wrote that "McCain is a responsible, experienced and respected leader who will strengthen America’s relations with the world, raise the level of engagement with Ireland to cement the Irish peace process, and work more closely with America’s friends and allies in Europe to build a more stable, prosperous and peaceful world”.

Bruce Morrison, described by the New York Times as a man of “intellect, compassion and vigour”, has pledged his allegiance to Obama’s ambitions of ending the war in Iraq, increasing energy independence and providing universal health care

The moderator for the debate will be NUI Galway Law Lecturer, Larry Donnelly, a native of Boston, Massachusetts, USA. According to Larry Donnelly: “Over the past few months we have seen the campaigns of the two main candidates evolve through the lens of unprecedented media interest in a US Presidential election. The 2008 election is set to be of major significance for Irish-American relations, with McCain, having an established history of personal involvement in the Irish peace process, and Obama, having recently appointed a “dream team” of high-profile Irish-American political advisors”.

One of the students organising the event is Peter Mannion , who is studying Law at NUI Galway and spent his summer working as an interne in the Washington office of the Obama campaign. He is anticipating an exiting evening: “If the recently televised debates between the candidates themselves are anything to go by, there is no doubt that Lally and Morrison will succeed in replicating if not surpassing their controversial intensity”.

Tickets are on sale now from Zhivago’s on Shop Street, Galway, and from the NUI Galway Socs Box. Student tickets are €2 (valid student ID required) and non-student tickets are €10. For further information on the event please contact Louise Hamilton, Public Relations Officer of the Law Society, on 0860734033 or email nuiglawsociety@gmail.com