Invitational was replaced with Trinity Women's Debating Competition. Phil Speaks The 'Phil Speaks Debating and Public Speaking Initiative', commonly known as 'Phil Speaks', is a campaign aimed at promoting, as well as developing skills in public speaking and oratory. Formed by the society in 2004 the initiative combines in-school oratory workshops, with Pro–Am (Professional-Amateur) learning competitions to encourage these skills in students of all secondary schools throughout Ireland. At the end of the contest, the society hosts the Phil Speaks Competitive Weekend modelled on the format of a University Intervarsity Competition held within the Graduates Memorial Building, with the grand final taking place in the Debating Chamber. Awards Annually, the society internally awards the author of the best paper and the best chamber speaker from its membership, medals of oratory and composition. The society also awards the Gold Medal of Honorary Patronage and the Bram Stoker Medal to various guests each year. Among the awards received by the society are awards from the internal Central Societies Committee of Trinity College, including the "best event" award for 'This House Believes that Society is Failing People with Disabilities' in 2019 and "best large society" in 2015. The society has also received recognition from the Board of Irish College Societies (BICS). This national organisation, constituted in 1995, is dedicated to providing a national forum for the societies in Ireland's Universities, Colleges and Institutes of Education. The University Philosophical Society received a "Best individual (Large Society)" award from the BICS in 2013, presented to 328th Session President Lorcan Clarke. Honorary patrons Through its years in college, the Society has recorded the presence of many notable guests, the most distinguished of whom are named honorary patrons of the society. Included amongst these are multiple Nobel Prize laureates, both before and after their receipt of the Prize, such as W. B. Yeats, Heads of State and of Government, notable actors and musicians, as well as well-known intellectuals. Guests have also included all Taoisigh since Charles Haughey. Controversies A number of guests, invited by the Phil over the years, have courted controversy. Contributors to its debates included Oswald Mosley during his residence in Ireland. In 1988, the Society invited then–Holocaust denier David Irving to speak. A large protest by students, staff, Jewish groups, socialists, and anti-Nazi activists resulted in the meeting being relocated to a hotel conference room and held in the small hours of the morning.