Our President Eilish Ui Bhriain and the membership of Fermoy Toastmasters extend warm greetings and very best wishes to all for a Happy, Healthy and Peaceful New Year.  The Club enjoyed a memorably pleasant evening at the Annual Tall Tales Contest and Christmas Party on December 20th last with our President emerging as a well-deserved winner. At all times of the year everyone is a winner in Toastmasters. We look forward to extending a very warm and universal welcome to our first meeting of 2017 which will be held on Tuesday next, January 17^th, at 8.15 pm in the Fermoy Youth Centre. We embark on this coming season that will bring us from the depths of winter to the bright fresh green days of Maytime. Now when the glow of Christmas lights have faded away, these early months of the year can seem grey and bleak. But there are so many wonderful and hugely enjoyable activities out there open to all of us to join and take part in.  And from personal experience I can assure you there is none better, more rewarding, enjoyable and fulfilling than taking part in Toastmasters.

A New Year opens the door to New Beginnings.  That is why this is the time for making and carrying through New Year’s resolutions. To begin any new challenge or adventure always requires the saying of a quiet but emphatic Yes to yourself. In Toastmasters we extend an open invitation to everyone to say a great resounding YES to such new beginnings, to setting out to hugely stimulating and entertaining meetings, to spending time with some of the very nicest people and best friends you could ever meet anywhere, to exploring your talents and discovering the joy and fulfilment that comes with using the mind in new, exciting and creative ways. To experience the rewards and the pleasures of a greater proficiency in the arts of expression, to finding the satisfaction that comes from a deeper and more engaging form of listening, the sparkle of good company, the cheer of humour, the stimulus of learning by taking part is a passport to enjoyment, pleasure and happiness. This is such great fun and one of the very best and most life-enhancing things that anyone could ever hope to be a part of for by being impressed and uplifted by what other people can do there is no greater surprise than the discovery of what we can all do and achieve for ourselves.

And none of us can tell what we can do until we give it a go. Everything truly good and worthwhile in life requires a little effort, a setting aside of time, a generous giving of your energies and thought to gather a harvest of joy. You could not ask for a more brilliant exercise of the mind. In Toastmasters our meeting room is our stage and our words are our own. No one hands us a script, the richness and diversity of every meeting is drawn from the ideas, the fresh thinking, the speeches and presentations whether prepared or delivered off the cuff in the topics session as we come together for two hours every two weeks to give and to share of ourselves in a great outpouring of mutual generosity of spirit. Just as in the garden, you get back what you put in.  Sharing in this creative energy is wonderfully uplifting and refreshing.  Success builds on success and there is no limit to the vistas of possibility and potential that await us. The more you give the more you receive for the wellsprings of inspiration when stirred always bring up new ideas and creative vigour within the genial framework of a wonderful circle of friends. In our journey of personal growth no one is alone but we are together building ourselves up in shared encouragement, support and goodwill that makes us all so much stronger, better, happier people able to offer so much more to the wider world of family, work and community.

Whenever we reach beyond the boundaries of what is readily familiar there is such an exciting sense of achievement and the thrill of having done it and succeeded in the pursuit of our personal goals. The beautiful well-balanced concept that shapes every Toastmasters meeting not only in Fermoy but right around the world is one which gives everyone a voice, offers an opportunity to every member and participant to come on board and make their contribution. It is the careful control of time that reveals the essence of the noble craft. There is no place here for long-winded verbosity. On the contrary we emphasise brevity and there is such wisdom in that. The lighter and more economical the style, the more the full and unfettered truth is revealed. Most meetings will have three of four set speeches each not more than five to seven minutes’ duration. It is amazing how much can be said then with clarity, simplicity and directness when all that is superfluous is cut away leaving the shining diamonds of insight and understanding and inspiration to emerge to please, uplift and delight the listeners.

Every speaker has the benefit of an evaluator who praises their achievements and points the way to some suggested place of even further improvement for there is no ceiling to the standards of excellence that everyone can attain as each may choose to define it.  For those outside the set programme there is the bracing opportunity provided by the impromptu topics session which involves quick thinking and brief contributions on a theme about which no prior notification is given (guests are never asked to speak on these of course, although are happily free to do so at the appropriate time if they wish).  As ideas and energy are mobilised it is a pure unalloyed joy to see and hear so many getting involved and having their say, reaching into themselves to share so readily their own unique vision of reality. Participation is the key to achievement. To stand up, to take part, to say your piece, to be listened to and have the pleasure of listening to others, sharing time, creativity, talents and ideas so that everyone goes away feeling happier, illuminated and fulfilled makes life so much more pleasant, zestful and rewarding. That is the ideal which makes this organisation the exciting and wonderful place that it is.

We hope you will come along to our first meeting of the New Year on Tuesday next, January 17^th, at 8.15 pm in the Fermoy Youth Centre.  For further information, please contact Eilish Ui Bhriain at 087 1235203 or Kevin Walsh at 058 60100 or log on to our mobile-friendly websitetoastmastersfermoy.com or find us on Twitter @ FermoyT.

Report by:  KEVIN WALSH

The penultimate meeting of Fermoy Toastmasters for this year began with an air of festive anticipation when our President, Eilish Ui Bhriain, welcomed the large attendance with all of her ever winning cordiality and charm, before going on to read a beautiful Christmas poem emphasising the importance in this season of catching up with people whom you may not have seen for a while and getting back in touch and looking forward with a spirit of optimism, hope and generosity of spirit.

Johanna Hegarty then assumed the brisk and well-judged chairmanship of the meeting, handing over control to Topicsmaster David Walsh but not before leading us all in the singing of Happy Birthday To You and For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow while Eilish made a special delicious cake all to mark David’s special day for which he was most delighted and grateful. Then it was time for everyone to start thinking smartly and quickly on their feet with a selection of engaging and varied topics with everything from how we might wangle an invitation to the Presidential Inauguration of Donald Trump, to now that winter has come can spring be far behind and then the quest for the favourite Christmas carol which evoked so many lovely and heart-warming responses, especially from Mary Whelan who spoke of the pleasure and joy she receives from so many of the traditional carols as well as the modern festive songs, not least the ever catchy and light-hearted Frosty The Snowman for which she was awarded the Ribbon for the Best Topic of the night.

It is always a particular pleasure when Toastmasters from other clubs come to visit us and take part in our meetings. We were delighted to welcome Rona Coughlan to the lectern with a lovely presentation on storytelling derived from personal experience in which she celebrated the joy of life on the family farm, told with that grace and eloquence by which the spoken word attains something of the musical. Indeed Rona brought the audience directly into her presentation by asking us to join with excerpts of hit songs from Abba among others to illustrate her sister’s epic attempts to stanch an oil leak in a venerable tractor which was successfully accomplished though not entirely without mishap but nothing too serious. We were brought into the richness and depth of the long-held human attachment to the land and its values with a refreshing originality and directness. Rona’s speech received a highly constructive evaluation from Michael Cronin of Mallow Club who also made such a very welcome and valuable contribution to our meeting.

Our EVP or Meeting Planner – who is doing such an outstanding job with most admirable dedication and commitment – Kevin O’Neil took us then into the very different world of the snooker hall. With excellent research, Kevin traced the origins of the sport in the heyday of the British Raj in India, when it was invented as an entertainment for his fellow officers by a Major Francis Chamberlain. The word ‘snooker’ incidentally was used if someone had played a poor shot and was derived from army slang for a young cadet.  The game reached into civilian life and attained championship status with Joe Davis becoming the first holder of the World Title in 1927, receiving just six pounds and ten shillings for his efforts.  However 1969 with the advent of BBC colour television, that this beautiful game in all its complexity and coloured balls was beamed into the homes of millions of new fans and millions in prize money to great champions like the flamboyant late Alex Higgins, Steven Hendry and Denis Taylor whose victory over Steve Davis in 1985 with its heart-stopping suspense was truly unforgettable.

Kevin spoke of how it used to be said that proficiency in snooker was sign of a misspent youth: but how he asked could the enjoyment of something you love ever be wasted? This was taken up later by his evaluator Tim Fitzgerald evoking the great Jimmy White who floundered at school and was told by teachers he would never amount to anything much, but who went on to pursue a brilliant career: indeed the greatest player never to make World Champion, but did become a multi-millionaire. By following what he loved most, Jimmy White the certain loser became a great winner.

John Sherlock brought to us a very humorous and highly entertaining poem depicting the great harvest thrashings of many years ago in the story of the Irish emigrant John Dowling who after a long working life in New York returns to his rural Irish roots and tells of other times when great numbers of country folk assembled around cavernous barns and hissing steam engines to toil hugely and heroically to extract the bounty of the harvest sustained with the consumption of lashings of food and drink. Those great rural gatherings were filled with lively colour and hilarious incident, underlined later by Evaluator Eddie O’Sullivan drawing on his own personal memories of that era that for all difficulties was yet illuminated by a certain pungent comedy.

Mairead Barry also embarked on a poetical theme telling of the life of Patrick Kavanagh, a man of a rough-hewn nature perhaps but who had such a depth of spirituality. With the kind help of Jerry Hennessy and his CD player we listened to a reading by Professor Emeritus Brendan Kennelly of Kavanagh’s beautiful poem about his childhood Christmas filled with imagery that combined the everyday and the ordinary with the mysterious and the awe-inspiring: his father’s melodeon playing wafting on the winter air; his mother milking the cows by lamplight that shone like the Star of Bethlehem in a boy’s imagination; a row of tall bushes on the ditch loomed like Three Kings from the East.  Mairead loves this club so much and the enjoyment she derives from her membership she so generously shares with us all making a very special and distinctive contribution to our meetings. She was highly praised by her evaluator Michael Sheehan who invited her to venture beyond the literary sphere and bring us speeches distilled even more directly from her great wisdom and knowledge of life. And that is the essence of Toastmasters: venturing beyond the familiar to make new discoveries and to share in the mutual attainment of personal growth in pleasure and friendship.

Frank O’Driscoll gave a very fine Evaluation, thanking all for their participation and especially Clare Guy who as Timekeeper did so much to ensure good and effective time management. Now we turn our thoughts to our final meeting of the year which will be held on Tuesday next, December 20th at 8.15 pm in the Fermoy Youth Centre with our annual Tall Tales Contest followed by buffet at the Grand Hotel. It is a great and wonderful evening.  For further information, please contact Eilish Ui Bhriain at 087 1235203 or Kevin Walsh at 058 60100 or log on to our mobile-friendly website toastmastersfermoy.com or find us on Twitter @ FermoyT.

On the calm clear evening of Tuesday, November 22^nd, with a hint of frost in the air and the background music of the Blackwater cascading over the weir, the members and friends of the Fermoy Toastmasters Club gathered out of the winter dark for their latest fortnightly meeting commencing as always at 8.15 pm and of two hours’ duration.  Then the gavel sounds and our President Eilish Ui Bhriain calls the meeting to order with words of cordial welcome and a beaming smile.

A very welcome visitor to our meeting was Liam O’Flynn of Millstreet and Mallow Club who as Area Director had come all that way to see us and evaluate our performance. ‘I love this club and I love this room’, he said with joyful sincerity and charm. Stating that the purpose of our club as shared with the entire Toastmasters movement worldwide is to achieve self-improvement and the promotion of the enjoyment of all leading to more rewarding and fulfilling lives, he then went on to outline some changes in the form of a more integrated approach in our communication and leadership manuals that will be phased in over the next couple of years. Nothing can ever remain static and unchanging and neither can Toastmasters. To meet the needs of our members both present and future requires change and renewal to encourage personal growth and to keep the organisation at all levels vibrant, dynamic and healthy.

Michael Sheehan chaired our meeting with so much warmth, wisdom and ready affability, carefully explaining for the benefit of our guests the role and functions of all participants as the meeting flowed seamlessly from one phase to the next. Every good meeting is driven by a sparkling topics session that gets everyone thinking briskly, sharply, eagerly and above all pleasurably as each topic is given to the first respondent and then quickly taken up by others in lively add-ons, all of which we enjoyed through the style and enthusiasm of Johanna Hegarty. This shows the concept of Toastmasters to best effect like nothing else can: everyone getting involved, using their minds, sharing their thoughts and experiences, with energy, gusto and humour. It makes everyone feel so enlivened and uplifted as creative energy bubbles and fizzes like the best champagne.

The issues of a winter of industrial relations discontent were addressed and the world’s prospects with Donald Trump coming to the White House, with the shared sense that life will go under him as with all his predecessors: and just as with all his predecessors, he too will come and go. There was fond remembrance of the goodness and achievements of past members of our Club now gone to their eternal rest, of whether cats or dogs make the better pets and the financial pressures on parents as Christmas approaches. In that regard one contributor recalled lighting up with great eagerness on a childhood Christmas morning at the sight of ten nicely-wrapped gifts: the first contained a simple juvenile watch, the next one the same, then the same again, until all ten were revealed to contain identical timepieces. It certainly put an end to any inflated expectations when it came to festive gifts so that today the only present now asked for asked for is a simple greeting card and a message of kind good wishes.

We had the listening pleasure of three lovely and most varied speeches that showcased the

creativity and multi-faceted interests of the speakers. Jerry Hennessy brought into our room the dawn chorus with an audio excerpt of Irish birdlife issuing a torrent of glorious sound saluting the new day. With immense research, Jerry told us of how the birds sing chiefly in the spring and early summer months, calling for mates and staking out territory for it is only the males who sing. On the reverse of the programme sheet he provided us with a selection of beautiful colour pictures of some of our best loved feathered friends, swifts and blackbirds, robins and song thrushes, pigeons and wrens,  the latter emitting notes on a range far above its meagre size and weight.  The world of the hedgerow so rich in birdlife and song was brought so close to us in Jerry’s meticulously well-researched and beautiful celebration of the joys of nature. Jerry entitled his speech ‘A Nice Way To Start The Day’: his evaluator, Saoirse Neilan, termed it so aptly as A Nice Way To End The Night.

Patricia Neilan took us on a journey to the exotic origins of the pastry wrap that is now a staple item on restaurant lunch tables here in Ireland and throughout much of the world, tracing it back to her own sun-blessed native land of Mexico and the tortilla, derived from the Spanish word ‘torta’ meaning cake. Countless generations have made tortillas from corn and flour and cooked them with fire using a formula going way back to the ancient civilisations of the Mayas and the Aztecs. The Spanish conquerors were first unsure of a food that to them seemed alien to their European traditions but they came to adapt the tortilla and export it globally so that something deeply rooted in ancient times is now consumed by millions of people everywhere in our high-tech pressurised era through variants such as the taco, the fajita or enchilada, with illustrations of same passed around to everyone.  Patricia recalled her own childhood experience of cooking the tortilla and shared her excellent culinary skills not alone in pictures but in tasty samples of one of Mexico’s greatest contributions to human happiness with one for everyone in the audience that was ever so deeply appreciated and later received a very fine and positive evaluation by Clare Guy.

Finally, Kevin Walsh spoke of the joys of sitting down, the comfort and restfulness embodied in every chair, telling of the mobility issues and the impossibility of prolonged standing arising from his physical disability and the challenges he has faced with the lamentable disappearance of seating from so many retail outlets and public places.  Today the provision of supports has brought about some improvement for him but the cry of the weary and less mobile citizen and shopper is left unheard in so many places bereft of seating. In our frenetic time he advocated the rediscovery of the ideal so beautifully described in Patrick Kavanagh’s poem asking for commemoration in a restful seat for the passer by on the banks of the Grand Canal.  In Fermoy Toastmasters there is always a welcome seat for everyone.  Evaluator John Sherlock enjoyed the speech and expressed the hope that soon we might hear more from Kevin within the parameters of the set programme.

In Toastmasters nothing stands alone. As our General Evaluator John Quirke succinctly put it that the art of evaluation consists not of constructive criticism, but qualified praise, always pointing the way to ever greater improvement and personal growth through the joy of friends and with so much pleasure and fun. All of this and so much more awaits you at our next meeting which will be held on this coming Tuesday, December 6^th, in the Fermoy Youth Centre at 8.15 pm.  For further information, please contact Eilish Ui Bhriain at 087 1235203 or Kevin Walsh at 058 60100 or log on to our mobile-friendly website toastmastersfermoy.com or find us on Twitter @ FermoyT.

At the meeting of Tuesday, November 8^th, our charming and most genial Club President

Eilish Ui Bhriain promised all of the many members and most welcome guests present an exuberant and entertaining occasion.  This promise was most amply and richly fulfilled in an evening of eloquence and delightful expression, the pleasure of uplifting listening and the cordial atmosphere of all of us gathered together in good cheer and bonhomie. We gather in warmth of heart and mutual generosity of spirit to build each other up and to enhance our talents by using them to the full and finding within ourselves the joy of creative energy and a powerful source of inner brightness and happiness.

Proceedings were guided smoothly with effective and free-flowing continuity by our toastmaster or chairman Denis O’Brien, one of our new members who fulfilled his task with relaxed confidence and accomplished skill. Every member gets a chance in their turn to chair the meeting, an invaluable opportunity to gain proficiency in leadership by upholding those finely balanced procedures that ensures every voice is heard and that all have their input into the making of a beautiful celebration of the arts of communication.

Fanahan Colbert came to the lectern to assume the role of Topicsmaster with grace and conviviality, explaining for the benefit of our guests that each initial response is up to two minutes’ duration with one minute subsequent add-ons which make for a truly lively and effervescent meeting.  Among so much else we were treated to a diverse range of themes from Ireland’s smashing rugby victory over the New Zealand All-Blacks, the role of the FBI in the recent American Presidential election,  remembering the rich social life of so many Fermoy’s traditional pubs that have closed since the 1970s, to the influence that TV celebrity chefs have over their audience which drew from David Walsh the observation that he pays no heed to them at all and instead hugely prefers the preparation of good plain and delicious food which form one of life’s greatest pleasures, a response that drew a warm and full-hearted response from his listeners for which he was accorded the Best Topics ribbon of the night.

A good topics session sets a warmly receptive atmosphere for the set speeches to follow. These presentations are not given from a written text, but instead are written in the mind and delivered with minimal notes or ideally none at all, usually within a seven minute timeframe as delineated by a system of green, amber and red lights operated by the Timekeeper.  Indeed the very finest speeches come straight from the heart.

Clare Guy began telling of her early childhood curiosity in the natural world, which received further stimulus when she came to watch the brilliant BBC documentaries of David Attenborough which led her on the path to a scientific career and to a passionately-advocated love of nature, emphasising the need for bio-diversity and sustainable development along with the dependence of Ireland’s prosperity on the food production sector and the scenic beauties of our island that draw so many tourists to our shores. The natural environment is our living heritage, placing on all of us the solemn but exciting responsibility to cherish and safeguard it for ourselves and those who come after us which formed the core of Clare’s inspiring message.

Mind Your Language was the title of Tim Fitzgerald’s very compelling talk on our use of words, expressing concern on how jargon and text-speak have come to saturate our culture, taking away something precious for words bear the imprint of who and what we are. Delivered with great enthusiasm and conviction, this was a highly accomplished speech that made us all aware of the precious things that words are as the vehicles of our thoughts, our noblest feelings and ideals and of everything that is best and good about being human.

Padraig Murphy addressed just a few aspects of the immense diversity of human personality types, focussing on the contrast between the well-organised, neat and precise person and the relaxed, spontaneous, hang-loose individual who just goes with the moment. Producing two pieces of paper illustrating these striking contrasts and placing one on either side of the room, Padraig nimbly and adroitly veered from one to the other while he spoke illustrating how both types live within all of us not in mutually exclusive contradiction but subtly and creatively coming together in the formation of the well-balanced and mature personality. With Padraig as with all our speakers, the more often we speak, the better we all become on the path to ever greater achievement and reward.

Finally, we had Michael Sheehan who returned to the natural world and particularly the life of bees, bringing us in imagination inside the buzzing world of the hive, throwing a revealing light on the crucial role that ese fascinating insects play in plant pollination, on the many and varied uses of honey as a sweetener, beauty treatment, ancient healing balm of wounds and key ingredient of the alcoholic beverage mead. If kept in an airtight container, honey will last indefinitely further enhancing the sense of mystery that surrounds this liquid sunshine.  Michael’s presentation was a triumph of research and given in a style that was such a truly mellifluous listening pleasure.

The evaluators Trisha Neilan, Jerry Hennessy, Johanna Hegarty and Frank O’Driscoll all gave positive, thoughtful and illuminating assessments of the speakers’ performances, with a very fine overall impression of the meeting from General Evaluator John Sherlock. And so we concluded an especially memorable and delightful occasion and now look joyfully forward to our next meeting on this coming Tuesdayevening, November 22^nd, at 8.15 pm in the Fermoy Youth Centre.   For further information, please contact Eilish Ui Bhriain at 087 1235203 or Kevin Walsh at 058 60100 or log on to our mobile-friendly website toastmastersfermoy.com or find us on Twitter @ FermoyT.

On the night the Fermoy Youth Centre needed our regular lectern as a theatrical prop and kindly substituted with their own bearing the legend The Palace Theatre evoking that time when this centre flourished both as a cinema and music hall where so many productions of the Fermoy Choral Society were staged, as they still are. A place of entertainment over very many years before becoming the permanent recreational centre for local youth, its walls have seen so many wonderful and happy occasions. And now as our new venue for our Toastmasters meetings, it continues to be a place of that very special eloquence, friendship, personal growth and immense enjoyment that comes with membership of our cherished club.

On Tuesday evening, October 25^th, the members and friends of Fermoy Toastmasters gathered at the riverside Youth Centre for a memorably convivial and successful meeting.

Ours is a most welcoming group and this was once again most generously and cordially extended to all by our charming Club President Eilish Ui Bhriain together with warm congratulations to all four of our contestants Frank O’ Driscoll and Mary Whelan, John Kelly and Fanahan Colbert, in the recent Area Humorous Speech and Topics Contests respectively, where all had turned in outstanding performances and in particular Frank O’Driscoll who handsomely won the Mitchelstown Area competition and went on the following Sunday, the 23^rd, to participate in the Divisional Contest in Limerick with honour and distinction. A most heartfelt round of applause signalled the admiration and respect of the club for one of our very finest members and best friends. Most aptly, Frank was our Toastmaster or chairman of the evening, who graciously acknowledged these warm sentiments and emphasised that we come together to maximise our potential through enjoyment and pleasure, sharing happy time with special people on our journey of discovery where the road ever rises to meet us.

Now there is no better way of making every meeting truly sparkle than a good and enjoyable Topics session. Fermoy Toastmasters has no better and more devoted friend than Michael Sheehan who took on that task then. He adroitly introduced each theme and then gave it to the initial respondent to be followed by that eager spontaneity and refreshing quickness of mind and speech that is ever so uplifting and stimulating.  Whether it was how past adversity makes for tomorrow’s good old days, evoking the age of railways or recalling the late Munster Rugby Coach Anthony Foley or the traditions of Halloween, to name just a very few, a good topics forum like this brings out the best in us all. Our Acting Area Governor, Johanna Hegarty, truly spoke on behalf of us all when she said how there was a time when she found topics a little challenging but now she loves what is everyone’s favourite section of the meeting as any initial hesitation soon gives way to free-flowing and engaging contributions from all. This is a measure of personal growth for the more you take part, the more you receive with improved communications skills, enhanced proficiency of thought and expression and the greater the enjoyment that sends you home feeling so glad you came. Like everything that is beautiful, it makes you feel good to be alive and part of this wonderful world.

But if all is immediate and spontaneous with topics, an essential balance is struck with the serene and measured quality of the prepared speeches. With set objectives laid down, the speaker attempts to fulfill the requirements of the stage with a presentation that is thoughtful, well-crafted, illuminating and informative as well as being witty, sincere and full of warm conviction, with all of these strands brought together to make a truly lovely and elegant speech.

John Sherlock carried us far above the genial confines of our meeting room in a journey of imagination to the rippling waters, the wayward wild winds and the billowing clouds with a very fine and well-researched presentation about our ever changing weather patterns and the vast traditional lore and sayings by which past generations have tried to read the signs to know what the days and indeed the seasons will bring.  If a red sky at night is the shepherd’s delight it is because the air mass coming from the west is clear promising a fine day to come; red sky in the morning is shepherd’s warning because approaching clouds in the western sky are fringed and flecked by the rays of the rising sun heralding rain. A ring around the moon reflects a build-up of ice crystals in the atmosphere likewise associated with precipitation. But when sheep climb the higher slopes and fan out across the mountainside as John often sees from his home looking out to the majestic Galtees the weather will be calm, dry and pleasant and as delightful as was John’s fascinating and magisterial speech.

Kevin O’Neil is a recently joined member who assumed the great responsibility of becoming our meeting organiser and arranger, the most demanding and complex role in any club, but one in which he is proving himself with marked accomplishment and grace. The scope and reach of his ample talents were fully displayed in a concise and very effective talk on the elements of a successful job interview.  Such as the need to dress well and smartly for you don’t get a second chance to make a good first impression.  Also it is essential to be affable and at ease, projecting yourself well.  To thoroughly study the company for whom you are hoping to work and to ask intelligent questions shows real commitment. Set up a memorable hook for yourself by telling the panel something engaging and positive drawn from your life and interests thus far that will fix yourself in their minds.  Never be negative about yourself or allow attention to fall on what you may not have done, but instead draw attention to what you have done and the range of your capabilities. Once again courtesy is all important and always remember to thank the interviewers for their time, interest and attention, not forgetting to ask when you may reasonably hear from them that shows enthusiasm and a positive outlook. Kevin rounded off with a quote from Alexander Graham Bell that if one door closes, another surely opens but that sometimes we fail to see this for we remain fixated on the closed door. There is no better place than Toastmasters to learn the art of walking through the open door leading to opportunity and a better life.

Far more time is given attentive listening than to speaking as the evaluators Mary Whelan and Denis O’Brien did that evening praising the speakers wholeheartedly and offering positive suggestions to even further improvement while the General Evaluator Fanahan Colbert gave a very fine overall impression of the meeting.  All of this and so much more can be readily enjoyed at our next meeting at the Fermoy Youth Centre on this coming Tuesday, November 8^th, at 8.15 pm to which we all eagerly look forward.  For further information, please contact Eilish Ui Bhriain at 087 1235203 or Kevin Walsh at 058 60100 or log on to our mobile-friendly website toastmastersfermoy.com or find us on Twitter @ FermoyT.

On the evening of Tuesday, October 11^th, members and friends of the Fermoy Toastmasters Club gathered for our annual Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contest.  President Eilish Ui Bhriain bid all warmly welcome to this most convivial occasion and expressed her heartfelt wish that everyone would return home later having experienced the joy and uplift that only laughter can bring.

As Toastmaster of the evening, David Walsh steered proceedings briskly and smoothly with warmth, geniality and precision so that the meeting ran exactly to time which is the very essence of the art of good chairmanship and which sustains a bubbly effervescent atmosphere throughout. Then too every meeting and contest needs the sparkle of spontaneity and immediacy that is derived from a good and lively topics session as we received so adroitly from Jerry Hennessy who in this task as in all things he does in Toastmasters, displays that enthusiasm and sheer joy in the craft shared with the pleasure of friends which is ever so refreshing and invigorating.

We had four wonderful seven minute Humorous Speeches – this time-limit is essential for to exceed it is to incur a discreet disqualification, obliging speakers to marshal and clarify their thoughts, to cut away all that is superfluous, to know what they are going to tell us, stand up and make their speeches and then resume their seats, a very effective, salutary and bracing mental discipline.

Mary Whelan brought us back to the heady days of last June and the European Football Championships in Paris and France, unfurling a tricolour streamer at the lectern and vividly evoking the sounds, the milling crowds, the characters, the excitement and the tumultuous intensity of the gathering of so many of the nations of the world in The City Of Light to celebrate the joys and the wonder of sport in friendly rivalry, bringing us there on a journey of the imagination and sharing with us the powerful message that life is to be enjoyed for You Only Live Once.

Then we had Frank O’Driscoll, who announced that after all of the gaffes and blunders of Donald Trump, the Republican Party had contacted him to offer him their nomination for the Presidency of the United States, in a speech delivered with wit, style and panache, telling of how he would bring the Mexicans to the west of Ireland to learn the art of building a dry stone wall around themselves and with an exuberant parody of the I Have A Dream oration of Martin Luther King, serving to brilliantly illustrate that as between the sublime and the ridiculous there is only a very short step.  Indeed having listened and enjoyed this brilliant performance, all one say is that Frank would surely make an outstanding President with all of his wisdom, good sense, insight, compassion and very great humour, bringing healing and renewal to a fractured America as well as a troubled world.

One of the great joys of Toastmasters is that it allows you to reinvent yourself. As Kevin Walsh in his whimsical presentation exuberantly did mapping out other lives in which he rambled from one hilarious situation to the next. Then Eilish Ui Bhriain portrayed the lives of two quiet brothers from West Cork, one who was fastidious and neat, the other untidy and bedraggled, yet it would take a plucky fellow indeed to come between them. She spoke of one evening when her father called to their door only to hear the brothers saying the Rosary inside, losing count of the Hail Marys not to mention all the trimmings, so that eventually he had to go away while at last the lights went out and these two special people had retired for another night in the course of their quiet and gentle lives which were recalled so delightfully in this warm and affectionate presentation.

After our relaxing and genial tea break, we had our second competition of the evening, that of Table Topics, where all of the contestants bar the first chosen leave the room, and then are recalled one by one to speak for not more than two and a half minutes on a subject about which they have received no advance notice and without knowing what the previous contestants have said. One by one Seoirse Neilan, Fanahan Colbert, Michael Sheehan and John Kelly came to the lectern to talk on the subject of how fools are sometimes right.  The engaging variety of responses was a very special listening pleasure for the audience, while that of John Kelly was particularly thoughtful  on how fools are very often not stupid at all, they just look at life in very different ways.  They have their own depth and wisdom but being generally misunderstood this richness passes most people by. It takes a very fine mind, an open heart and a warm generous nature as John so abundantly has to grasp this profound truth.

The judges’ ballots were then handed up and the counters retired to tot up the scores. Then after a further entertaining topics session the announcement of the first and second placed speakers who go forward to the next round in Mitchelstown: in the Topics, John Kelly and Fanahan Colbert, while Frank O’Driscoll and Mary Whelan came through in the Humorous Speeches, with the warmest congratulations and best wishes of us all. It was a great night and a show-case of the talent and enthusiasm that is in our club. Every night is a Fun Night at Fermoy Toastmasters.

Join us for our next meeting on Tuesday evening next, October 25^th, at 8.15 pm at the Fermoy Youth Centre. For further information, please contact Eilish Ui Bhriain at 087 1235203 or Kevin Walsh at 058 60100 or log on to our mobile-friendly website toastmastersfermoy.comor find us on Twitter @ FermoyT.

Fermoy Toastmasters held their first meeting of the new autumn season on the evening of Tuesday, September 13^th.  Underpinning that simple and clear statement is a wonderful tradition of achievement and pleasure, of personal development and the lasting joy of great friendship stretching back over many years and which is so richly and delightfully renewed and enhanced every time we gather together in camaraderie and goodwill.  Indeed the term camaraderie was chosen as the watchword of the meeting, written on a card and placed on the top table with the participants invited to use it in the course of their contributions, as many enjoyed doing so for it sums up the whole philosophy and meaning of our existence as a club which is part of a great worldwide organisation: to promote good fellowship and genial sentiment among all who gather around our banner in a cordial spirit of mutual generosity and with a sense of great optimism and looking forward.

We would like to express a special word of gratitude and appreciation to the staff of the Fermoy

Youth Centre who are always ever so kind, hospitable and helpful to us and who do everything to ensure our meetings are so memorably pleasant and enjoyable.

Proceedings were called to order by our President, Eilish Ui Bhriain, who inaugurated her year with the chain of office and tradition that she wears with such grace and distinction, by extending to all in her beloved and cherished Irish language that she speaks so beautifully a very warm and heartfelt cead mile failte, a full and most sincere welcome not just to that first meeting but to the entire season that stretches before us. Welcome is our constant watchword for all who come among us seeking to pursue your personal goals and ever further advancement, above all to enjoy a very rewarding and fulfilling time with some of the very nicest people you can meet anywhere.

The meeting was then chaired by the toastmaster of the meeting, John Sherlock who was our outstanding and most successful President of last year and now carried things forward in his ever relaxed and affable style.  A vital part of the programme of every meeting is the topics session which was in the hands of Kevin O’Neill, our Educational Vice President and meeting organiser. A recently-joined club member, he has assumed this great responsibility with energy and vigour, infusing all of us with his bracing enthusiasm.  Peggy O’Donovan as timekeeper kept a dutiful eye on the stopwatch and marked the boundaries of each contributor’s time with the light tinkling of the bell that reminds all of us we have our right to fully utilise our moment to speak and to share but that others have the same right to have their voices heard so that all may listen and advance together with interest, pleasure and inspiration.

Kevin reminded us of the nature of topics which are all about asking randomly chosen members to speak impromptu on any subject, the first respondent for two minutes with one minute add-ons thereafter. Guests are never asked to speak but are free to do so if the spirit moves them at the appropriate time. After the long summer break this proved such a stimulating and engaging process, making us all think quickly and react promptly, filling the room with an eager and engaging spontaneity that is most uplifting and mind-broadening. It brings to all of us a palpable sense of how much we can do when quite literally put on the spot. As responses and add-ons followed each other at a fast pace, the meeting was filled with a spirit of zestful originality as subjects as mixed and varied as the controversy over the Apple Corporation and their 13 billion euros, the delight of favourite hobbies, remembering the late Gene Wilder and other great comic actors of the silver screen, the virtues of buying a new car or the current strike in Dublin Bus figuring among those selected.

We had two very fine inaugural meetings of the season, beginning with Jerry Hennessy taking us on a fascinating journey through the inner workings of the silage harvester, machines that exemplify the very highest standards of technological achievement, gathering in the richness of the grasses of the earth to sustain the national cattle herd through the dark lean months of winter that lie ahead. This presentation was painstakingly well researched and some very telling facts and figures presented: that national herd represents well over a million cattle generating each year six point one million litres of milk. Now while some motorists have doubtlessly experienced the frustration of being caught behind these huge harvesters on narrow country roads, they would find it hard to believe that each one is eight times more powerful than the average car, can cut 200 tons of silage in a day and consume the equivalent of eight wheelie bins of diesel as they whine and drone across the fields of mid-summer. Illustrated with diagrams attached to our meeting programmes, Jerry spoke with poise and confidence on a subject which he thoroughly understood and infused it with his fascination of powerful machinery in all of its complexity and accomplishment that makes our modern world possible, delivered with all of his ready charm, affability and warmth.

Kevin Walsh spoke of the recent holiday that he and his brother David spent in the beautiful English cathedral city of York, to which they have long-standing family links. He painted vivid word pictures of visiting the majestic York Minster Cathedral, seeing a vast collection of old weapons in the Royal Armouries in Leeds, all now peaceful exhibits resting in glass cases. The highlight of the trip was a wonderful excursion on board a train hauled by The Flying Scotsman from York to Carlisle, the most famous locomotive in the world now magnificently restored to green-liveried elegance and grace and the attainment of exhilarating speed on the main line, while in the carriages so many strangers were brought together in the shared love of the romance of steam and where conversation and friendship soon flourished. All along the way bystanders waved and took pictures, trying ever so fleetingly to be a part of this great experience.  Kevin was impressed by the kindness and help he received as a disabled traveller. He concluded that all of us as passengers in the train of life were now happily together as friends where a true sense of belonging and of home is found.

Our speakers received very fine evaluations from Fanahan Colbert and Trish Neilan, while Seoirise Neilan (husband of Trish) as General Evaluator praised this opening meeting as an occasion of laughter and learning that would send everyone away feeling happy and glad to have been there. We hope that you will come to discover this for yourself at our next gathering on this coming Tuesday, September 27^th, at8.15 pm in the Fermoy Youth Centre. For further information, please contact Eilish Ui Bhriain at 087 1235203 or Kevin Walsh at 058 60100 or log on to our mobile-friendly website toastmastersfermoy.com or find us on Twitter @ FermoyT.

Fermoy Toastmasters cordially and joyfully invites all of our members and friends to come together to enjoy and share in all the pleasure of our very first meeting of our new season beginning on Tuesday next, September 13^th, at the riverside Fermoy Youth Centre at 8.15 pm.

We trust that everyone has enjoyed the summer and had a most pleasant and refreshing time. Now summer shades gently and placidly towards autumn and the evening light fades earlier. The grain fields that have resounded to the hum and whine of combine harvesters gathering in the bounty of the soil surrounded by brilliant clouds of swirling dust are now quiet, some studded yet with huge rolled bales awaiting collection lending a certain monumental air to the scene while others are bare of all except a carpet of stubble and a lingering sense of satisfied tranquillity.  In a vision of loveliness and grace the Rose of Tralee has been selected from Chicago and the swallows are stretching their wings for their long return flight to Africa. Branches droop under the weight of apples glistening in autumn sunshine and the sharp briars offer the gift of sweet blackberries. It is the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness and the moon rises like a great bronzed orange.

It is the time for coming inside and gather together in the harvest of renewal and personal growth. September heralds the new beginning of the journey of Toastmasters, to delight in the company and good cheer of dear friends full of the stories of summertime, to greet new people who have come to share in the richness and pleasure that participation in our club has to offer, to engage with each other and to share our resources of enthusiasm, creative energy and the stimulus of new ideas in the broad warm smile of achievement, success and simply having fun together. We do not subscribe to the current emphasis on corporate culture with its obsession for targets and deadlines that adds further stress to people’s lives, but rather our focus is on people, on each other, on making life better for all of us through enjoyment and good fellowship and finding that in our shared journey we reach so much higher and travel so much further at a rate of progress that is as relaxed as it is rewarding.

There is nothing else in the world quite like it, where success is gained only by everyone being truly and simply themselves and finding such a great richness in that great act of discovery of ourselves and others. It is an invitation to all of us to share our unique insights and experiences with a ready generosity of spirit, to acquire proficiency through friendship and mutual encouragement in those sweet arts of adroit expression and clarity of thought that utilise the creative energies of the individual to the good of us all. It is an open invitation to learn from our fellow club members, to expand our personal horizons, each making their own unique contribution and in turn learning and receiving so much wisdom, insight and bracing enjoyment from each other that makes every meeting such a joyful and wonderful interlude.  The most beautiful sounds that define every Toastmasters meeting are the buzz of chatter before and after the proceedings and during the halfway point tea break, of words spoken with the natural elegance of sincerity and drawn from the stuff of real life and given with openness and eager goodwill, the rounds of appreciative applause that greet every contribution and the peals of warm laughter of friends having fun and happy together.

Meetings last no more than two hours and everyone gets their chance to take part and have their say in one way or another. Indeed that is the whole essence of what Toastmasters is all about: the thrill of participation and the joy of taking part.  Pope Francis spoke in Poland at the World Youth Congress in July of our contemporary couch potato culture that makes for passivity and apathy.  In Toastmasters you could not find a more salutary tonic for such a life-sapping indifference. For by joining in and making yourself heard; by listening to what other people have to say you are drawn along into this bright and sparkling stream of originality surprising yourself by the richness and variety of ideas and imagination that suddenly form and crystallise so quickly in your mind so that in next to no time you feel so engagingly stimulated and involved in a keen and zestful spirit that is most uplifting and makes you feel most fully and exuberantly alive.

We do not depend on the works of others but rather use our own words and gestures to bring forth the fruits of our own minds and hearts.  We celebrate the beauty of language and find out each for ourselves just how much you can say and give and share to others in brevity, with eagerness and the pleasure of doing something that is uniquely and especially yours in the company of some of the nicest people you will meet anywhere.

For we all come together to build each other up, to advance in personal growth and to make our lives more fulfilling and rewarding by everyone making their own contribution that widens vision and quickens the imagination that brings such a special and precious sense of fulfilment.  The door of our cheerful and brightly lit meeting room stands open. Next Tuesday our new President Eilish Ui Bhriain is about to sound the gavel opening not just that first meeting but raising the curtain on a bright and promising season stretching before us like a river of joy.  We do not embark on our journey in any superficial sense for who in this world has not known the pathos of life, its difficulties and its times of sadness.  All the more reason then that it is such a pure delight to gather again in the warm glow of mutual goodwill and camaraderie and to celebrate life and to affirm most joyfully that all that is best and most beautiful about being human.

Every meeting is something entirely new, different, revitalising and original, something unique and special, a never-to-be repeated moment at which everyone plays their part and which always gives to everyone something to take away and to reflect upon or maybe just to make them smile genially to themselves long afterwards in the quiet moment of another day.  We open our hearts in warm and most cordial welcome to all guests who would like to join with the assurance that they will not be asked to speak but may do so at the appropriate moment if they would like to do so, certain that their presence brings a most special enhancement and grace to all our meetings. In Toastmasters there is a place for everyone.

We all hope that you will come and share in the joy, cheer and adventure of our first meeting of the new season at the Fermoy Youth Centre on Tuesday evening next, September 13^th, at 8. 15 pm.  For further information, please contact Eilish Ui Bhriain at 087 1235203 or Kevin Walsh at 058 60100 or log on to our mobile-friendly website toastmastersfermoy.com or find us on Twitter @ FermoyT.

Come with me into the meeting room of the Fermoy Toastmasters Club in the local Youth Centre on the beautiful bright sunny evening of Tuesday, May 24^th, for our final gathering and AGM of the current season. Yet there was no sense of winding down marked by a very large attendance and an atmosphere humming with enthusiasm and the pure unalloyed joy of friends joining together, relaxed, convivial and happy in each other’s company. A significant and most welcome innovation was the enhancing presence of members from our sister club in Mallow, the incoming Educational Vice-President Helsa Giles and Michael Cronin who came to participate with us in this very special celebration of the arts of communication and personal growth in mutual goodwill and enjoyment.

After proceedings were called to order by our President John Sherlock, Michael Cronin assumed the role of Toastmaster or chairman who steered the evening along with all of his ebullient wit and ready cheer and quick pithy asides that greatly added to our shared enjoyment.  Jerry Hennessy gave us a sparkling topics session in which among so much else Eilish Ui Bhriain was asked as to whether a woman’s mind is always clear because she always keeps changing it, to which she made the brilliant reply that so many women remain steadfast and purposeful in the course of their lives in pursuit of what they want to achieve for which she won the Best Topics Award.  John Kelly further commented on the importance of being happy to be yourself in all aspects of life.   ‘Just as I am now happy to be among dear friends in Toastmasters’, he observed.  How many times John illuminates our meetings with his genial words of wisdom and truth as only the very best and dearest of friends can do.

We were treated to three very diverse and immensely rewarding speeches, beginning with Fanahan Colbert who told of how his years in London fired his interest and imagination with the richness of England’s long, sometimes turbulent, occasionally magnificent and endlessly fascinating royal history.  We were brought very skilfully and gently on a potted tour tracing the royal succession over the past five centuries from  the rise of the Tudor dynasty to the present Elizabethan age of the present Queen who has surpassed even Victoria as Britain’s longest reigning sovereign and whose own regal journey still happily continues. Her remarkable visit to Ireland in 2011 was an immensely significant occasion towards bringing about reconciliation and cordial relations between these islands. Encompassing concisely and very effectively such a vast and rich tapestry within a few brief minutes was indeed a quite extraordinary achievement.

Mairead Barry sat before the meeting and with book in hand read a selection of her favourite poems, beginning with the late Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney’s ‘When All The Others Were Away At Mass’, evoking Sunday mornings of his early childhood when he had watched and helped his Mother prepare dinner, capturing the innocence and love of such happy memories in all their simplicity and delight that warm the heart for a lifetime. Her next choice was ‘Quarantine’ by Eavan Boland, portraying a young man and woman found together in death along a roadside during the terrible years of the Great Famine, bearing on their shoulders all the toxins of a hard and bitter history. Then the mood instantly lightened with verses from the quirky, idiosyncratic and exuberantly funny pen of Paul Durcan with his ‘Making Love Outside Aras An Uachtarain’, setting a moment of youthful passion against the staid complacent blindness of De Valera’s Ireland. By sharing with us her great love of literature and boundless enthusiasm for life, Mairead brought together poems of such power and diversity that allowed us to see the world through the poet’s eye with a new clarity and vividness.

Our final visitor to the lectern by Trish Neilan who spoke on the theme of The Cloud, beginning with the roiling cumulous masses that so often crowd and darken the Irish skies: coming from the usual cloudless conditions of her familiar desert region of Mexico, the variety and majesty of our cloud formations she finds endlessly fascinating.  However she then broadened her talk to embrace the invisible Cloud of cyberspace where almost all human knowledge including our own personal records, files and photographs are kept, pointing to the dangers of so much information held in remote and unaccountable insubstantial global electronic memory networks while also praising its versatility and the sheer vastness of its storing capacity. On balance, Trish held that The Cloud does not cast a shadow over our lives but brings us the light of convenience and choice, optimism and progress.

All of these speeches received fine, helpful and positive evaluations from Kevin O’Neil, Michelle O’Brien and Johanna Hegarty.

Before settling down to the business of the AGM, we enjoyed a most convivial tea break enhanced with delicious apple and rhubarb pastry tarts brought to us by the kindness of our President John Sherlock. Afterwards in an example of one of the purest forms of democracy there is, the officers of the outgoing committee rendered account of their stewardship throughout the past year. General satisfaction and pleasure was expressed by all at the very successful and happy place the club has reached and which holds out such bright vistas of achievement and happiness for the future. Warmest appreciation was expressed to John Sherlock for his relaxed, kindly and pleasant affability throughout his Presidential year which contributed so much to the growth of the club and the immense pleasure of all of our meetings. Meetings so well and skilfully organised with unfailingly stimulating and entertaining programmes put together by Eilish Ui Bhriain whose commitment and dedication to the club and genial friendship is something for which she is universally held dear by us all.  With grace and honour, the chain of office was then placed on the shoulders of Eilish to mark the carrying forward of a great and vibrant local tradition.

The new Committee was then elected:- Eilish Ui Bhriain, President; Educational Vice President and Meeting Organiser, Kevin O’Neil;  Treasurer, Johanna Hegarty;  Membership, Fanahan Colbert; PRO, Kevin Walsh;  Secretary, Jerry Hennessy;   Sgt-At-Arms Padraig Murphy and Tim Fitzgerald, each holding the post for a half-year term; Immediate Past President, John Sherlock. The new line-up represents a good combination of the experience and wisdom of older members with the fresh thinking and creative energy of those who have recently joined us.

With heartfelt gratitude for all who have made our season so wonderful and so special, we now look forward to our summer break and may it be a time of rest and enjoyment, of renewal and fresh inspiration for all as we look forward to our next season in early September.  Wishing all our friends and supporters a wonderful summer.