What makes Fermoy Toastmasters such a very special place to be is that it is such a lovely gathering of friends. It is their warmth and kindness, that easy, genial and relaxed atmosphere that fills our club gatherings and makes all of our meeting so convivial, enjoyable and unforgettably pleasant and entertaining. And because of that very reason it brings out the very best in us all so that every meeting is an occasion to treasure with gladness and joy.
At our most recent meeting in the Fermoy Youth Centre on May 3rd, following the ever warm and genial welcome from our most affable and cordial President John Sherlock, the proceedings were chaired for the next two hours by one of our new members, Tim Fitzgerald, making a very fine debut in this truly vital and pivotal role in every meeting. There is no better beginning than with humour and Tim began by telling us a funny story based around the legend of Quasimodo in The Hunchback Of Notre Dame who – catching glimpse of his heart’s desire, the beautiful Esmerelda – abseiled on a bell-rope down the spire to the pavement far below, whereupon a passer-by remarked, ‘His face sure rings a bell’! Now as soon as you get them laughing, an audience is with you. And so it was that straightaway Tim with a highly convivial lightness of touch bought all of us with him in brightest and happiest spirits through the entire meeting.
With her winning charm and grace, Mary Whelan guided us through a very engaging Topics session, presenting strikingly refreshing and mind-stirring invitations to impromptu speaking encompassing the difference between those who are morning and evening persons, the games we played in childhood and reflections on Leicester winning the UK Premiership, among so much else. Topics are all about immediacy and spontaneity; they call forth responses that are given from the first thoughts that come into your mind and area remarkably bracing and invigorating cerebral exercise, firing the imagination and making ideas flow freely and joyfully.
Our very convivial tea break was most richly graced and enhanced by the delightful apple tart and strawberry cheesecake of Eilish Ui Bhriain and Helsa Giles respectively, a veritable fiesta of sweet-toothed pleasure. Our very warmest thanks and appreciation to two outstanding Toastmasters and very dear friends for their great kindness in doing so much to make our evening so very special.
The first of our three speeches was an offstage talk from David Walsh on the story of the world’s most famous locomotive, The Flying Scotsman. Evoking this leviathan of the rails thundering through the British countryside with the hiss and roar of venting steam, David traced its story from its beginnings in the early 1920s as normality returned after the traumas of the Great War, bringing with it a new demand for greater speed and comfort as people sought to take longer and faster journeys to places of holiday and relaxation. In a well-researched speech, David told of the rise of a new generation of faster and better designed engines to meet that demand, the most famous being The Flying Scotsman achieving the first ever non-stop run between London and Edinburgh and the first engine to exceed a hundred miles an hour during its glory days in the era between the wars. Later it shared in the inexorable decline of rail travel in the 1950s and was taken out of service in 1963. But this great locomotive with its majestic design and impressive green livery had such a grip on the public imagination that saw it rescued from the breaker’s yard and wonderfully restored time and again through the intervention of a long line of wealthy rail enthusiasts. Indeed its entire story is a series of amazing rebirths and new beginnings as now after a decade-long refit it sets outs from the National Rail Museum in York criss-crossing Britain in an extensive programme of excursions throughout the year, on one of which David looks forward to being a passenger and sharing in a very memorable experience.
Our next speaker was one of our club’s best loved personalities, John Kelly who again brought us back to the mid-1920s, to the launching in California of Toastmasters International, led by Dr. Ralph C. Smedley. In his gentle and ever pleasing style, John told us of how the founder devoted well over a decade to writing the first basic Communication & Leadership manual. The painstaking effort, thought and refinement of concept and approach that went into its creation gave a fresh insight into the true significance of that essential set of objectives that every Toastmaster in the world is asked to take on, embracing such diverse aims as effective use of body language and gestures, how the variation of tone, volume and pitch of voice underlines the meaning and truth of the message; the painting of beautiful word pictures; the development of the noble art of clarifying your thoughts and expressing them with brevity and elegance. Told with grace and style, John warmly commended the club on its distinguished and accomplished 45-year history, holding up our admirable and timeless ideals of communication and leadership with personal growth and cordial friendship as illuminating the path to another great 45 years of achievement. We will certainly all try to go as far as we can on that never ending journey.
Our final speaker was Kevin O’Neil, who also took us on a journey, tracing that of every milk carton from its origins in the cow grazing the rich pasturelands of Ireland all the way to the supermarket shelf. Behind the bulk milk tankers trundling along our roads every day we glimpsed something of the hidden complex process, the skill and know-how of storing the precious life-giving substance at low temperature, the testing of the product to ensure its purity and freedom from antibiotic residue, the separation of the different constituent elements at the plant and the application of pasteurisation bringing the milk to a very high temperature to remove all bacteria. Kevin steered us through a vast subject with a clear, direct and lucid presentation for which he received the Blue Ribbon for the Best Speech of the evening.
Johanna Hegarty, Michael Sheehan and Padraig Murphy gave constructive evaluation of each of these speeches in turn, followed by a very fine overall assessment of the meeting by General Evaluator Seoirise Neilan who with experience of Toastmasters elsewhere, emphasised the relaxed and friendly atmosphere that ensures in our club everyone is a winner.
Both our great tradition of continuity and spirit of looking forward are affirmed in a very special way at our Annual General Meeting when the outgoing officers’ committee gives account to the members for their stewardship throughout the past year followed by the election of the new President and Committee to direct us for the coming year. It will be held at the Fermoy Youth Centre on Tuesday evening next, May 23rd, at 8.15 pm, before the club adjourns for the annual summer recess even as we all look forward to another full and exciting season beginning next September. 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