Report by: KEVIN WALSH
On Halloween Night, Tuesday, October 31st, Fermoy Toastmasters gathered in the ever genial and welcoming local Youth Club for what was to prove our best and most enjoyable meeting yet since the commencement of the present season back in September. How swiftly that time has gone by as it is always does when people are having fun. It was such a particular pleasure to welcome back several very dear friends, very especially Patricia and Seoirse Neilan and Conor McAree, who are all such perfectly delightful and lovely people whose presence with us so joyfully enhanced our gathering. Such a very great pleasure also to welcome again the President of Mallow Toastmasters and always such a kind and genial visitor and participant to our meetings here in Fermoy, Helsa Giles, who brought with her a mouth-watering mint-flavoured chocolate festive creation and yummy sweet sauce that was so hugely enjoyed in the course of our ever cheery and relaxing mid-time tea and coffee break.
Outside groups of happy young people had gathered in a festive spirit along the quay while across the town fireworks whooshed into the inky night sky exploding in clouds of evanescent multi-coloured falling stars, driving back the night. As the meeting room filled up it was as ever so very nice and heartening to hear the warm buzz of chatter and bursts of laughter that mark a gathering of dear friends. That is what keeps bringing you back to Toastmasters: all of the communication and leadership activities are ever so stimulating and mind-broadening and richly expand everyone’s skill-sets and capabilities in so many ways. But over and beyond all of that it is the gladness that comes from being among friends and having a very pleasant, relaxing and genial time. At this late time of the year the winter darkness comes down but within our meeting room all is cosy, warm, bright and happy that we are together and sharing in such great fun.
Once proceedings had commenced, the evening was adroitly guided by our Toastmaster or Chairman, Tim Fitzgerald, who carefully explained the role of each participant for the benefit of our guests, with very nice and apposite remarks seamlessly leading each phase of the meeting into the next. Good chairmanship is a lovely and very rewarding art, setting everyone at their ease and keeping things going freely and with lightness of style.
And on this Halloween night we had a very lively and bubbly topics session from Padraig Murphy with subjects encompassing everything from the current housing crisis to favourite childhood memories, from the setback to Ireland’s prospects of hosting the Rugby World Cup to the celebration of Halloween. In that context one speaker referred to the seven week gap that separates Halloween from Christmas and how the two festivals should be seen as complementary of each other: Halloween with its emphasis on everything that is dark and scary in the mystery of life, while Christmas is full of warmth and generosity of spirit. The joy and wonder of Topics is that they give an instant verbal snapshot of a person’s thoughts, ideas and feelings without any prior deliberation. They are immediate, natural and come straight from the heart. That is what makes a good topics session such as what Padraig gave us so bracing and invigorating and pleasurable.
We also enjoyed three beautiful speeches. Firstly, our President Kevin O’Neill once again leading so worthily by example, spoke on finding inspiration to meet the challenges in his life, whether acquiring enough French to get by on holidays in that country, or learning to dance and taking on the challenge of doing live presentations for work which led to his joining Toastmasters and gaining in proficiency and confidence with the emphatic message that there is no greater fulfilment than to be able to say not alone that I Could or I Should, But I Did. This truly uplifting speech from Kevin was praised highly by his evaluator Nina Keating.
From Mary Whelan, we were given a stylish poetry reading double feature, taken from a venerable 1912 book that had once belonged to her grand-aunt, beginning with The Land Of Nod that so richly depicted the delights of visiting in slumber the magical world of dreams, while her second poetic choice, Allaire by Eleanor C. Donnelly, evoked poignant memories of loss and abandonment in an old derelict village. Read with charm and elegant cadence, evaluator Johanna Hegarty praised Mary’s accomplishment in reading poetry aloud which as she rightly pointed out represents the earliest form of public speaking. Our General Evaluator Eilish UI Bhriain spoke for all of us later that she could gladly listen most pleasurably to Mary’s mellifluous voice all night long.
Finally, Jerry Hennessy took us on a most informative and absorbing journey through the creation of a new garden, describing a bare open grassy space as being like a blank canvas waiting for the artist to paint a masterpiece. And as we listened colourful floral borders rose into the sunlight and bloomed in the eye of imagination, white roses shimmered in the moonlight and we learned that humble beetles, worms and bacteria are our essential allies in working with nature so as to improve on it and to fashion with patience, skill and commitment another little corner of cultivated heaven under the sky.
There followed a very informative and illuminating question and answer session for Jerry is an unrivalled expert and authority in the superb art of gardening, explaining not least the meaning of The Chelsea Chop – but if you would like to find out more about this and so much else why not come to meet Jerry and all of us at our next meeting at the Fermoy Youth Centre on Tuesday evening next, November 13th, beginning promptly at 8.15 pm. For further information, please contact Mary Whelan at 087 7971006 or Kevin Walsh at 058 60100 or log on to our mobile-friendly website toastmastersfermoy.com or find us on Twitter @ FermoyT.