In these long dark winter nights, we are all drawn to the magic and beauty of light. And the best and brightest and warmest light of all is that which shines in the eyes of people who are happy together, enjoying themselves in each other’s company and sharing in activities that stimulate the mind and broaden the horizons of all.  On the first night of December the members of the Fermoy Toastmasters Club held their penultimate meeting of the season in the Youth Centre. And it was such a joyful and happy occasion, an interlude of good cheer and a celebration of friendship and pleasant listening, of clarity of mind and eloquence of expression, the painting of vivid word pictures and flashes of great laughter that affirm with spirit and enthusiasm everything that is best about being human and the true joy of life.

Our President John Sherlock called the meeting to order with crisp precision and with just a few very well-chosen and genial words made all of us ever so welcome and fully at our ease for the next two hours of entertainment and pleasure. As President, John provides us with encouragement and inspiration on our shared journey of discovery and personal growth in a spirit of mutual goodwill and support, by being thoughtful, pleasant and kind to everyone with his trademark humour and a bracing readiness to try something new and different. Such an outlook is at the heart of all creativity and achievement.

The President in a sense embodies the essence of the club. But in presiding, he does not have to lead and guide every meeting through its various phases and assume the task of introduction and chairmanship. Instead this function is performed by the Toastmaster or host of the evening who carries out these vital functions and who presents all the participants to the meeting, explaining the role of each and outlining the goals and objectives that every speaker is setting out to achieve.  On the night in question, Johanna Hegarty took on this challenge with all of her winning style and eagerness that lit up our evening most joyfully.

We shared the pleasure of three very beautiful speeches. It is always such a blessing to welcome a new speaker with their Icebreaker presentation and we were all so delighted and honoured to hear a voice from so far away in the person of Tricia Neilan from the Sonora Region of Mexico. Life there was good and pleasant but in the hot dry desert climate summertime temperatures can climb to fifty degrees Celsius so that the coolness of the Irish climate is to her quite comfortable and bracing. She told us that it was through her desire to reach out across new horizons both geographical and personal that she came to this country in 2007 where she has worked and settled and made a new and lasting home with the man of her dreams, Seoirse, whom she met and married on a great journey that has now brought her to Fermoy Toastmasters where we bid her a most warm and joyful welcome.

Then Eilish Ui Bhrian gave us a lovely telling of the story of a man from Dingle, Co Kerry who also set off on a great journey from his home among the rugged terrain of the peninsula to make a new life in London. Many hilarious adventures followed, most memorably the night when Michael – the hero of the story – having been brought back by his nurse girlfriend to her quarters, was told to hide away in a quiet room from where he could slip quietly out come morning. But having consumed a few pints and then some, he blissfully overslept only to awake with a start to find a morgue attendant saying to his colleague: ‘Blimey, this one’s not long dead – he’s still warm’.  They must have got quite a shock to see a Kerryman rising from the dead and bolting down the street faster than a Kerry football shooting into the back of the Croke Park net. Delivered with wryness, excellent timing and warm feeling, that speech marked another great triumph for Eilish at the lectern.

Finally Kevin Walsh spoke of great and colourful characters in his late Mother’s native Cappoquin and in his own home town of Fermoy, evoking with particular marked affection the memory of local housepainter Tommy Condon whom he knew and befriended. It was very gratifying to hear something of him and other such figures of the past brought back to life again. Kevin’s speech ran a few minutes overtime but as Timekeeper John Quirke commented afterwards it did not feel that way.

Of course there is a lot more to every Toastmasters meeting than just set speeches. In the topics session everyone is brought in and becomes involved by being either asked to speak off the cuff on a subject about which they have received no prior notice or by way of add-on contributions. It is always the most vibrant and effervescent part of the meeting and could not have been better steered than by Frank O’Driscoll with his light and engagingly pleasant style. Many subjects were touched upon. Two drew particularly memorable responses: John Kelly’s very compelling observation on the recent Volkswagen emissions scandal that once trust has been broken, it is virtually impossible to restore it. Or the question put to Helsa Giles from Mallow Toastmasters that in life’s journey one should never hurry, never worry and always stop to smell the flowers. Helsa rose well to the challenge and her response soon became free-flowing and adroitly thoughtful for which she most deservedly received the ribbon for the Best Topic of the night.

It is not possible here to do justice to the very fine work of our Evaluators, who listen to speakers with a particular attentiveness, carefully access what they have heard and seen, and frame their comments to praise and encourage, never criticising but pointing instead to the path of encouragement and improvement. This task was so well carried through by Michelle O’Brien, Peggy O’Donoghue and Jerry Hennessy, with a very fine and insightful General Evaluation from John Kelly.

Now we look ahead to the final meeting of the year, our annual Tall Tales competition and Christmas party that will be a bi-location event with the light-hearted contest held at the Fermoy Youth Centre and festive treats served afterwards at our old venue, the Grand Hotel. We hope that as many as possible can join us for a great night of entertainment and hospitality. 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.

In the late afternoon of Tuesday, November 17^th, with the regular meeting of the Fermoy Toastmasters Club set to take place that evening, Storm Barney roared across the country. Great clouds of fallen leaves fluttered crazily about everywhere. The conditions were rough and wild and misgivings were expressed as to whether the meeting should go ahead. But as teatime drew near the winds abated and it was decided to proceed. And what a happy and gratifying choice that turned out to be for we came together and enjoyed a memorably pleasant and refreshing meeting. The mighty noise of the storm gave way to the gentle sound of happy voices. As always, the members are very happy with our brightly-lit and comfortably spacious meeting room and most warmly appreciative to all of the staff at the Fermoy Youth Centre for their kindness, help and support.

Once again our President, John Sherlock, set the tone for the proceedings by thanking everyone for coming and extending a very warm welcome that instantly launched the meeting on a bright and positive course. Our meeting planner and coordinator, Eilish Ui Bhriain, then assumed the role of Toastmaster or chairman of the evening of the chairing with her most adept and sure style, passing seamlessly from one stage of the meeting to the next and introducing the speakers in a way that made all participants feel so appreciated and deeply valued for the variety and uniqueness of their contributions. We had two impromptu topics sessions in the hands of an unrivaled master of the craft, John Kelly, one of our clubs’s most honoured and distinguished members, who brought to this role his charm, grace and genial presence and originality that built up a lively and receptive atmosphere. Because of unforeseen events, John had to take on this challenge at a very late stage in the evening but he faced it with great poise and accomplishment illuminated by all of his great character, cordiality and wisdom.

The subjects touched on many of the gentler aspects of life from what good thing you did today to what vegetable would you would outlaw;  to ways in which you feel truly appreciated by others to moments when you said No but perhaps should have said Yes.  Seoirse Neilan responded to this by relating his encounter back in the 1990s when he was in America undergoing eye treatment, with a very eminent ophthalmic surgeon of Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, who invited him to an evening at his mansion. Circumstances obliged Seoirse to decline only to find out later that such soirees were often attended by ambassadors and politicians. But the loss was actually theirs for if these representatives of the great and the good of America and the world had met Seoirse they would have found such a richness and depth in this truly remarkable man who make us all feel so much better for knowing him and truly elevated for his being with us together with his lovely wife Patricia and joining in our meetings. Long may they both continue to do so.

Every meeting has at its essential core a programme of set speeches. That night we were served a bracing selection of the very best in listening pleasure. It is always so delightful to welcome a new member and friend speaker to the club as we did with Tim Fitzgerald who evoked his parents’ journey to a new life in New Zealand with a planned temporary interlude in London which – as so often happens with temporary arrangements – became permanent as they stayed in the British capital to raise their family. Tim’s speech was lively, vivid and powerful, full of his eager spirit to learn and reach out to ever new adventures and experiences, mastering a great range of vital skills along the way, knowing the sadness of the untimely loss of loved ones and yet having the strength and insight to see beyond to ever new beginnings, affirming the truth and the value of life and people. Marriage and fatherhood were in time to bring him to his ancestral homeland and to the building of a rewarding and engaging life form which we have no doubt he will draw inspiration for so many more outstanding and excellent speeches in the future as we all enjoy and share in the enthusiasm and commitment of his membership and participation.

Michael Cronin of Mallow took us on a biographical journey through the life of Bram Stoker, the creator of Dracula: always such an apt subject at this time of the year when the bareness of the earth and long winter nights readily brings to mind evokes the supernatural. Told with the authority of great research, we received a vivid word portrait of the young Stoker, a sickly and frail lad who grew in imaginative power and stature and – under the inspiration of his mother’s lurid tales of suffering and pain from the cholera epidemics and the ravages of the Famine that she had seen in the west of Ireland – he created one of the most powerful and disturbing characters in world literature, the brooding vampire that in a sense embodies the darker side of our own history. On a not entirely unrelated theme Johanna Hegarty then donned a woolen hat and polka dot shawl to personify Mother Earth – as drawn from the writings of E. M. Larson – with a zestful and memorable performance lamenting how the ravages of human selfishness and greed have despoiled the beauty and grandeur of the natural world and poisoned the air and water, given with great dramatic effect and displaying all of her great love for thespian pursuits.

Finally, Jerry Hennessy took on The Roast: no, not a cookery demonstration, but rather a congratulatory speech marking the retirement of an imaginary person from company management, regaling the audience with many jokes and anecdotes that represented a degree of mild mockery and jovial leg-pulling, revealing the foibles of the person to be sure, but in a good-natured way without any trace of offence. A challenge that requires great skill and maturity, for the true objective is in fact to show the person in the very best light of all, with warmth and kindness and having the good sense to know how to laugh at themselves – and Jerry conveyed this so well with his quintessentially relaxed and smiling mastery of the comic arts.

To every speaker there is an evaluator, giving the benefit of their interpretation of what they have just heard, assessing the speaker’s performance, praising their achievements; never ever finding fault but thoughtfully pointing the way to ever greater improvement. An overall impression of the evening was provided in the lovely and gentle style of Mary Whelan. We emerged into a night that had fallen calm and the stars of Orion the Hunter shone brilliantly over our journey home. Storm Barney had proven no match for Fermoy Toastmasters.

Our next meeting is the penultimate meeting of the year on Tuesday next, December 1^st, at 8.15 pm in the Fermoy Youth Centre, as with a rising festive atmosphere we look forward to Christmas. 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.

It is Tuesday, November 3^rd and night has descended as we go to the meeting of the Fermoy Toastmasters Club in the local riverside Youth Centre. There is always such a mystery about the river: it is unimaginably ancient and yet is ever timeless. Come in the door and a warm welcome awaits you, the room is brightly lit and comfortable, the hum of genial conversation fills the air marking the coming together of very dear friends to celebrate the arts of communication and pleasant listening, of learning by enjoyment and participating in hugely stimulating and rewarding activities.

Soon the gavel sounds and our President, John Sherlock, called the meeting to order with an amiable greeting to all.  Jerry Hennessy then assumed control of the meeting as toastmaster or chairman for the evening, who guided proceedings smoothly and briskly forward with a light but very sure touch. Our organiser and coordinator, Eilish Ui Bhriain, sadly could not be with us, but Jerry expressed the very best wishes of us all to her.

Our topics session was in the hands of a brilliant master of the art, John Quirke, who based his selection of themes on a series of remarkable wise sayings: for instance among many others, the writing on the wall is always for others, never for yourself; women have the clearer minds; there are three kinds of people: those who help you in time of trouble, those who leave you in time of trouble and those who put you in trouble in the first place –  all of which drew a great range of engaging, funny and thoughtful responses that fostered a bracing and scintillating atmosphere.

Under the careful and dedicated timekeeping of Michelle O’Brien, four set speeches constituted the centrepiece of the meeting. It is always such a joy to welcome a new member and friend to the club as we did with Paula Doran of Ballyporeen who delivered her Icebreaker or maiden speech, evoking happy childhood memories of her native Tallaght in west Dublin, then a young and growing town still within a semi-rural setting. She struck a contrast between playing around the mushrooming building sites and the lovely tranquil surroundings of Blessington Lakes that she often visited. Today Tallaght has emerged as a young vibrant city in its own right but growing up as she did when it was such a very different place, Paula finds today that her life in Ballyporeen is no culture shock. It was a lovely, heart-warming and delightful introductory speech and we thank Paula for joining us and look forward to the richness of her contribution that she will make for a long time to come.

Seoirse Neilan then delivered a very well-researched and thoughtful speech on the theme of beauty and what constitutes its elusive essence. A vast subject, but one so deftly handled with immense skill and assurance, drawing vivid word illustrations for his theme from the innocence of children’s fairy tales to the physical beauty of great movie stars of the past like Rudolf Valentino and Ingrid Bergman. But as he so rightly pointed out, such beauty is ever so transient and fleeting: the true beauty that lasts and is indeed eternal is that of the soul and which is expressed most movingly in the great works of art. On thirteen occasions he has visited Lourdes and finds such peace in the deeply spiritual ambience of the Grotto; before becoming visually impaired, Seoirse remembers seeing a painting there that corresponded most closely to St. Bernadette’s description of the Blessed Virgin that left a lasting impression in his memory. Through the appreciation of the senses, he said, we come to an awareness of the infinite. This was such a classic speech, one that gave us all a deeply-felt sense of having been elevated and inspired.

Then sitting before the audience, Michael Sheehan read a one act play, a dark but compelling comedy from the pen of Patrick Fagin telling the story of a medical doctor’s return from Brazil to marry her local Irish sweetheart, a wish that comes up against the intense hostility of her parents, especially her father who seems on the surface to epitomise farming respectability. The tension builds as the frowned upon fiancé arrives leading to a tragic climax after a sensational family secret is revealed.   But all the while a strong and unerring streak of humour is woven through the story that was brought so immediately and vividly to life by Michael’s brilliant use of voice characterisations that won such well-deserved and full-hearted applause.

Fanahan Colbert then came to the lectern to take a very original look on a well covered subject: the water charges controversy, highlighting the traditionally low regard for the humble water carrier as exemplified in Rudyard Kipling’s classic poetic telling of the story of Gunga Din who was harshly treated by the British soldiers he so loyally served in India long ago even to the cost of his own life. The theme was then broadened to encompass today’s controversies and the bitter opposition of many to having to pay for a service that is so vital and which costs so much to deliver to our taps. Everyone wants water but no one appreciates it. Again Fanahan told of an Indian village festival where each family were asked to contribute a jug of milk but only water was given. It was such a very original and thoughtful contribution to one of today’s most hotly debated issues as well as being such a pleasurable and entertaining speech.

If we enjoyed milk during our very convivial tea-break, we also had honey in a delicious ginger and walnut cake brought to us most generously by Helsa Giles of Mallow. Not to mention the gladness of good cheer. We are all friends together and no speech stands alone. All receive assessment in praise and in positive recommendation from designated members as evaluators, as was so well done by Mary Whelan, Padraig Murphy, Eddie O’Sullivan and John Kelly, with a final overall impression of the meeting was given by the General Evaluator, Johanna Hegarty. Icebreaker, Paula Doran, received the blue ribbon as Best Speaker.

Inside the ending of one meeting there is a looking forward and invitation to another which will take place on Tuesdaynext, November 17^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

On the evening of Tuesday October 20^th, Fermoy Toastmasters in our lovely new Youth Centre venue shared a very special evening with our friends and colleagues from sister clubs in our Area Humorous and Topics contest comprising Charleville, Mitchelstown and Mallow.  Our Area Governor Johanna Hegarty and official organiser of all of our meetings, Eilish Ui Bhriain, put so much work and dedication into putting together the programme of this special evening and nothing could be gratifying than to see their good work crowned with richly deserved success.

Very quickly the room filled up and hummed with warm and genial conversation, one of the most beautiful and joyous sounds in the whole world, that of people coming together in friendship, recreation and good cheer. In this age of social media, smart phones and Facebook, it is heartening to see that there is still no substitute for the pleasure of direct warm human interaction, of meeting up with dear friends, of getting to know new people and rejoicing in the company of old friends, of sharing a good yarn and a laugh, that fills you with such a delightful inner glow of happiness.  As human beings, we are social creatures who are glad in each other’s company: there are few venues when you can better enjoy the gladness of friendship and togetherness than a really genial and relaxed Toastmasters meeting.

The purpose of our organisation is to warm the hearts and expand the minds of all.  The meeting was brought promptly to order by our most affable President, John Sherlock, who bid everyone most warmly and heartily welcome. However it is not the President’s function to chair the meeting, but that of the Toastmaster of the evening or Contest Chairman on this occasion, a role so brightly and pleasantly carried through by one of our distinguished Mallow visitors, Liam Flynn. The Topicsmaster

Neil McAuliffe fostered an agreeable and receptive atmosphere with a number of light and engaging topics that stirred the pond of creative energy and good feeling.  Then the contest proper began, regulated impeccably by a system of coloured lights under the watchful eye of our Timekeepers, Jerry Hennessy and Michael Sheehan, the green coming on at five, the amber at six, the red at seven after which the speaker has thirty seconds’ grace in which to finish.

Our six speakers were then called one by one – a draw taken beforehand decides their order of appearance – to the lectern to deliver their bracingly varied and contrasting presentations.  Brendan Foley shared his passion for athletics and took a light-hearted and comical look on the discomforts and challenges that face the fun runner beating along the hard paved road in all weathers. Mary Whelan reprised her witty and engaging speech on that lost fashion icon, the plastic shopping bag, once such an essential accessory, now something that has almost completely vanished into the memory of sun-filled days at the beach. Frank O’Driscoll took us back once again to that boyhood world of the 1960s when television was so glamorous and new against the backdrop of the 50^th anniversary commemorations of the 1916 Easter Rising.

Pat Sexton took his inspiration from Miguel de Cervantes’ 17^th century literary Spanish hero Don Quixote, taking him from the windmills he had once charged at and set him down to face the confusions of life in the 21^st century in a time of wind turbines, finding that the age of chivalry is not dead. Brian O’Farrell presented a new incarnation of a technological hero of much more recent vintage, the late Steve Jobs, convincing the world of the necessity of buying a quite useless gadget in the name of astronomical corporate greed, a very insightful and timely contribution indeed.  Mary Meany presented a memorable and powerful word picture of her participation in a charity cross-country mud race, facing its immense discomforts and unpleasant surprises, yet finding at the end a new source of strength and an expansive sense of personal achievement with quite a few wry chuckles along the way.

Everything must stop for tea in which we were all additionally treated to the tastiest delights of salmon quiche brought to us so skilfully and most generously by Helsa Giles of Mallow Club which was so much enjoyed and for which we were all ever so warmly appreciative and thankful. Thus amply fortified it was on to the Topics Contest in which contestants from each participating club – Pat Sexton, Marie Lyons, Michelle O’Brien, John Kelly, Will Finn, Francis Lowry, Maire Corbett and Conor O’Brien – spoke on the common theme of Would You Tell A Lie In A Good Cause?

Except for the first drawn speaker, all the other contestants leave the room and are called in separately one by one to speak for not more than three and a half minutes on this subject. For the audience, it was so interesting to hear the range and variety of views expressed affirming the uniqueness of every individual. Pat Sexton gave a memorably powerful response as a make-believe election candidate with a plethora of promises to win votes, while Marie Lyons spoke of the quintessentially Irish genius for telling things as they might be, not as they are. Just as in the earlier competition, after each contestant has spoken, the judges have a minute to mark their score sheets and two minutes to place their final marks at the end. The votes are then gathered up and the counters leave the room to add up the figures that spell the sweet title of success.   And then the outcome:- in the Topics category, Pat Sexton and Marie Lyons go on to speak at the Divisional Contest in Limerick on November 1^st, with Mary Meany and Brendan Foley going forward as First and Second-placed speakers for the same occasion.

For Mary Meany of Mitchelstown, her victory represented a dream come true. Her journey in Toastmasters has seen her take immense strides forward through sustained effort, commitment and dedication.  Mary has done that so brilliantly and so well. Moreover while winning is not everything, wanting to win most certainly is. That is the key to excellence. As our Contest Chairman Liam Flynn said, in Toastmasters you never reach the end of your journey, you are always improving and getting ever better. It has been a long time since there was such a popular and universally acclaimed winner as Mary and we with both her and Brendan all the very best in the Limerick contest.

Then our President, John Sherlock, sounded the gavel for the conclusion of such a very successful and pleasant evening, an early and truly great highlight of the current season. Our next meeting will be held on Tuesday evening next, November 3^rd, at the Fermoy Youth Centre at 8.15 pm. We hope that you will join us then for another very special evening of good communication and great conviviality. 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

Laughter has been described as the most beautiful music in the world.  While outside the autumn leaves were fluttering down, at the riverside Youth Centre laughter certainly rang out in profusion on the evening of Tuesday, October 6^th, when the members and friends of the Fermoy Toastmasters Club gathered to celebrate our first special landmark events of the season with the annual Humorous Speech and Topics Contest.

After some very cordial words of welcome and greeting from our President, John Sherlock, chairmanship of the occasion was assumed by David Walsh who guided proceedings forward in a genial, relaxed, highly focussed and well-paced style. There was a brief but very effective topics session from Johanna Hegarty beginning on the theme of music as the food of love as well as among so much else reflecting on the greatest changes that modern Ireland has seen and that we are what we eat, evoking an ample, light-hearted and generous response from the members as well as visitors from our sister clubs in Mallow and Mitchelstown that set the tone for a memorably entertaining evening.

In competition, the emphasis that the craft of Toastmasters places on timekeeping is seen most clearly. Every speaker has seven minutes which is pegged by a system of coloured lights, green at five, amber at six, red at seven, after which the contestant has just thirty seconds’ grace to finish. If they exceed this limit, no signal is given but they are not considered in determining the outcome of the competition. This puts a premium on clarity and brevity. It is a powerful discipline leading to proficiency in the lovely art of saying a lot through an elegant economy of words with simplicity, grace and humour.

We had four wonderful entertaining speeches from Mary Whelan, Kevin Walsh, Eilish Ui Bhriain and Frank O’Driscoll. Mary was first to the lectern and indeed making her Speech Contest debut explored the theme It All Started With A Plastic Bag with an engaging lightness of touch and easy relaxed style. She evoked the social cachet that once attached to being seen out and about with a Roche’s Stores shopping bag, the epitome of style and fashion when it came to going to the beach and sporting one’s designer sunglasses in what was a gentle, subtle and well-crafted presentation.

Our next contestant was Eilish Ui Bhriain, who gave us a sweet and tender evocation of more innocent and simpler times in her native West Cork with the local Garda having to contend with nothing more serious than the case of an untethered donkey who had rambled off along the public road before its eventual safe return to its owner who received the inevitable scolding from a police officer who never knew the meaning of real crime. It was a delightful and witty speech that made you feel good at the thought of just how uncomplicated life could still be if we really want it that way.

Kevin Walsh told us of the comic attempts of a ridiculously incompetent aluminium firm to erect a simple door that proved beyond them.   Finally, we had Frank O’Driscoll recalling in this 1916 Rising centennial time, the fiftieth anniversary celebrations of 1966 against the backdrop of the popular television programmes and events of that time.  The military funerals of old freedom struggle veterans were a common occurrence back then with young Frank attending at the graveside as an altar-server holding a thurible with clouds of incense billowing round while the FCA firing party discharged volleys of shots over his head.  Frank’s ready affability always lights up the room and every meeting. With brilliant timing and the use of the well-judged pause displaying true mastery of the comic art, this speech won many rounds of laughter and enthusiastic applause.  The judges then marked up their score sheets which were then counted by enumerators outside the meeting room.

After a pleasant and chatty tea break, it was on to the second phase of the evening with the Topics contest. Competitors wait outside and are called back in one by one to speak impromptu on the same theme but without having heard what the other participants have already said, all within a tight two minute time-frame.  The subject chosen was Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder which elicited thoughtful responses from Michael Sheehan and Padraig Murphy and a very engaging answer from John Kelly who told of how beautiful a sight it was for him as a car salesman to see customers driving away happy and pleased in their new vehicle. Michelle O’Brien touched on the very essence of the subject by speaking of her little boy coming home from school with his stories of joy at learning and play and being with his friends, letting him share his thoughts and impressions with her in his own time which underlined she said the vital importance of bringing out the beauty in every person.

Then it was decision time – Michelle O’Brien and John Kelly emerged as winner and runner-up respectively in the Topics Contest, with Frank O’Driscoll and Mary Whelan achieving the highest honours in the Speech Contest. All four of our successful entrants go on to represent the Club at the Area Final that will be held in Fermoy on Tuesday next, October 20^th, in the Fermoy Youth Centre at 8.pm. We hope as many as possible can join us for what will most certainly be a memorable evening of humour and entertainment. 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

As the longer autumn nights roll in, one of the warmest and brightest and best places to go to begin or to renew a hugely enjoyable, rewarding and fulfilling chapter in life is the Fermoy Toastmasters Club.

Our two hour meetings at the local Youth Centre are such a pure joy and pleasure to be a part of whether as member, participant, visitor or guest. A place where you can relax, listen and be entertained, dazzled by the insights and richness of experience that is set before you, share in great humour and a celebration of all that is best in life. Then for so many of us comes the exciting and wonderful moment when you decide that you would like to give it a go and make your own unique and special contribution, to give something of yourself to enhance and broaden the enjoyment of everyone at our meetings and then to come away with such a warm and cheerful glow inside knowing that together we have once again done something very special and very exciting.  That is one of those key moments when as I read in a book recently while we cannot decide the length of our days, we can determine their width and depth.

At our second gathering of the new season, the absence of a number of members at the National Ploughing Championships and on holidays presented a challenge to which the members rose with energy and assurance. Fanahan Colbert chaired proceedings with style and grace while John Kelly presented a diverse range of themes and topics that fostered a ready atmosphere of spontaneity and naturalness that lie at the very heart of the Toastmasters’ ideal.  Three very fine speeches made for a memorable and entertaining evening: Seoirse Neilan evoked the long lost days of the grey wolf in Ireland, a magnificent if fierce predator hunted to extinction in the late 18^th century with reintroduction a very unlikely possibility today given the importance of livestock farming to our economy. Padraig Murphy told the members of the harmful effects of the confusing nutritional information on food packaging in a well-researched talk that pointed the way to the need for much greater public awareness and education on this issue. This speech was well complimented by a presentation from our President, John Sherlock, who invited all to come with him on a journey of imagination to the woodlands and the wild to sample the many nutritious and healthy food sources that our processed-food society chooses to neglect and ignore.

To every speaker there is an evaluator who offers praise and constructive suggestions for further improvement, a task so we carried through by Johanna Hegarty, Michael Sheehan and Mairead Barry, while Eilish Ui Bhriain as general evaluator praised everyone for their commitment and support that made the evening such a great success. It was a night when the club showed its immense character and its generosity of spirit at its very brightest and best.

Participation is the key to fulfilment. True, there is a certain quiet pleasure in being a passive hurler on the ditch in any form of sport just as in Toastmasters. But there is nothing like the sheer joy and thrill of taking part and getting involved. This was brought vividly home to me recently when a very dear friend brought me to see some of his beautiful model planes in flight. I marvelled at his skill making these streamlined and elegant machines rise from the earth and climb up into the sky. A touch of his remote control had the planes entering a graceful roll or descending into a vertiginous spin or gleefully looping the loop.  He is so accomplished in this art that he makes it look easy but of course he has acquired this mastery and finesse through great dedication and sustained enthusiasm. Doing what you love doing is never a burden but a great happiness.

Then he asked me would I like to take control of his glider for a while with the assurance that he was always ready to reassume command whenever necessary. I was a little unsure at first but decided to give it a go. I took the controls and felt a frisson of concern when the craft began descending too quickly, but my good friend intervened every time and with his warm support and encouragement I soon found that I was able to exercise a certain control and thrilling to see the glider wheel and soar and pass gracefully through the air over our heads.

I was no longer a mere passive spectator, but actively taking part. And there was such a great satisfaction in having done so. As my friend said, it is all a matter of practice, echoing those wise words of Aristotle so many centuries ago that we are what we do constantly, so that excellence is not an action, but a habit.  For the more you try the more you gain, the richer the rewards, the wider your horizons become so that in no time at all the sky is the limit, whether in flying model aircraft, in tending your garden or participation in Toastmasters.  You are never alone, but with friends ever there to help, support and lend their wisdom and encouragement on the path of discovery and achievement.

Our dear friend Mairead Barry is one of our most accomplished and respected members and she has such a very wise saying: ‘Never let weeds grow on your mind’.  How right she is: a healthy, active, stimulated and uplifted mind will drive a healthy and active body also. It is literally true: the more we exercise our minds, the wider the neural pathways grow in our brain enhancing our powers of thought and expression ever further. And there are few other activities to compare with Toastmasters when it comes to tapping into all of your talents, to utilising your mind to its fullest and best;  to expressing your thoughts, ideas, views and sentiments with that beautiful combination of the well-crafted turn of phrase, the aptly-chosen word, the graceful and appropriate gesture, the ease and smooth assurance that comes from doing something well in the mutually supportive network of friendship and cordial goodwill that is the Toastmasters Club. We come to speak but far more we listen to each other to learn, to enjoy and to have our lives enriched and the horizons of possibility immensely broadened by the stimulation and refreshment that comes through warm and cordial interaction with fellow-members who are the very dearest friends.

The club is a great human resource and more it is utilised instead of growing tired the more invigorating it becomes. Fermoy Toastmasters continues to flourish after forty-three years because of the great dedication and enthusiasm of so many brilliant members both past and present. Today for instance the strength of our cherished club is seen in the commitment of someone like Fanahan Colbert standing next to the new sign he had just helped erect on one of the approach roads to Fermoy advertising our meetings and venue.  Fanahan does this because of his great love of our happy club of friends. And whenever and wherever friends gather, there we truly are at home, which indeed is what our club most truly is.

Our next meeting will be held on Tuesday next, October 6^th, at 8.15 pm in the Fermoy Youth Centre, for what will be a memorable night of comedy and pleasure in our annual Humorous Speech and Topics Contest to which we warmly look forward to sharing with all our supporters, friends and very welcome guests.  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 Club began our new season at our new venue in the Youth Centre on the evening of Tuesday, September 8^th. Once again we came in our twos and threes to the tranquil riverside and strolled past the tranquil majestic waters of the great river that carries so many wonderful memories in its endless flow. Once more we were setting out on another great journey of pleasure and discovery, of enjoyment and personal growth.  We are ever so grateful to everyone at the Youth Centre for their warm and cordial welcome and their very great kindness and help which is most warmly appreciated by us all.

If the maiden speech of every newly-joined member is traditionally referred to as an Icebreaker, inaugurating a new season of meetings after the four month long summer recess is something of a collective Icebreaker for us all.  There is an initial hesitancy but soon once the gavel comes down and the meeting is called to order, we settle joyfully and expectantly to our task.  In an amazingly short time the momentum builds and a bright, all-engaging, vivid and genial atmosphere forms like a burst of prolonged glorious sunshine emerging from behind the clouds. In Toastmasters, time is everything. Now in autumn when the year is growing advanced and mature like good wine, we come to our bright springtime of renewal and reaching forward in a spirit of optimism and cheer.

This September we welcome our new President for the year, John Sherlock, who brings all of his outstanding qualities of warmth and kindness, leadership and humour to his noble task.  On his fine shoulders, he wears the chain of office bearing the names of his illustrious predecessors stretching back some forty-three years, richly symbolic of a living, powerful and vibrant heritage and a progressive generous vision for the future which he now in a sense embodies and is the driving force of encouragement and inspiration.

John is such a very nice and caring man, deeply considerate of everyone and most helpful, radiating such uplifting enthusiasm and keenness to us all. To keep my own sometimes rather sensitive throat in good speaking order, he never forgets to bring with him a packet of mints which give such pleasant comfort and ease. It is this kindness and ready generosity of spirit, this care for people and celebration of human values that makes John such a very special person and cherished friend and will ensure to him a memorably successful and happy tenure of office as our Club President throughout the coming year.  Indeed generosity of spirit and the willingness to give of your best is what Toastmasters is all about, for it is in that giving that we most amply receive such shared satisfaction and delight.

Our topicsmaster, Johanna Hegarty, rose to the occasion and swiftly had everyone thinking on their feet and eagerly responding to a well chosen and stimulating variety of topics from the planned State Funeral of Thomas Kent in Castlelyons, the challenges of the college points system and the travails of Irish Water, from the joys of cycling to the current refugee crisis and the over-dominance of a small number of counties in the annual GAA hurling and football championships, together with so much else. Very quickly this had everyone thinking, speaking and sharing their thoughts, stories and ideas, building up a warm and conducive atmosphere that brings out the best in everyone. The art of Toastmasters is all about participation. No one ever falls asleep at our meetings. Instead we tap into our shared creative energies and in so doing to bring out the very best in everyone.

Three beautiful set speeches provided the core of a truly lovely first meeting. Mary Whelan began reminiscing of a time when she worked in a busy London hospital at which the late Princess Margaret was sometimes a patient, developing from these memories a very engaging talk on the different grades and ranks of the British aristocracy and upper classes, illustrated with the use of a flip chart and delivered in her ever gentle engaging style, gave us a most illuminating insight into a world of privilege and tradition.

Frank O’Driscoll also availed of the flip chart bearing a diagram of the circle of personality types, a very well researched and thoughtful speech that told us so much about the variety and the complexity of what it is to be human, from the placid and gentle types who will do almost anything to avoid conflict and acquiescent with things as they are, to the artistic mind-set ever seeking to create entirely new worlds around them corresponding to their vision of a virtually perfect order. The key to happiness and fulfilment is to recognise that all of these personality types are within each and every one of us and to bring them into a dynamic and harmonious balance.

Finally, Jerry Hennessy told us of the extraordinary story of one of the most remarkable women of our times, Adi Roche, who emerged out of the anonymity of everyday life motivated by an intense desire to do something to alleviate the sufferings of the children damaged and hurt by radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear explosion in 1986. Setting out with an impulse to help, she was to achieve something truly splendid for humanity.  An edifying and powerful speech that gave us a flavour of the epic story of how one woman made the world more human for everyone, a message that has a very meaningful resonance in today’s times.

Our three speakers received the positive feedback of evaluation form Peggy O’Donoghue, David Walsh and Eilish Ui Bhriain respectively, with an overall assessment from General Evaluator Fanahan Colbert. Mairead Barry won the ribbon for Best Topic for her response to the issue of water charges by saying that water is a stream of pure gold. Best Evaluator went to Peggy O’Donoghue and Best Speaker to Mary Whelan for her talk on the nobility.  We look forward most joyfully to our next meeting on this coming Tuesday, September 22^nd, 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.

The pages of time turn swiftly and the approach of autumn heralds the very welcome return of the Fermoy Toastmasters Club for another bright and promising and happy season ahead.  Our first club meeting will take place on Tuesday next, September 8^th, at 8.15 pm in the Fermoy Youth Centre. We hope and look forward to so many memorably pleasant and entertaining meetings here. Our club is one of the longest established in Ireland, but it is ever young in the pleasure and fulfilment, the inspiration and opportunity it brings to all its many members, participants and supporters. Honouring the past and our proud traditions, we go forward to write a new and exciting chapter of enjoyment and recreation. Our meeting room will be readily accessible with no stairs to climb which will further enhance that relaxed and easy atmosphere that so defines our group and which helps to bring out the best in us all.

All around us the signs of autumn are becoming daily more evident and apparent as the shadows of evening draw in ever earlier, increasing flecks of brown and gold and red adorn the trees in splendid finery, the throb and roar of heavy machinery gathering in the harvest is giving way to a restful quietness, before sunset a hazy golden glow bathes the fields and the apples blush with ripeness. The season of mists and mellow fruitfulness is spreading across the land but for us this is a moment of springtime when the club begins its new programme of meetings, promoting the warmth of human interaction and the genial delight of being among very dear friends old and new sharing in activities that bring a fresh creative stimulus and exuberance to our lives.

As we advance into the final months of the year, many people cast about for new and innovative and stimulating ways of spending their leisure time in the long evenings ahead. I can tell you now that in Toastmasters there is a place for everyone and our welcoming door stands open ever wide to come and hear and see us and to share in our celebration of the joy and richness of life.

For even if the summer skies of this year were more often grey than blue, we all have within ourselves in all seasons the capacity to generate our own sunshine. And this is what we do when come to Toastmasters. Every meeting is a whole new and exciting journey of discovery. As the focus of recreation now moves indoors, each and every one of us can make a unique and special contribution to the shared achievements of the club.  Its essence is the joy of participation where every individual excels in a spirit of cordial good fellowship, good humour and good cheer. We are a happy and cordial group of people dedicated to building each other up and to advancing in happiness and personal growth in mutual encouragement and above all with an exuberant and irrepressible sense of fun in the arts of communication and leadership.

Soon the gavel will sound again and our new President for the coming season, John Sherlock, will call the meeting to order and once more we embark on our journey. Meetings run for just two hours inclusive of a relaxed and affable tea break, where we can all enjoy the pleasures of conversation and social interaction. The fact that proceedings always start and finish on time makes for a relaxed atmosphere. No matter what our individual needs may be, whether you may be called to make presentations at work, perhaps to deliver a wedding speech in the coming months, to nurture enhanced expression and confidence in job interviews, or above all to share in the laughter and the warmth of friends by joining together in activities that are so hugely rewarding, inspirational and uplifting, there is something for everyone in Toastmasters.

For in Toastmasters everyone has a voice. And just like the outdoor garden, in the garden of Toastmasters you get back what you put into it. Everyone has their time and their opportunity in varied and diverse meeting programmes with some three or four or seven minute speeches with each speaker afterwards receiving positive and constructive feedback from a designated evaluator. Discover the stimulus and vigour of impromptu speaking in the two topics sessions, the shared feeling of being together with truly lovely people from whom we all have so much to learn as we each have to give and to share. Guests are never asked to speak, although they may do so at the appropriate time in the meeting if they wish.

On social media, people like to talk about themselves. In Toastmasters, we are all together with something to say and to give, with stories uniquely our own to share and special insights to offer. All get their chance to speak so that all may enjoy the pleasure of listening. That is why you always come away form every meeting with your horizons expanded, feeling uplifted and refreshed, with some facet of life having received a brilliant and compelling new outlook. An the joy and the wonder of it is that the more time you spend and the further you go in the journey, the more exciting and enriching and stimulating and pleasing it becomes. We do it all of this because we love it and when you love doing something you will do it well. It is all based on goodness of heart and generosity of spirit, on a willingness to give of ourselves which reaps a great received harvest of enjoyment and happiness.

We will hope and look forward to seeing you all at our first meeting of the new season in the Fermoy Youth Centre at 8.15 pm on Tuesdaynext, September 8^th. 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

The latest very successful and hugely enjoyable season of Fermoy Toastmasters concluded on the evening of Tuesday, May 19^th, with our Annual General Meeting at the Grand Hotel. This is an example of one of the world’s purest forms of democracy in action with the outgoing officers of the previous year rendering an account of their stewardship to the general body of members and then proceeding immediately thereafter to the election of the new Committee who will assume the guidance and leadership of the club for the next twelve months. The official term of the outgoing officers runs until June 30^th: their successors formally take over on July 1^st, but as no meetings are held during the high mid-summer months, in a very real sense the May AGM is a most significant occasion of past appraisal and setting course for the future. Each such transition is crucial for if through the years even one had been missed, the club would not be the unique and flourishing centre of gaiety and personal growth that it is today.

But even on an AGM night some regular Toastmaster activities have to be enjoyed. There were no set speeches, but we did have a lively and most entertaining topics session. However instead of a particular individual in the person of the topics master asking the participants to give their views and share their ideas on a list of themes and subjects previously made out, each member having been asked a topic then had the right to ask another of their own choice to whoever they wished, the whole spontaneous and exuberant chain-reaction of thought and originality and fun initiated by our meeting chairman of the evening, John Sherlock.

Subjects varied as to whether youth is wasted on the young, the changing nature of the Eurovision Song Contest, the joy of cooking, the naming of three people with whom you would like to go on a long holiday train journey with to name but a few. All of these brought forth vivid and engaging and amusing responses from the lively and enthusiastic attendance, while the more momentous issues of the day were not neglected either like the recent marriage equality referendum which were freely aired and explored with a refreshing candour and ease.

The pleasures of Toastmasters are not confined merely to the set programme of the meeting. At the mid-way tea-break all have an opportunity to relax and converse and share convivial conversation and humour with their fellow-members who gather together here as a company of very dear friends. So many of us would not know each other at all were it not for our shared participation in Toastmasters. It brings a great widening of horizons and the wonderful discovery of new people combined with that mellow rejoicing in the company of dearest old friends in the warmth of human interaction. To hear the room filled with the buzz of chatter and laughter, the sound of people simply enjoying themselves together, is a source of immense delight.

Then it was time for the business session of the meeting to begin. Each officer in turn furnished a concise account of their work and activities on behalf of the club throughout the past year, all voicing their gratitude for the generous support, help and goodwill they had received from everyone. It is these mutual genial sentiments and our shared warm fellow feeling, that willingness to help and the joy of our friendship that makes this club such a happy and special gathering that ever offers warm welcome to all.  Business was dispatched promptly and readily, and matters were swiftly concluded with general approval and satisfaction.

Our President, Mary Whelan, was most warmly congratulated for the way she has graced and enhanced the office throughout the past year by her great kindness of heart and generosity of spirit, her pleasant, affable and relaxed style, her ever cheerful and gentle words of welcome and encouragement and appreciation to all which filled our meetings throughout the past year with such a lovely and very special atmosphere that helped bring out the very best in everyone and ensured a wonderful year for the club that the new President and Committee can expand and build upon. Having been proposed and seconded, the new line-up of Club Officers is as follows:- President, John Sherlock; Educational Vice President and organiser of meeting programmes, Eilish Ui Bhriain; Membership Vice-President, Fanahan Colbert; Treasurer, Johanna Hegarty; Secretary, Jerry Hennessy, PRO, Kevin Walsh, with Mary Whelan remaining a full member as Immediate Past President.

Plaudits were also richly and deservedly lavished upon our EVP and incoming President, John Sherlock, for his tireless work and extraordinary commitment throughout in putting together stimulating and engaging programmes that gave us so many of the very best, most effervescent and delightful meetings in the history of the club, in fostering motivation and providing encouragement by being so unfailingly pleasant, helpful and kind to everyone.  John has established a very fine club website (toastmastersfermoy.com) where illuminating text is interspersed with lovely pictures that capture so many moments of genial memory in cyberspace. The words ‘Talk To John’ were appended to every programme sheet and at the tea break would invariably come around with clipboard in hand, a broad smile on his lips and a glint in his eye asking if you would like to take part in the next meeting. Knowing my propensity for sore throats, John always showed me such kindness and consideration by ensuring at the outset of proceedings I was supplied with a packet of mints that proved ever so soothing and pleasant.

Then came the pivotal moment when Mary placed the chain of office bearing the names of all previous President around John’s shoulders and it could not rest on shoulders more worthy, more deserving and who greatly honours all of us by leading us on the next phase of our ongoing journey to explore our potential to the very fullest through achievement, enjoyment and the very greatest pleasure in friendship and mutual goodwill.

And now we embark on the promise of summertime but already looking forward to the next time when the gavel will sound the coming together of Fermoy Toastmasters on Tuesday, September 8^th and the inauguration of another great season.  With heartfelt gratitude and appreciation we wish a very happy, safe and pleasant summer to all. For further information, please contact Fanahan Colbert at 086 8239007 or Kevin Walsh at 058 60100 or log on to toastmastersfermoy.com.

The penultimate meeting of the Fermoy Toastmasters Club as we approach the summer break was marked by no sense of winding-down but instead an effervescent atmosphere and large enthusiastic attendance that ensures a most memorable and entertaining evening. The bay windows of the River Room of the Grand Hotel were filled with the ever lengthening brightness of this time of the year and the air carried the sweetness of early summer.

Our dear President Mary Whelan extended a most cordial and gracious welcome to all and drew the members’ attention to the Certificate of Honour the club has received from World Headquarters celebrating the forty-fifth anniversary of its establishment way back in 1970. The early founders and pioneers of those times would be ever so pleased and delighted to see the club they then inaugurated so strongly flourishing and a centre of gaiety, recreation and personal growth all these years later. It is a very great and living achievement that continues to give so much inspiration, pleasure and enrichment of life.

Our Toastmaster was Kieran Connolly who guided proceedings along in a very focussed and effective way with geniality and charm, introducing the speakers and leading seamlessly from each phase of the meeting to the next, fostering a relaxed and pleasantly warm feeling that ensured the best from all present.  There were two hugely entertaining topics sessions, before and after the tea break, with our topicsmaster David Walsh serving up in a relaxed, affable and humorous manner a selection of themes and ideas that were later described by General Evaluator Fanahan Colbert as ‘sensational’.  So many and so spirited were the contributions that it was possible to reach just five topics altogether that spoke volumes for the level of active participation and the degree of enthusiasm shown by all.

One of our newest members Claire Guy was asked to describe the most beautiful scenic view she had ever seen and she responded by painting a vivid and wonderful word picture of a spectacular deep river gorge in central India that she had visited some years ago. The very welcome visiting President of Mallow Toastmasters, Liam Flynn, followed on with a lovely evocation of the Yosemite Valley in California that he visited last year. Nothing so gives a sense of the sublime than to behold at first hand the greatest wonders of the natural world or to share the experience with others who can thus travel there in the firing of the imagination. Claire won the ribbon for Best Topic for her evocation of her journey to the exotic glories of the sub-Continent.

One of the very special delights of our meetings is the midway tea and coffee break when members and visitors can relax and enjoy the pleasures of genial conversation and warm human interaction. It is always so great to hear the room filled with the buzz of conversation punctuated by bursts of hearty laughter. In fact the sound of people enjoying themselves – just simply enjoying themselves and having fun, in relaxed mood and sharing good cheer in each other’s company – is one of the most beautiful in all the world. Our celebration was greatly enhanced by another of our very special and most welcome visitors from Mallow in the person of Helsa Giles who with such remarkable and extraordinary generosity brought to us a lovely surprise with a delicious chocolate cake that she had baked herself only earlier that day. As these rich and lovely slices were handed round, we all shared the delights of a sweet tooth and in the great kindness of Helsa who has become a very dear and cherished friend of all of us here in Fermoy Toastmasters.

Four truly varied and memorable speeches were the centrepiece of a truly great and very successful meeting. Eddie O’Sullivan brought us on a historical tour of the village of Ballyhooley, an English transliteration of the Irish meaning literally The Ford Of The Apples. This served as the title of Eddie’s compelling and very well-researched speech, especially interesting on the enlightened outlook of the local landlord, Lord Listowel, who took care of his tenants during the terrible Famine years by planting seed potatoes on virgin soil as well as detailing the eccentricity of Lady Listowel who not being able to see the trains from her principal country residence when they first came to Ballyhooley in 1860, had a three storey house specially built so she could admire these hissing steam monsters roar down the Blackwater valley.  All of that is now long gone but was brought vividly back to life again through Eddie’s mild and pleasant storytelling style.

Frank O’Driscoll presented a fascinating talk on the history and development of the British NHS from its genesis in the Beveridge Report during the darkest days of the Second World War and its post-war promotion by the tireless efforts of the Labour politician Nye Bevan, creating a comprehensive health service to all free of charge, becoming such a deservedly popular institution indeed that not even the Conservative Party and other vested interests in the medical profession could subsequently uproot it. Frank contrasted this with Ireland’s familiar two-tier health system with its chronically overcrowded and crisis-ridden public sector driving many people into the arms of hugely expensive private health insurance providers. It was a very thought-provoking and incisive analysis from Frank, with a powerful conclusion on how a great opportunity of much needed reform was missed during the financial crisis.

From there we had a very fine speech from Kevin Walsh with a reflection on the problem of suffering in the world with a particular emphasis on a remarkable series of events that occurred shortly before the death of his mother, Margaret Anne in 2003. Finally, we had a riveting presentation from Liam O’Flynn, Mallow, indeed a very brave speech telling of his personal battle against depression some years ago and how he emerged from a very dark place after joining Toastmasters where he received the encouragement and support needed to make a far better, healthy and rewarding life. It was a speech that carried a most inspirational message of inner healing and renewal, pointing the way to renewed confidence and the joy of hope.

Evaluation is essential for speakers in the development of communications’ skills, to honour achievement and to offer encouragement and positive suggestion of further improvement building personal growth and helping each other to make our inner light shine out into the world, a task so well done on the night by Helsa Giles, Johanna Hegarty, Mairead Barry and Kevin Walsh with a very fine General Evaluation from Fanahan Colbert.

On Tuesday evening next, May 19^th, at 8.15 pm, we look ahead to our Annual General Meeting in which there will be no set speeches but all members will take part in the topics session. Afterwards there will be a discussion of club business and then the election of the Officers’ Committee to plan and guide the club’s future for another year. All are welcome to a celebration of a very happy and cheerful time for Fermoy Toastmasters.  For further information, please contact Fanahan Colbert at 086 8239007 or Kevin Walsh at 058 60100 or log on to toastmastersfermoy.com.