CHRISTMAS AT FERMOY TOASTMASTERS

Report by: Kevin Walsh.

On the evening of Tuesday, December 12th, Fermoy Toastmasters held their final meeting of the year and annual Christmas celebration.   Arriving at our meeting venue in the Fermoy Youth Centre with a warm exchange of festive greetings with the staff there who are ever so kind and helpful to us. The room is all set and ready, the club banner prominently displayed, the places are set at the top table and that great symbol of free speech and the beauty of the spoken words, the gavel and its sounding block, are on the desk. Then the members and guests begin to arrive with an exchange of warm words and seasonal good wishes, warm handshakes and genial smiles light up the evening, the joyfulness of friends gathering together once again is sweet and palpable, the murmurings of genial conversation and flashes of laughter delight the heart and makes the spirit feel happy. Then our President Kevin O’Neill strikes the gavel at 8.15 and once again the dignified and serene ceremony, a stepping away from the everyday routine of life to mark out a very special space in time, a time for communication and good listening and self-learning and huge enjoyment in the mutual support of good fellowship and shared kindness has begun.

Club President Kevin O’Neill congratulates Kevin Walsh on winning the Christmas 2017 Tall Tales Competition

      On this night the role of Toastmaster of the evening is held by David Walsh who bids everyone welcome to our Christmas celebration and to what he described as an evening of fun and frolics. The chairmanship role is rather different for instead of the usual introduction of speakers and evaluators, this is an occasion of gentle and good humoured competition, a contest that of its nature does not take itself seriously but is an celebration of fun and letting the spirit of imagination explore where it may bringing enjoyment, happiness and good cheer. The annual pre-Christmas Tall Tales competition where each contestant stands up to tell an unlikely and incredible yarn of five minutes’ duration with entertainment and bonhomie.

     But first the engaging freshness and spontaneity of a few quick-fire topics from Eilish Ui Bhriain who had just arrived after returning from a family visit to Bantry, with all of her sparkling dedication and commitment to Toastmasters and to friendship in this club that is such an inspiration to us all. She spoke of how lovely it was to be with everyone and served up a well-chosen selection of seasonal themes. One speaker referred back to the happy memories held in by the Ghost of Christmas Past, the joy of our present togetherness and looking forward to the traditional celebration around fireside and table with nearest and dearest now drawing near. John Kelly evoked the spirit of previous Christmases many years ago that were filled with such a sense of simplicity and joy and especially going around the town and even further afield with the Wren Boys on St. Stephen’s Day and divvying up the proceeds at the end of the evening ensuring enough for going to the cinema – or to ‘the pictures’ as it was then called – in the evening.  A delightful evocation of the true meaning of Christmas filled with warmth of heart and brightness of cheer.

John Sherlock is congratulated by President Kevin O’Neill as Runner-Up In the Club Tall Tales Contest’.

     Our contest then got underway.  Mary Whelan recalled a childhood friend who was a keen student of the violin and whose parents proudly boasted of their having given her no less than a genuine Stradivarius (itself quite a tall tale considering these instruments are worth millions). While she and her parents had gone out one day leaving a group of friends back in their home in Cork, the temptation to play the ‘Strad’ proved too great. All were having marvellous fun until one of the strings snapped and broke. Frantic efforts had then to be made to find a shopkeeper who might have the necessary replacement before the student and her parents returned home. Eventually one was located and a new string set taut and ready for that evening’s concert recital. However the first touch of the bow revealed a strikingly discordant note and the truth was out as it always does. But all was brushed aside with the sweet music of laughter.

     Then Michael Sheehan took us on a journey he and some friends made last summer beginning in Dublin and then heading across the midlands and to the far western seaboard finding many striking and interesting experiences along the way. Johanna Hegarty told us of the frenetic preparations for her niece’s recent wedding that evoked memories of another such Yuletide nuptial occasion some forty years ago when the bride got stuck in a snowdrift but still managed to arrive ahead of the groom. A brief flurry of anxiety but all was well. And then across the bridge of years came light tapping at her window on the night after the wedding with a reminder that those who may have left our sight are never far away from our hearts in the depth and mystery of love. Jerry Hennessy recalled going for a bicycle ride one Halloween night in the 1970s passing an old ruined Georgian mansion with its gates surprisingly thrown open and through them came a lady in white riding her dark mount, reputedly the shade of a Victorian bride to be whose lover disappeared shortly before they were due to be wed, serving yet again to illustrate the strange and immense power of love.

    John Sherlock took us on a fascinating journey back in time telling of his great-grandfather David Moher who was born in Famine times and like many others of that era sought his life and fortune in America. After his death, an attempt to raise a headstone to his memory in his native Kildorrery ended with its falling off a horse-drawn cart and shattering on the roadside in the 1920s. Or so it was thought at the time. For some fifty years later during roadworks the headstone was rediscovered and finally in God’s own time was placed on the grave where it was meant to be.  Finally, Kevin Walsh told of a couple whose attitude to Christmas could be summed up in the Scrooge words – ‘Bah Humbug’ – but who underwent an amazing experience finding a live Nativity scene in their barn on Christmas Eve. Or so it seemed in a dream until going to look the next day and there was a golden star in the straw.

     The judges were Padraig Murphy, John Quirke and Helsa Giles with Fanahan Colbert as Chief Judge, the votes were tallied and counted and John Sherlock received Runner-Up prize with Kevin Walsh as Winner. The formal proceedings then adjourned and we reassembled in the Grand Hotel for party food and an informal and convivial gathering.  We all chatted and laughed at our ease while across the foyer came the sounds of merriment and carolling from the members of the local Camera Club also celebrating their Christmas party. They capture the world’s richness in pictures; we paint pictures in words; all of us celebrating the joy of life.  All were happy and filled with gladness and as we dispersed into the cold winter night outside there was a vivid sense of the year about to turn yet again and the promise of brighter and better days ahead. We wish all our dear families and friends a very Happy and Peaceful Christmas. Our first meeting is scheduled provisionally for Tuesday, January 16th at the riverside Youth Centre for another season of friendship, pleasure and enjoyment. 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.