Fermoy Toastmasters celebrated the highlight of their year on Tuesday evening, March 14^th, with the annual Club Speech and Evaluations Contest.  In a very special way this event affirms our belonging to the vast worldwide family of Toastmasters bearing the official designation of International Speech Contest which extends into every local club across so many countries and continents reaching a climax at the World Contest held every August, most usually at an American or sometimes Canadian venue. It is a scintillating evening and once again this year we were joined by judges from the Mallow and Bandon Clubs marking emphatically that this event is not just confined to any one club alone, but belongs to us all. There was a great sense of occasion and eager looking forward to our contestants giving voice and expression to our very highest ideals.

President Eilish Ui Bhriain extended a hearty and warm welcome to everyone. Our Toastmaster of Chairman of the evening was David Walsh who guided the proceedings forward in a most affable, brisk and assured manner: a well-run meeting evokes the best from everyone. Topicsmaster John Kelly with all of his charm, grace and warmly pleasant style offered a number of engaging, humorous, whimsical and entertaining topics and themes to the meeting that got everyone thinking, contributing and fostering a highly receptive and happy atmosphere in the room.

Then it was time for the contest to begin, the order of speakers having been drawn before the outset.  Time is always an essential discipline in Toastmasters but never more so than at speech contests with entries strictly limited to seven minutes, with the green light coming on at five minutes, amber at six and red at seven, giving participants just thirty seconds’ grace to finish. There is also a minimum time limit of four and a half minutes for the whole emphasis is on making sure that the allocation is entirely and fully utilised. Our timekeepers Claire Guy and Trisha Neilan performed their task with admirable care and precision. Judges throughout the room marked their scoresheets and later these were gathered and counted together with the timekeepers’ report which is given to the Chief Judge Johann Hegarty to verify accuracy and fairness.

Our first contestant was Jerry Hennessy with a very well-crafted speech on the veteran showband of the early 1960s, The Silver Tones, headed up by Eamon Keane.  Having achieved just modest success by 1970 it was seriously floundering. However it was then completely renamed and reinvented as The Indians who presented themselves in the feathered headdresses and fringed outfits so familiar to generations of western-loving cinema-goers along with a repertoire of catchy and thoughtful songs that resulted in an enduring popularity with many dedicated fans, of whom Jerry is one, bringing pleasure and entertainment right around the country.

Kevin Walsh also spoke on a Sixties’ theme, evoking some of the great events and the popular culture of that time but above all a very happy childhood which leaves him with a richness of warm and wonderful memories and a ready affinity for this exciting era. Eilish Ui Bhriain spoke out of her great and abiding love of all things Irish, focusing on the remarkable life and immense scholarship of An tAthair Peader O’Laoghaire,  who served as parish priest of Castlelyons for many years and whose early childhood was scarred by visceral memories of the Famine times where he saw people dying helplessly by the riverside or tearing ravenously at any food scraps they could find, as recorded in his classic biography Mo Sgeal Fein. Eilish told of how later scholarship came to view him unkindly as a peevish and irascible personality, but from his writings she reclaims the true genial warmth of his personality driven by a passionate devotion to our national language and heritage.  Finally, Seorise Neilan depicted the American game of baseball, tracing its origins and development, bringing to the lectern a player’s glove and helmet, telling of its immense popularity and some of its past great exponents, especially the legendary Babe Ruth, and looking forward to a time when perhaps with Ireland’s great sporting prowess a baseball team of our own might someday challenge for the World Series.

After the tea break, the Evaluations Contest began where a guest speaker delivers a test speech which is then assessed by a number of evaluators who afterwards withdraw from the room and are recalled one by one to give their views on what they have heard, offering positive feedback and recommendations for future improvement. Liam O’Flynn of Mallow Club gave a fascinating talk on the impact on the natural world of the wiping out by hunting and over-fishing of predators such as wolves in Yellowstone National Park, sea otters in the northern Pacific Aleutian Islands or whales throughout the world’s oceans giving rise to very serious problems with disruption to the food chain and exploding numbers of parasitic species. Insofar as possible measures were taken to save or reintroduce the lost predators or mammals restoring the natural balance allowing life to flourish again in all its original richness and diversity. It is impossible to do justice here to this hugely enlightening speech which was a most memorable listening pleasure. Evaluators Michael Sheehan, Mary Whelan and John Quirke each in turn gave their considered views, with a particularly magisterial assessment from Michael Sheehan for which he received First Prize, with John Quirke as an excellent Runner-Up.

Then it was time to announce the winners of the Speech Contest which saw Kevin Walsh and Eilish Ui Bhriain emerge in First and Second Place, to represent Fermoy at the Area Contest in Mallow on the 23^rd, together with the contestants in the Evaluations category. The evening was a great celebration of our arts of clear thinking, proficient expression and engaging listening in an atmosphere of warm friendship and mutual support.  As are all our meetings: supremely happy occasions of immense pleasure, enjoyment and delight blending personal development with great fun. And it is all there for you once again at our next meeting on this coming Tuesday, March 28^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.