The members of the Fermoy Toastmasters Club have found the experience of recently holding their meetings in a number of different venues to be very refreshing and stimulating. The latest was at the Fermoy Youth Centre on the evening of Tuesday, February 24th. We are most grateful for the warm welcome and all of the kindness and help that we received from the centre manager, Kieran Barry and his team. Our room was spacious and comfortable and the pleasant and hospitable ambience helped ensure a very fine and enjoyable meeting.
Our President, Mary Whelan, inaugurated our proceedings with charm and grace that set such a genial and convivial tone for the evening, as she always does with such winning style and finesse. Johanna Hegarty then took on the role of Toastmaster or chairperson, introducing the speakers, maintaining continuity between the varied phases of the meeting and explaining the roles and functions of the various participants with enthusiasm and bonhomie. Then it was on to the impromptu topics session with Frank O’Driscoll, presenting themes and ideas to the gathering with all of his smiling humour and ready affability that invited a full and eager response. Once people are put at their ease and they just know they are going to enjoy themselves in the hands of brilliant toastmaster like Frank, you will get only the very best and most entertaining.
With the usual two minute initial responses followed by one minute add-ons, subjects ranging from the planned mass exodus of the whole Government for the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, imagining your acceptance speech for an Oscar, the use of Facebook, the decision by FIFA to hold the Qatar World Cup of 2022 in December to the changing face of retail shopping in Fermoy over the years. Several contributors spoke of how little the absent ministers would be missed, Kieran Connolly offered an excellent suggestion that could save Cork Airport by emphasising the huge potential of the old terminal building as a leading international air freight hub. Michael Sheehan reminded us that major world sports events in mid-winter are not unprecedented: the Melbourne Olympic Games of 1956 were a case in point. Kevin Walsh evoked the old family hardware business on McCurtain Street, the smells of linseed oil, putty and paint, of dusty floorboards and the fantastic gantry that was the overhead cash railway operated by springs and pulleys with its screwed-in jars with their dockets and change clattering over and back throughout the day, for which he received the blue Best Topic ribbon at the close of the evening.
We listened and enjoyed to three memorable and wonderfully entertaining speeches. Utilising a CD player, Mairead Barry gave a very illuminating presentation on the life of the great Kerry poet and playwright, John B. Keane. The voice of fellow Kerry literary giant Brendan Kennelly was heard reading one of the poems, called ‘The Street’, telling of simple lives and simple things, of tears and laughter, of sadness and joy, vivid word pictures of little boys sailing ‘paper galleons in the drain’. Mairead focussed on John B’s celebration of life in all its pain, beauty, sorrow and hope, recounting his career path from pharmacist to publican to internationally acclaimed writer and icon, even giving effective and concise summaries of such theatrical masterpieces as The Year Of The Hiker and Sive. She expressed the complexity of John B’s personality by reminding us of his devout Catholicism combined with his strong opposition to the harsh puritanical values imposed by the institutional Church on Irish society and of how in his great works sex was rightly celebrated in a fun way and a respectful way. Mairead’s wonderful speech hailed the achievements of a literary genius who made his country a better and kinder place.
It is always such a pleasure to welcome an Icebreaker speech to any meeting and we were especially delighted to hear the first presentation from Claire Guy, a research scientist based at Moorepark, who told us of her early childhood enthusiasm for the natural world and collecting all sorts of specimens of insects, butterflies and bees which was to open her path to a highly successful career in the pursuit of knowledge and ever greater understanding. We welcome Claire to our club and are most grateful for her participation and support, to her sharing with us in the wonders of science and discovery and we look forward to her active membership and support.
Our final speaker of the evening was Padraig Murphy, a Stage 5 from the Communication & Leadership manual emphasising the importance of natural and relaxed gestures and body language as an aid to verbal presentation. Taking Change as his theme, Padraig gave by far his very best speech to date, documenting the failings and fallacies that underpinned the bitter controversies surrounding the establishment of Irish Water, especially its disengagement and aloofness from the needs and concerns of real people. Padraig generously cited the Toastmasters organisation as one which is successful precisely because it is deeply rooted in the lives of real people and in meeting their needs and aspirations in what was a very well-crafted and adroitly delivered speech.
We learn by doing and we learn by listening in receiving the due praise and positive feedback of experienced evaluators as was so well done on the evening by John Kelly evaluating Mairead’s biographical presentation on John B. Keane, revealing he had played with him in a Gaelic football team when the great Kerry bard had worked as a trainee pharmacist in Doneraile in the early 1950s. Fanahan Colbert and Kevin Walsh gave their assessments of the speeches of Claire Guy and Padraig Murphy respectively. The Best Evaluator ribbon was awarded to Fanahan Colbert and the ribbon for Best Speaker went to Claire Guy. A very special pleasure to welcome back Brian O’Farrell in the role of Timekeeper and to enjoy his unique style of warm effervescence and amicable zest that he brings to our meetings and our lives.
Our next meeting will be the annual Speech and Evaluations contest that will be held back in the familiar surroundings of the Grand Hotel on Tuesday evening next, March 10th at 8.15 pm. It promises to be a great and most entertaining meeting to which all are welcome. For further information, please contact Fanahan Colbert at 086 8239007 or Kevin Walsh at 058 60100 or log on to toastmastersfermoy.com.