Fermoy Toastmasters held their first meeting of the New Year in the Bridge Club on Tuesday evening, January 27th. It was our first time being there and there is always an uncertainty attached to a different venue. But this House of Cards that has seen so many happy and pleasant games of kings and queens and aces came up trumps for us. Its inviting convivial atmosphere in spacious well-heated ground floor high-ceilinged room made us feel immediately welcome and at our ease and long before the gavel had sounded on the block the room had filled with the hum and buzz of chatter that makes for atmosphere and enjoyment.
Our President, Mary Whelan, called the meeting to order and bid everyone welcome to this first meeting in new and congenial surroundings. This convivial note was further taken up Eilis Ni Bhriain who then assumed control of the meeting in her role as Toastmaster guiding the proceedings forward over the next two hours with charm and grace, introducing the speakers and explaining for our guests the function of all the various participants who together act together in that same wonderful alchemy of brevity, wit, commitment and pleasure that makes for ever memorable and uplifting evenings.
The first of these was Michael Sheehan as topicsmaster who set before us a selection of light and thoughtful topics evoking a huge range of spontaneous and stimulating responses from all present, an initial two minutes from the person first asked followed by one minute add-ons thereafter. It was a most entertaining mix of the whimsical and the serious encompassing everything from the tradition of New Year pantomime to the proposed IAG takeover of Aer Lingus, the recent TV drama on the life of Charles Haughey to aspirations for 2015. Some of these quick off-the-cuff responses have a directness and immediacy about them that you can never achieve in any prepared talk.
Words given off the top of the head in an instant can sometimes long flourish and glow warmly in the heart. Such as Mairead Barry’s observation when looking ahead to the coming year that ‘contentment is rare and wonderful’, words so filled with wisdom and grace and truth. Or Frank O’ Driscoll’s hilarious telling by way of example of pantomime not just on stage but in everyday life, of how things serious can so easily turn hilarious in a way that can only happen in Ireland as when a nurse went to a day care centre for the elderly and wrote the word, ‘Osteoporosis’, on the notice board and then asked her listeners as to whether they had any idea what it meant. One person thought about it for a moment and then said, ‘Isn’t that the fellah out in South Africa who shot his girlfriend’. Such gold nuggets of humour are quite simply priceless.
With John Kelly keeping a watchful eye on things as Timekeeper, it was on to our set speeches for the night beginning with Jerry Hennessy who gave a beautiful classic short speech crafted with the simplicity of true brilliance in the form of a toast to the club itself, to all of its members past and present and their combined achievements. Jerry told of the joy and pleasure, the rewards and satisfaction that he and so many have derived from club membership over the years.. Above all, Jerry said that since becoming an active and committed club member in 2009 it is the sheer unalloyed joy and pleasure of meeting and getting to know and sharing in all the club’s activities with a fantastic group of people, a sentiment with which any of us can most wholeheartedly and cheerily concur.
We were then taken on a journey to the darker side of life when James Keating delivered a very well-researched and compassionate speech on a theme so sadly seldom out of the news these days. He has been deeply struck by the numbers of homeless people he encounters every day in Cork City and told of how the issue has spread far beyond the traditional image of bearded old men down on their luck with wine bottle in hand to affect both men and women and even whole families from all walks of life. It is no longer good enough, he said, merely to ascribe all this to alcohol or drug abuse but reflects the breakdown in community ties and in welfare supports under the strain of recession that have left far too many sleeping in doorways. James highly praised the work of organisations like the Simon Community and the St. Vincent de Paul Society that do so much to help and assist people suffering on society’s cold margins and said that it was long overdue that Government and all of us acted to put an end to this appalling scandal.
Kevin Walsh gave an engaging talk on the life of the often overlooked and little regarded first leader of an independent Irish State, namely W. T. Cosgrave, the subject of a recent first biography by Professor Michael Laffan, who took over the reins of a new country in a very dark time of civil war in 1922 and for the next decade put parliamentary democracy here on firm and lasting foundations, set up an unarmed police force, repaired the visible scars of conflict and ensured this State an honoured and respected place among the nations of the earth. He left a powerful legacy by which we all live today in freedom and dignity.
Our guest speaker, Michael Cronin of Mallow Toastmasters, spoke of another great if now somewhat also half-forgotten historical Irish figure of the early 19th century, Richard Martin, Galway-based great landowner, politician, philanthropist, boundlessly generous benefactor of all, known in his lifetime as Humanity Dick, in every way a larger than life character whose passionate detestation of all forms of animal cruelty and commitment to their welfare has also left a great living inheritance in the form of the very first legislation protecting all creatures from cruelty and abuse. Told with enthusiasm and ready admiration by Michael, this speech recalled to life something of a brilliant personage who made the world a far better and kinder place.
We then had positive and most insightful evaluations from Kieran Connolly, Fanahan Colbert, Johanna Hegarty and David Walsh, followed by a very accomplished overall summation by John Quirke as General Evaluator who so succinctly defined the role of the evaluator to speakers as one of giving ‘not constructive criticism, but qualified praise’. Ribbons for best evaluation went to David Walsh, to Jerry Hennessy for Best Speaker and Best Topic to Kieran Connolly for his contribution on the place of the Late, Late Toy Show in Irish society. We would like to express a very special word of gratitude and warmest appreciation also to Kieran for arranging our very successful meeting at the Bridge Club.
Our next meeting will be held in a different venue again when we go to the Fermoy Education Centre in Fitzgerald Placeon Tuesday next, February 10th, at 8.15 pm. We look forward to seeing you. For further information, please contact Fanahan Colbert at 086 8239007 or Kevin Walsh at 058 60100 or log on to toastmastersfermoy.com.