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