27 Feb

The fortnightly meeting of The Speakeasy Toastmasters Club was held on the 24’th of February in the North Cork Enterprise meeting room where the 40 members and guests were treated to a wonderful evenings entertainment. President, Mr. Pat Sexton opened the meeting by welcoming the attendance especially the guests who came from The Crusdaders Club in Cork City, The Glanmire Toastmasters Club and pupils from the Transition Year at the Nagle Rice School in Doneraile. Pat extended a special welcome for Brian Mc Loughlin from the Mullingar Toastmasters Club who was guest speaker for the Evaluation Contest. He then introduced Tim Casey as Topicsmaster and Michael Walsh as Toastmaster for the evening who with himself made up the “Three Wise Men”.
Michael Walsh then explained his role for the evening saying that he remembered Leonard Sachs in the same role in “The Good Old Days” on TV and if we thought he was going to be like that we could “forget it”. Michael then introduced the other members of the Club who were performing other duties for the evening. Sgt. At Arms, Elaine O’Donovan and Mary Buckley. Mary was also General Evaluator.
Timekeepers were John Murphy and Grant March.

Michael then called on the first speaker, John Dillon who was giving a Stage 5 speech the objectives of which were “To explore the use of voice volume, pitch, rate and quality to your speaking and to apply the principles of a well-developed voice to a particular speech”. The time allowed for the speech was five to seven minutes.
The title of John’s speech was “The Skellig Story”. “The rock of refuge for me, a mighty stronglold” began John as he recited Psalm 30 V4. He went on to tell us of the history of the islands with regard to the monks who lived there and the hardships they endured. The Viking raids of the 8’th century, the birds of the islands and the present day Interpretive Centre.
Mary Stack evaluated John’s speech.

The next speaker was Jeremiah Roynane who was speaking from the Humorously Speaking Manual, Stage 2 and the objectives of the speech were to “Prepare a serious speech that opens and closes with humorous stories and to prepare a closing story that emphasis the speeches main points”. The title of Jeremiah’s speech was “Is It Really Free?” and was about “free” education. He pointed out that while quiet a lot was free but sending children to Pre-School, extra curricular activities and attending grinds due to the points system was very expensive. The biggest deficit in his view is the building programme. “In total, for the entire country this year 12 new schools will be built” said Jeremiah, pointing out that a substantial amount of the cost of these new schools will have to be raised locally.
Michael Donegan evaluated Jeremiah’s speech.

The final speaker in this section of the meeting was Margaret O’Regan with a speech entitled “Holiday Jab”. It was a speech from “Speaking To Inform Manual”, the objectives of which are,” to analyse the knowledge level of the audience regarding your chosen subject and to focus your presentation at the audience level of knowledge. Use at least one visual aid to enhance the audience understanding”
“Some of you here in this room have travelled to remote areas of the world, and I don’t mean Ballybrack”, said Margaret as she pointed out that International Travel is very popular and all the indications are that it will remain so and that this has certain “health implications and complications not just for the individual traveller but for the community at large”. There is a resurgence of Malaria, TB, Syphilis, and Diphtheria. These were thought to be on the decline but are now on the increase again. She told us of the precautions to take before and after visiting certain parts of the world.
Pat Sexton evaluated Margaret’s speech.

After the speeches, control of the meeting was handed to Topicsmaster Tim Casey whose job it was to ask members to speak for two minutes on a subject of his choosing. After a lively and entertaining Table Topics Session session followed by the Evaluation part of the meeting which was conducted by Mary Buckley. Mary also handed out award ribbons (her personal choice) for best speaker, Margaret O’Regan,
Best evaluation, Mary Stack. Best Table Topic, Pat Duggan.
International Speech Contest.
The next meeting of the Speakeasy Toastmasters Club will take place on Thursday 6’th of March and will be 1’st heat of the International Speech Contest. The winner and runner up will go on to represent the Club in the Area Final which will take place in Cork at the end of March. This is a night not to be missed.

Members of the public are very welcome to attend all Speakeasy Toastmasters Meetings.
For further information on the Club contact Sean on 086 6054784 or Pat 087 2364240 or visit the Club’s Website at www.clix.to/speakeasy. Email, speakeasymallow@eircom.net