8 April

Speakeasy Toastmasters Mallow

The Tallest of Tall Tales

Last Thursday’s meeting fell in two halves, with the first part consisting of three fine speeches and the second part made up of a highly entertaining Tall Tales contest. John Dillon gave a very interesting and informative speech entitled ‘Here’s looking at you baby’ which described the history of photography. John made very good use of his props which included one of the very first photos ever taken and a series of old and new cameras. The speech was evaluated by Angela Sheehan. Dermot Meaney had everyone’s attention from the start with a reading from that great book about the life of a country vet ‘It shouldn’t happen to a vet’. And of course it did happen to James Herriot and everyone enjoyed hearing about his adventures (and misadventures). Michael Donegan evaluated this speech. Participation was the subject of Mary Buckley’s speech this evening. In this speech Mary outlined the ways in which members of Toastmasters can improve themselves and the club by participating as fully as possible in the speech programmes, as officers of the club, by encouraging other members and guests, and by promoting the club in the wider community.
The Tall Tales contest attracted six contestants with six very different but equally improbable tales. Every element of a ‘Tall Tale’ was displayed including exaggeration, irony, pun, surprise twists, humour, and slapstick comedy and so on. Jerry Mulcahy was the first contestant and he described the events which occurred, leading up to and during ‘The Night’, when people got together in days gone by, to bid farewell to a departing relative or friend. It’s amazing what people will eat and drink and even more astonishing is the end result! John Dillon told us why ‘The cat wore a watch’. It was hard to believe so it had to be true. Another story which was definitely not true (or was it?) was Brian McLoughlin’s ‘In bed with Madonna’ - a real gentleman would never tell. Brian’s speech came second in the contest. Sean Corcoran spun a very clever tale about the ‘People of Danan’ who were up there with the Fianna. I’d be inclined to believe they once existed if I could just locate the ‘Bleakwater River’. Eugene O’ Connell described the events which lead up to the newspaper headlines ‘A hero fly’s home’. As luck would have it, a farmer, returning home from holiday, firstly gets mistaken for a doctor (as a result of the stethoscope around his neck) and then discovers he can in fact fly a jumbo (as a result of learning off the wrong manual) and who saves the day by fortunately having a nice soft spot in his own farm on which to execute an emergency landing! It’s true. ‘Would you believe’ asked Michael Walsh. And you wouldn’t, you really wouldn’t. Michael won first place in the contest with his speech and as a result will deliver this hilarious speech again during Area Tall Tales contest to be held during our next meeting on the 15th April. Come along and enjoy all of the Tall Tales to be told by the winners of all the clubs in the area.
Congratulations to both Michael Walsh and Brian McLoughlin.

Our next meeting will be held on Thursday, 15th April and we ask everyone attending to be at The Hibernian Hotel (Chapel Lane) at 7:50 pm.