Theme Meeting WW1

The meeting of November 13th, differed from the usual meeting in that it was a “Theme Night”. As the name implys, a theme night is one where the meeting is given over to a partuiculat theme. Tonight the theme was to be World War 1 – the 90th anniversary.

The evening kicked off at the usual time of 8pm sharp with a welcome from the club president, Ray Ryan. Topicsmaster, Pat Duggan, and Toqastmester Joe Hassett.

The first speaker was Joe Hassett, who gave an overview of “The Great War”. He touched briefly on the causes, the deterioration into trench warfare, the casualties and the aftermath. The talk was accompanied by a slide show consisting of many rarerly seen photographs.

The next speaker was our President, Ray Ryan. Ray read an extract from Ernst Junger’s “Storm of Steel”. In the extract, the author dealt with a counter attack during the battle of Cambrai. It was interesting to hear a first hand account from the German perspective. The utter futility and horror of war was neatly summed up in Junger’s observation that “we killed each other, sight unseen” .

Angela Sheehan’s speech “You love us when we’re heros” gave us an insight into women’s lot during the conflict. While few women were in the front line, it was they who had to raise families unaided, take the place of the males on the factory floor, lost husbands, sons, lovers and, very often, their very futures.

The last speech of the night was delivered by Liam Flynn. Liam reminded us that “The war to end wars” did no such thing and took us through the “Cold War”. Though there were not many lives lost, he pointed out the potential for a nuclear holocaust which stalked this period. Very often, the strangest things turn up as props at our meetings and, on this occasion, Liam handed around a piece of the Berlin wall.

After the refreshment break, Pat Duggan led the meeting in the “Table Topics” section. This is a part of the meeting where speakers are asked to speak on a topic without preparation. This is often the most humourous part of the meeting and tonight was no exception. Topics ranged from the serious “what were the funny aspects of World War 1”?, to the”have you ever used a false name”?



President Ray Ryan, on behalf of the club members, made a presentation to Michael Cronin on his great win in recent District Humorous Speech Contest.

This was a most enjoyable meeting with a good attendance. If your appetite has been whetted, why not come along to the Hibernisan Hotel on Thursday 17th November at 8 p.m. and enjoy the craic yourself? Remember you won’t be asked to speak unless you want to.