Banjos and Lost in Translation

Club President Jerry Mulcahy set the stage for this opening meeting of the 20th season of Speakeasy Toastmasters this week, with a warm welcoming. address. The Toastmaster for the meeting was Tony O’Regan who ably introduced the speakers and explained the running of the meeting and the duties of the officers of the meeting for the benefit of the many guests. There were 5 speakers all speaking from different manuals. Margaret O’Regan was first up, with a glorious exposition on miscommunication, aptly called Lost in Translation. Bill Martin using powerpoint with great effect gave a very useful speech on fuel efficiency. Mary Moynihan displayed the art of story telling with a story about facing challenges in life. We were then thoroughly entertained by Michael Buckley , a guest speaker from the Crusaders Toastmasters in Cork with his speech on the inequality between the sexes. Last but definitely not least, Sean Corcoran accompanied by his banjos, had the crowd in stitches with a speech about his relationship with them down the years,… you’d have had to be there. After a very sociable break for refreshments the topics master , Cait, Murray gave out topics.. The contributions by the audience are timed by the Timekeeper on this occasion,- Bridie O‘ Connell. Two minutes. is allowed and if another member wants to add on to what has been said,- usually to contradict it has to be said,!- they are allowed 1 minute. Guests are never asked to speak but very welcome to if they wish. The banter was entertaining Jean Sayers , our General Evaluator for the evening gave her opinion on the general running of the meeting and. carefully assessed the evaluations of the speeches, provided by Pat Duggan, Anne Buckley, Liam Flynn, Michael Cronin, and Noel O, Connor respectively. The grammarian on the night, Kieran Butler commented on the good phrases used in all the contributions. All were warmly welcomed to the meeting tonight by our guest greeters or Sergeant at Arms,- Mary Moynihan, Marie Lynes and Ronan Condon. Our next meeting will be at 8pm on 20th September at the Hibernian Hotel, Mallow. Guests are most welcome and will not be asked to speak. Website: www.speakeasytoastmasters.com or contact Jerry on 0873752895 or Noel on 0872427485.