A Night of Firsts

It was a special night at the clubs most recent meeting as five of the club newer members took on new roles for the first time. Breda Forrest and Deirdre Linehan gave excellent evaluations on two fellow toastmasters’ speeches. Helsa Giles as Topics master had the members thinking and speaking on our feet with a very entertaining Christmas themed topics session. David Frawley kept the meeting on track in his role as timekeeper and Brendan Foley delivered a very polished General Evaluator session.

The meeting included four very interesting speeches. Marie Lynes gave a very educational speech on symbols. She told us what the background among others of the harp emblem and the poppy. Liam Flynn on the recent passing of Nelson Mandela gave a speech toasting ‘The King of Africa’.

Anne O’Donovan gave a speech that left the audience feeling she was working for the Northern Ireland Tourist Board. Her powerful description without the use of notes of her recent wee trip to Belfast had the audience feeling that it is a trip that would have to be taken. Claire O’Connell in her own unique way told us how people could legally go about not paying the water charge.

The clubs next meeting will be the clubs first meeting of 2014 meeting which will take place on this Thursday the 9th January. Everybody is welcome to attend. The meeting will begin at 8pm in the Hibernian Hotel and guests present will not be asked to speak. For more information on toastmasters check us out on our website www.speakeasytoastmasters .com or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
(In the photograph from left David Frawley, Deirdre Linehan, Helsa Giles, Breda Forrest and Brendan
Foley)

New Local Short Story

New Local Short Story

At the clubs last meeting toastmaster Bridie O’Connell read a story from a recently published book of short stories by local Doneraile based author Bridget O’Hanlon. The book is titled ’Widowhood Flying’ and the chosen story was ’Eyrie’. Bridie did a wonderful job in bringing the story to life and making the audience feel as they were part of the story.

David Frawley had the room full of laughter by telling us about how he and his friends found jobs in USA while on their summer J1 student visas. They all applied and got accepted for jobs as golf caddies even though they had very little knowledge of the game. David recounted some very funny stories as to how they managed to survive in their jobs for the summer.

The final speaker of the evening was a visiting toastmaster from the Crusaders Club in Cork city. Michael Buckley gave a very informative speech on the events that took place around the death of Princess Diana of Wales. He focussed on the many aspects of what happened before and after the accident. By the end of his speech he had given us all new information and the audience minds were pondering all the theories throughout the tea break.

The clubs next meeting will be our Christmas meeting which will take place on this Thursday the 12th December. Everybody is welcome to attend. The meeting will begin at 8pm in the Hibernian Hotel and guests present will not be asked to speak. For more information on toastmasters check us out on our website www.speakeasytoastmasters .com or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

A Very Busy Meeting

SPEAKEASY TOASTMASTERS

A Very Busy Meeting

Marie Lyons took it all in her stride as she chaired one of the clubs busiest meetings with six speeches delivered on the night. She also made time for David Roche to conduct a very interesting topics session which had members thinking and speaking on their feet. This was David’s first time doing the role and he had a wide variation of topics from JFK to trade unions.

The first speech on the night was delivered by Brendan Foley. It was a very informative and educational regarding the month of November. He challenged us to think of the month not a dreary one, but a time for reflection as our ancestors used to treat it. Two of the other speeches on the night had a somewhat common theme. Helsa Giles gave us a demonstration on how to make a coffee cake, but not alone that, she brought a sample for everyone to enjoy at the tea break. The members are now hoping that all of Helsa’s future speeches will be about different types of cakes.

Mary Moynihan speech titled “The Daily Grind” presented all the different information regarding what was the maximum amount of coffee that a person should consume in a day. In her very entertaining way she let us know that there was no possible way she could function on the five hundred ml’s that some of the research was suggesting as the maximum daily intake. More information on the other three speakers next week.

The clubs next meeting will be our Christmas meeting which will take place on Thursday 12th December. Everybody is welcome to attend. The meeting will begin at 8pm in the Hibernian Hotel and guests present will not be asked to speak. For more information on toastmasters check us out on our website www.speakeasytoastmasters .com or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.