Nostalgia and New Beginnings

Paul Gallagher acted as Toastmaster/ MC for our first meeting of the new season. To open, Marie Lynes presented the poem of the evening, The Wild Swans at Coole by W.B. Yeats.

Bobby Buckley presented the first speech, ’The Magic Of a Speech for Me’. In it he took us on a humorous and nostalgic tour of the Mallow of his youth in the 1950’s. He shared his passion, challenges and ultimate success in the activity of long distance running. He recalled a previous speech that he gave in this club, ‘The Man on the Bike’, a tribute to his father, his coach. He confessed that giving that speech about his early experiences proved very cathartic for him. He expressed the hope that his example would motivate other members to create and share a speech from their own life journeys.

Paul Corcoran has been busy over the Summer refurbishing and remodelling our club website. In his speech, ‘Like and Subscribe, he gave a clear and informative talk on how somebody can set about building a strong social media presence. He explained how key information can be put on many platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X and Whatsapp and then all made more accessible by combining them on Linktree. He even solved the mystery of using a QR code for some of us technophobes. We are now even on Google Maps! He hopes many will ‘Like’ us and become followers.He succeeded in presenting a clear and engaging speech on a technical subject. 

Michael Cronin evaluated Bobby’s speech and Pat Sexton evaluated Paul’s. They both presented interesting and positive evaluations.

Rachel Liston posed a great variety of topics for members to express their opinions on, in the course of the evening.. Her topic on ‘What does Autumn signify for you?’ elicited a very emotional response from Jillian. She evoked images of golden and crimson leaves in New England, the taste of apple and cinnamon, memories of nuts and berries and Halloween. Pat, in contrast, declared he felt that the aura of Autumn is much diminished for him, since the much anticipated, annual G.A.A. finals are no longer played and celebrated in September. On the question of ‘Who would you pay €400 for a ticket to go to see?’ There was only one dissenting voice to Don’s reply ‘Nobody’.

A very enjoyable night was had by all with some very welcome guests. 

Our next meeting is on Thursday the 19th of September in the Tudor Room, upstairs, in the Hibernian Hotel.

Everyone is welcome and no pressure to speak.

Bobby, Rachel, and Paul

Pat, Michael, Bobby, and Paul