Slow Down, You Move Too Fast

The future of Seanad Éireann came in for some robust discussion at the Speakeasy Toastmasters meeting last week. In fact, the debate went back to the carry on in this eminent chamber some 70 years ago which caused quite a few feathers to be ruffled in Thursday night’s audience. A few other people suffered the wrath of some of the members during what was a hearty topics session led by Marie Lyons. Such people as Bob Geldof and Tony Blair got dishonourable mention. But, as General Evaluator, Margaret O’Regan put it, a number of people managed to get some baggage off their chest on the night and must have gone home feeling somewhat relieved.

On the night, the speeches were the real entertainment. Bill Martin gave the audience a loving account of how baby Fionn was born at home. But, the real twist to the story was what happened to the cat. Anne Walsh in her speech clearly demonstrated the importance of “slow down, you move too fast”, when speaking of road safety. The lyrics of this famous song added poignancy to her tale of a young boy who was knocked down in a serious car accident a number of years ago. James Kelleher, in his speech, took on the thorny subject of man flu, or in his words, “masculine influenza”. A topic, which didn’t get an excessive lot of sympathy from the female half of the house. However, according to James, this is a serious illness that can affect the male of the species and must be treated with TLC. With the next meeting being the humorous speech contest night, Liam Flynn’s educational session was timely, he spoke of the key elements in delivering a good speech. They are; body language, confidence, hand gestures, voice and above all, eye contact. Good advice from Liam for anyone competing in two weeks’ time. Helsa Giles delivered the most pain free beheading that was ever seen at a toastmasters meeting when she spoke of the swordsman who swiftly removed the head of Ann Boleyn. Helsa’s speech was an interesting historic account of the ill-fated Ann and her sister Mary. Cáit Murray was toastmaster for the evening and Cáit in her relaxed and good humoured way ensured the proceeding's were run. The next Speakeasy meeting is 3rd October and promises to be particularly lively as it is the club’s humorous speech and table topics contests. The meeting commences at 8pm in the Hibernian Hotel. Guests are most welcome.

President; Noel O'Connor
Secretary; Ray Ryan
Educational Vice President; Cáit Murray
Treasurer; Marie Lynes
Vice President Membership; Angela Sheehan
Immediate Past President;Jerry Mulcahy

Contact Noel 087 2427485 or Cáit on 087 2185178

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Enjoyable night at first meeting of Speakeasy Toastmasters

Enjoyable night at first meeting of Speakeasy Toastmasters

Speakeasy Toastmasters held its first meeting of the new 2013-14 season on last Thursday night 5th September. An energetic meeting with great speeches and engaging topics.

Marie Fitzpatrick was a delightful, warm, witty and encouraging Toastmaster for the evening. Brendan Foley was Topicmaster his first time to hold the role, he did a great job providing an interesting selection of topics for the members to practice their public speaking skills and Helsa Giles also held her first club role as Timekeeper.

Breda Forrest delivered her ‘Icebreaker’ (first speech in Toastmasters), it quite simply was an enjoyable and a very humorous speech a real treat for the club on the first night back. Maire Lynes gave a lovely evaluation of Breda’s speech.

Anne O’ Donovan did a very professional speech on the health risks associated with smoking. It was a speech rich in very interesting statistics and was very well put together. One fact that really stuck out from Anne’s speech is that there are 599 ingredients in cigarettes!

Rona Coughlan, delivered a speech in which she had to use visual aids. . She used powerpoint very well to discuss the early childhood curriculum, called ‘Aistear’, which means journey and is based on the idea of learning through play. Bridie O'Connell gave an excellent evaluation of Rona’ speech.

Pat Sexton’s speech was called “to filter or not”. This speech focused on many dangers that exist with modern technology. Pat spoke about the upsetting and hurtful posts that can be put on the internet and the real emotional damage that it can cause. Liam Flynn evaluated Pat on what was a thought provoking and wide ranging speech.

Ray Ryan was General Evaluator and did an excellent job

The first meeting of the season was really enjoyable with a great array of speeches and topics and we were delighted to see plenty of guests on the night

Speakeasy Toastmasters meets again on Thursday 19th September at 8pm in the Hibernian Hotel, for another enjoyable night of speeches, topics, laughs and chat.

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