Toastmasters - the Martian and the Borrisoleigh man!

Vincent Kiely told a story of mishap, ingenuity, planning and collaboration. He spoke of the Martian and the Borrisoleigh man that outwitted all of the NASA scientists, just so that Patsy, our hero from Borris, could attend the Munster Senior Club Hurling Final in Cork. Outstanding as usual Vincent.

“Time for a change or is it” This was the title of the speech by Tom Egan on Wednesday January 29 at our new meeting place in Thurles Golf Club. Tom posed the question and continued to challenge all of the assembled members. An excellent speech delivered with integrity and sincerity.

He was closely followed by John Bowden who enthralled us with his version of “The three Bears” story while all the time conjuring 3 separate pieces of rope into one. Truly a well-planned, well-rehearsed and well deliver piece of entertainment.

Conor Spain taking charge of the role as grammarian, gave us the word “rough” as the chosen word of the evening. Each member is his speech was challenged to use this word. Laurence Lee timed all speeches and reported same at end of meeting.

Recie O’Shea was responsible for producing topics. Each topic, it can be anything at all, is thrown out and members are asked to volunteer to speak for two minutes on that subject.

Each speech is evaluated by an experienced member of the club. Pat Foley praised Tom Egan for the simplicity of his speech and the use of imagery and poetic lines to enhance it.

Siobhan Fitzgibbon had the unenviable task of offering a report on John Bowden’s Trick. She did an excellent job and praised John for his ability to perform magic and deliver a coherent speech at the same time.

Mairead Magrath was full of praise for Vincent Kiely and offered him a very enthusiastic evaluation. Mary O’Connor was our general evaluator and gave a report on the meeting when all of the speeches and topics were complete.

Overseeing all of this was Breda Carroll. Breda was toastmaster for the evening and had the task of chairing the meeting.

Before handing back to our president, Siobhan Fitzgibbon, Breda thanked each speaker, evaluator and any other member that was a participant at the meeting. Siobhan close the meeting and announced that we would meet again in Thurles Golf Club on Wed February 5.

A big thank you to Eamon O’Gorman and staff at Thurles Golf Club.