“One hundred witnesses say I’m guilty but you can put that out of your mind.”
So pleaded Eddie O’Hanlon to judge Muna Muleya as he stood in the docks on Wednesday night in one of the evening’s entertaining role plays.
It was one of many surreal moments of the night including Martin’s contention that Hitler could have been a comedian, Colette’s defence for killing Conor, and Mark’s midnight battle with an electric toothbrush.
Spring was in the air too with “renewal” being the word of the night chosen by our gifted grammarian, Paul. Gareth is looking forward to brighter days and “birds chirping and all that”, whilst Jeremy melted hearts with his account of saving a little lamb’s life.
Great to see so many new members participate with confidence. Ciaran hates the hackneyed business term “fundamentally”, Anne Marie wants to ban chocolate, Siobhan gave her first speech and both Michelle and Muireann were very self-assured in their respective roles of ah-counter and timer.
“Unanswered Prayers” was the clever title of Siobhan’s icebreaker. Siobhan and her Dad had high, if diverging, hopes for her. While her father wanted her to join Fianna Fail or marry a farmer she dreamed big – she wanted to of becoming a nun or a shopkeeper. Luckily her prayers went unanswered as she quite enjoys her current work in academia. Joining Toastmasters will help her “bring more of myself into the room when facilitating a teaching session”. Siobhan showed plenty of personality and will undoubtedly go from strength to strength as a public speaker.
Women may be known as the fairer sex, but as Andrea pointed out in her second stage speech entitled “ Deadly is the Female” , when rubbed up the wrong way, women can be literally “deadly”. Andrea recounted three terrible tales of love gone wrong and how some women won’t hesitate in using meat cleavers, sausage grinders or a good old fashioned round of bullets to put it right. It was a riveting speech, full of fascinating facts and delivered with power and presence.
From the murderous to the mysterious then, we entered the world of witch doctors and African tribal artefacts in Tony’s atmospheric “A Glance Ahead” . Tony’s speech was replete with vivid detail evoking a world “beneath the surface of reality” in which everything seemed “old, much older than i’d ever encountered before”.
“Write it down!. Conor’s stage nine speech was powerfully persuasive. Writing down a goal enables us to achieve it much more readily. It allows you to think about what it is you really want in life and to focus on it. Conor publicly committed to completing his Competent Communicator manual this year and an Advanced Speakers’ Manual. It was a clear, compelling and motivating speech.
Evaluations by Eddie, Frank, Deirdre and Henry were engaging and educational. Colette exuded elegant professionalism in her capacity as General Evaluator and Maria was adept at including new members in her role as Topicsmaster. Sylvia was exact and comprehensive as Toastmaster.
The night was “deadly” in so many ways….
Fiona O’Meara, Guest Blogger