Wednesday, 26 January 2022

Beginnings & Belonging - 19 January 2022

 This meeting was held on Zoom, due to the current 8pm curfew for social events.

Our President, Eugene, paid tribute to all of the members for keeping the club running so successfully during difficult times. Particular tribute was paid to Martin and Pat for their work.

The Topics session was ably chaired by Margaret, with members mulling over “What is a party?” (see UK Prime Minister for possible answers), and who would we first tell if we won the €19 million recently won in County Mayo – possibly even in “magnetic Garrymore”!

Our first speaker, Lorraine, introduced herself to the club with her ice-breaker speech, “The Start is What Stops Most People”. We were entertainingly brought on Lorraine’s journey from Carlow to Limerick, to Clare and finally to Galway.

Speaker #2, Christoffer Eklund enthralled us with his humorous speech “Here, Have Some Wine!” – suffice to say that all members present now know how to ensure that their relationships always stay in the “ultra-safe zone”………….

Pat, the final speaker of the night, brought us on a thought-provoking journey back to the 1970s, and then to South America, where he sensitively introduced us to a heart-felt open letter to the child of a “disappeared” couple in Argentina of 1976.

After a 20-minute break, Frances, Aisling and Jenny gave their constructive and valuable evaluations of the night’s three speeches.

This was followed by a beautiful Creative Corner, given by Mark, which included poetry by Brendan Kennelly and John O’Donoghue. The themes of beginning and belonging were particularly apt for the first month of the new year.

The word of the night was magnetic, which was used seven times during the meeting. The lack of ums and ahs and other filler words was very impressive, according to Ah-counter Aisling!

A very enjoyable night – next meeting is 2nd February 2022. 

No comments:

Post a Comment