Competition success for local Toastmasters
Mullingar Toastmasters hosted its International Speech and Evaluation Competition on March 13, when the chief judge was Pauline McCabe and the competition chairperson was Derek Walsh, the Area 9 director. The three speakers were John Waldron, Lorraine Murphy and Brian McLoughlin, one of whom would proceed to the Area Final on March 22, in the Greville Arms Hotel.
John as first speaker, delivered a speech entitled ‘Be a Little Bit Adventurous’ in which he reflected on the various opportunities he has taken up throughout his life to date, many of which were brought to his attention through the Westmeath Examiner, going back to 1983 when he first moved to Mullingar. John’s speech ended with a call to action, inviting the audience to seek out experiences and opportunities available.
Lorraine Murphy’s competition speech was ‘Other People’. Lorraine is an author who lives in Mullingar and her speech was about how she got into writing. She described feeling that writing a book is something that ‘other people’ do; how she began her writing career, found communities which supported her and encouraged people to never give up, if there’s something you have always wanted to do.
Brian McLoughlin delivered a speech that reflected on ‘Happiness’. In recognising the importance of happiness, Brian proposed an alternative society where people would display their happiness scores. He mentioned the common phrase ‘I’ll be happy when’ and encouraged the audience not to be absorbed in the melancholy of misery, and to radiate happiness.
The Speech Evaluation had five contestants who evaluated a speech by guest speaker, Nithin Rajashekar from the Athlone Toastmasters Club. Nithin’s speech called ‘Stand Up Straight with Your Shoulders Back’ discussed the importance of confidence. The five contestants, Jeff Schwartz, Brian McLoughlin, Tom Byrne, Lorraine Murphy and John Waldron, listened to Nithin’s speech, and had five minutes to prepare feedback, then three minutes to present it.
Lorraine Murphy took first place in the International Speech Competition and Tom Byrne was awarded first place in the Evaluation Competition to proceed to the next stage of the Competition.
Mullingar Toastmasters Club hosted the Area 9 Contest for both the International Speech and Evaluation Contest on March 22 at the Greville Arms Hotel, when there were contestants from Mullingar, Tullamore, Athlone and the online club, Emerald Isle. Siobhán Keenan Fitzgerald chaired the competition, and the club offered her thanks and also to guest speaker, Donagh McKeown from the Foyle Speakers Club in Derry, who presented his speech ‘How’s Your Heart?’ to facilitate the Evaluation Competition.
Despite a high calibre of competitors, the host club triumphed as Lorraine Murphy’s zealous speech claimed first place in the International Speech Competition and Tom Byrne’s constructive, yet compassionate evaluation earning him first place in the evaluation competition.
Both Tom and Lorraine proceeded to the Division Competition in Enniskillen on April 12, where there was more success for Mullingar Toastmasters as Lorraine took third place in the International Speech Contest and Tom took first in the evaluation competition.
Eight members of the Mullingar Club travelled to Fermanagh to support the contestants.
In addition to that, Lorraine was honoured with a special award for her work as master of ceremonies at the Third Quarter District Awards Night on April 9.
Tom and Brian proceed to the District Competition in Solihull, England on May 9-11 and club members wish them the best of luck. Mullingar Toastmasters are proud to have so many of the members competing at such a high level.
As always, Mullingar Toastmasters are grateful for all of the members who volunteer their time to facilitate the competition and doing all the work in the background.