More than mere talk at public speaking competition

The students who stood up in front of an audience for the Soroptimist Girls Public Speaking Competition at Áras an Mhuilinn on Saturday morning were all outstanding.

That sort of speaking is not the easiest thing to do, but the seven candidates for the Mildred O’Brien Trophy conducted themselves with distinction, and, as we often hear, the judges had a tricky job to pick the winners.

Full disclosure; the editor of the Westmeath Examiner, Brian O’Loughlin (author of this article), had been invited to be one of the adjudicators, and was joined in that capacity by Mary Hughes, actress and former secondary school teacher, and Margaret Culkin, Soroptimist Mullingar and District, and former teacher. I can confirm that we the judges had a good debate about selecting the winners before reaching an agreed outcome.

So, the winners going through to the regional round are Kamile Ochotnikova, Mullingar Community College, and Maeve Staunton, St Joseph’s Secondary School, Rochfortbridge; the reserve candidate is Ana Ferrior Barbero, Loreto College, Mullingar. Congratulations to them.

Their topics were Planet (and Environment); Partnership (and Empowerment of Women) and Prosperity (and Health). Those and the other topics the speakers chose from have recently been updated by the Soroptimists to reflect the modern world. Artificial intelligence (AI), environmental degradation, and the way women and girls are portrayed on social media and online generally were among the subjects the seven speakers discussed.

Their arguments were all convincing, and their presentations showed how much research and preparation they had done.

The meeting room at Áras and Mhuilinn was full for the event, as families, friends and teachers turned out to support the speakers, and the event ran efficiently thanks to the work the Soroptimist organisers had done beforehand.

Helping things move along efficiently were Soroptimist Mullingar and District members Monica Fanning as MC, and Anne Melly and Julia Smyth, as timekeepers (each speaker had six minutes).

The local Soroptimists thanked the students who took part, teachers, parents, family members and friends for their support, and SCF Global Campus, sponsors of the overall public speaking competition.

Kamile and Maeve (and Ana as reserve) will now go forward to the regional round of the competition; the date and venue are yet to be decided, but it is likely to be in January.