5 October 2020
By Bryan Smyth
bryan@TheCork.ie
Carrigaline is the largest town in County Cork. It has the benefit of having a long-established Toastmasters Club. As part of our series exploring what hobbies people are pursuing during COVID19 TheCork.ie spoke with Club PRO Rona Coghlan, who has been putting together profiles of members; asking why they joined, and what benefits they get from the voluntary club.
Carrigaline Member Profiles
Blathnaid OBrien joined Carrigaline Toastmasters in May 2020 after seeing their posts on Facebook. “My main motivation for joining Toastmasters was to re-ignite my love of public speaking whilst developing new skills. When I joined the club, everyone was so welcoming and friendly. I even got to talk on a topic in the first meeting! The club gives me a chance to consistently improve my speaking skills and meet new people. Its been an excellent and fun experience joining Carrigaline Toastmasters. I highly recommend joining.”
Phil Soltan has been a member of Carrigaline Toastmasters for 15 years. ” I came along to one meeting and never left the club after that,” Phil explained. ” It was the friendliness that convinced me to join. I’ve heard many speeches and impromptu answers over the years but a few were particularly memorable. I particularly recall founder member Liam Cunningham speaking about the daring rescue of a ship’s crew by the lifeboat ‘Mary Stanford’. Phil described the friendly banter within the club. “We are a group of talkers to be sure, so I love the challenge of coming up with a new slant on a topic. Getting the “last word” on a topic is a challenge. There might be a bit of friendly rivalry between a few of us alright. It definitely livens up an evening. ”
Carrigaline Toastmasters Club’s next meeting will be on Monday 19th October at 8pm. Guests are always welcome and they are never asked to speak outside of the coffee break chats, unless of course they feel comfortable to do so. For more information, contact Marion on 086 3818522 or Facebook.
