Icebreaker Speech – stage 1 speech

Note: This is normally the first speech delivered by a Toastmaster in their club. The time is 4 to 6 minutes and, while you can say whatever you want, it’s normally used as an opportunity to introduce youself to the other club members. That way at least you know the content and can concentrate on getting over the nerves.

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Mr Toastmaster, ladies and gentlemen.

My name is Shay. That’s S H A Y. A shortened form of Séamus. Why the emphasis? Well Corkonians seem to have a problem hearing it. They hear Shane. In Dublin, where I was born, they have no such problems with their hearing.

My mother hails from North Donegal. Her people were hill farmers and their only claim to fame was that their grand uncle was arrested by the British for writing their name, Gallagher (Ó Gallachóir) in Irish on the side of his donkey cart. That fact is recorded in no less a place than the museum at Kilmainham Jail.

My father came from East Limerick. His home place is a stones throw from the site of Sarsfields famous ambush of a Williamite siege train at Ballyneety during the Siege of Limerick, which was the final action of the conflict between James II and William of Orange. The ambush was of little help to either Sarsfield or my father as both had to leave the area in their turn. Sarsfield to France and my father to Dublin.

The McInerney name is originally from East Clare and my family were farriers to the local gentry, the Considine family. Farriers work with horses as distinct from blacksmiths who work metal. But I’m sure you knew that. My uncle Paddy did both.

When the Considines moved to New Pallasgreen, their farriers moved with them. My uncle Paddy was the last of the family to ply that trade in the McInerney forge. A cousin did carry on for a while but he went to the horses rather than the horses coming to him. The horses my cousin worked with were in a completely different price range to the cart and plough horses Uncle Paddy used to shoe.

My parents met in Dublin and considered themselves so fortunate to have their offer on a bungalow on the North Road in Finglas accepted they named it after St Jude who is the patron saint of hopeless cases. I was born in that house on the 19^th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbour. Although I can assure you that there was no connection between the two events.

Finglas was not a bad place to grow up in in the 60’s and early 70’s, so it got worse, much worse. One abiding memory is of a Friday night standing on the flat roof of our kitchen watching a stolen articulated lorry been driven at high speeds around the streets of West Finglas, hotly pursued by cops on motorbikes. They finally stopped the truck outside the thieves own house by placing cars across the road. From the screams of his mother “don’t shoot him, don’t shoot him”, I suspect the adolescent driver had more to fear from his mother than from the guards.

So in Finglas I remained until my early twenties when I became a part of the modernisation of the Irish Telephone network. It certainly needed modernisation. The word at the time was that Albert Reynolds, the then Minister for Post and Telegraphs traded Irish Lamb for French Technology and my labours.

The result was I spent a number of years putting in digital telephone exchanges in places like Sligo, Longford, Youghal, Castlerea and Limerick. The Celtic Tiger wasn’t even a cub at the time and way back in the early eighties, these places were kips. They were depressed, dreary and lifeless Monday to Friday.

Thankfully I had already met my wife way back in 1978 at a Scout Jamboree in Inishtioge, Co. Kilkenny. Got married in 85, bought a house in Carrigaline and lived in it with her at weekends.

Eventually after 19 years in telecoms, the dot com crash came and in September 2001 a generous redundancy package was put before me. I grabbed it with both hands and have never looked back. The plan was to sit up and smell the roses for a while but I found the roses smelt so good and full time parenting suited me so well that we recently decided my wife would go back to nursing full time after 17 years.

Over the past three years I’ve been to Community Building workshops in the UK, Open Space workshops in Wicklow and got myself a Diploma in Life Coaching. Last Saturday I started a certificate in training and development with Fas.

Mondays is Toastmasters. Tuesdays Basketball and like Marie and Frances, Saturday is Carrigaline Gymnastics Club. Add to that the Irish Girl Guides and the odd GAA match with my daughter and I consider myself the happiest man I know, with the exception of my friend Martin who got married last year and is still very much in love.

I enjoy it. They think I’m weird.

And that’s only the half of it.

Thank you.

(Never say “Thank You” after a speech but I did so ….)