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Good evening everyone.
Not being a public speaker, in my nervousness, so that I don't fumble my way through, please forgive me for reading from my notes.
I'd like to mention a few early memories from the late 60's.
My parents used to go to the majority of agricultural shows around the country showing cattle. My job was to keep watch over the cattle but I didn't do this chore very well as, being a seven or eight year old, still in short pants and with very little sense, the draw was very much to sneak off to the enclosure where my grandmother and her dog Jan were giving an exhibition on obedience and agility which was much more exciting!
One of Jan's tricks was to jump through hoops of varying sizes carrying a raw egg in his mouth – at the end of the show she would break the egg into a bowl as a treat for Jan and to prove to the crowd that it wasn't hard boiled!
When the exhibition was over my grandmother would put a custom made harness with a box on either side of Jan's back and I would lead him around the enclosure collecting money with Nana and her helpers. I was the proudest little boy at the show!
Another memory was waiting for the weekend after the shows, when the collection boxes and buckets were emptied out onto the kitchen table and my two sisters Diana, Sheila and I would show off our young banking skills, segregating and counting the money into the official bank bags. As a seven year old, my mind was consumed with the thoughts of how many lollipops, sherberts, lucky bags etc. this money could buy!
In later life, one of the stories that stuck in my mind, and highlighted to me the disadvantages of her being a woman in that era, was that while campaigning outside Dail Eireann in the early '70s, my grandmother and her female colleagues were told by someone to “go home and get behind the kitchen sink where you belong”. Thankfully she didn't and, if they only realised, they actually made her all the more determined to succeed, and the rest is history.
To conclude, and as Diana has already mentioned, great credit is due to all those involved over the years, from the very start to the present day, and on behalf of myself, Diana and all the family a huge heartfelt Thank You for playing a part in making our Nana's dream come true.