Gift of the gab a blessing for hospice

FEEL like getting it all off your chest in the exalted company of Ireland rugby coach Declan Kidney, athlete Sonia O’Sullivan or Cork hurling team manager Jimmy Barry Murphy — while raising up to €24,000 for charity?

A €1,000-an-hour 24-hour speak-a-thon in aid of Marymount Hospice is being launched today — and the organisers are inviting, as well as the aforementioned, Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney, Chernobyl campaigner Adi Roche, and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin.

The idea is that each speaker will give an address or read a story for a maximum of 10 minutes. The entire event, which is being organised by The Enterprise Hub, a business networking group, will run for 12 solid hours and require six speakers an hour or a total of 150 speakers. Each speaker must raise €100.

The event, which will be formally opened by Lord Mayor Terry Shannon on the day, will be held in Marymount’s new building on November 25: “We hope to raise at least €15,000, but up to €24,000,” said John Keating, one of the organisers, and recent recipient of a Toastmasters International award.

“We are hoping to feature well-known sports people, politicians and members of the community and have written to a number already,” he said. “I would ideally like to have a GAA hour and a rugby hour for example.”

Several Toastmaster clubs have already signed up to the initiative.

Schools and students are also welcome to participate: “I will have a group of students from Mount Mercy to take part and will be calling on other schools.”

The event will soon have its own website: speakupformarymount.ie.

* For information contact John Keating 085 7202808