Our speaker today is, Grace Van Zyl telling us about “Becoming a Peacemaker Club.”

Forthcoming Speakers and Event
Feb 8th John Joe Ryan. Yugoslavia disintegration
Feb 15th Hugh Loughlin - Japan, the link with opportunity
Feb 22nd Terry Nolan - Tom Crean, Antarctica Explorer with Shackleton
Mar 1st Business Meeting
Mar 8th International Women's Day (actually 11th March)
Mar 22nd Tony Fox, Fish Ireland, a review
Rangers Walks
Cancelled until further notice.
Apologies
At last week’s meeting we had apologies from Rana AlDamin, Alan Harrison, Randal Gray and Tony Murray.
Attendance
We had 28 Members in attendance.
Thought for the Day
The thought for the Day was given by President Alan who reminded us that today, the 25th January, is Robbie Burn’s Day. He quoted verses from Burn’s famous song “Auld Lang Syne.”

Club EGM
The EGM was called to order by the Hon Sec at 1.pm. President Alan requested that PP Ted Corcoran chair the meeting. He declared that there were 22 members present at that time and the meeting was declared to be quorate. A later count recorded 28 members attending. A motion was then proposed by Dermot Knight and seconded by Mary O'Rafferty.
Following discussion PP Paul Martin proposed an amendment of the motion by substituting the word 'borrowed' for the word 'taken'. His proposal was seconded by PP Ethna Fitzgerald. The proposal was put to the members by the Chair and in a vote the amendment was carried by 9 votes to 6. The Motion, as proposed, was thereby amended by the substitution of the word 'borrowed' for the word 'taken'.
Following a total of 21 further contributions from the members present, the Chair put the motion, as amended, to the meeting, as follows:
"That, subject to the approval of Members, up to €7,500 be borrowed from the Club's Administration Account and used to purchase up to 30 electronic devices for use by the students of our local DEIS School, Scoil Chaitriona, Baggot Street, Dublin."

The motion, as amended, was carried by 25 votes to 0 votes.

President Alan thanked PP Ted for chairing the EGM. He outlined to the members the procedure which would be followed to complete the project and informed the members that he has asked Roger Owens to examine how proposals like this will be dealt with in future. Project pipeline procedures will be provided by Roger to the February Council and dealt with by a Business Meeting in March.

Members Wishing to Speak
PP Tom suggested that each member consider funding one computer with a tax efficient donation to a Trust Fund account arranged by Roger Owens.
Derek Griffith reminded us that the Rotary Club of Raheny are celebrating their third anniversary that evening. District Governor Connie Oveson will attend.

Obituary: Brian Hillery by Tony Keegan
President Alan invited PP Tony Keegan to speak about a past club member Brian Hillery, who died on Tuesday last.
Tony told us that Brian was a Rotary Scholar and member of our Club in the late 1960s and 1970s and was good enough to relate his Rotary experience to Tony when he was writing our Club History.
In 1965 Brian was nominated by our Club for a Scholarship offered by Georgia Rotary Club in the U.S. He won this Scholarship which included accommodation at the University of Georgia and enrolled in their MBA course achieving first place in the final exam. Several of the subjects were at the cutting edge of business education and he was able to put these to good use later in his academic career in University College Dublin. Rotary hospitality made the transition from Ireland to a great year in the United States much easier. For example, during the Christmas break alone, he had over a dozen invitations to stay in Rotary homes in addition to other frequent visits during the year. He addressed both sponsoring clubs and was elected Rotary Student of the Year in May 1966. In addition to Rotary, he made numerous friends at the University. All in all, the Rotary Scholarship provided an invaluable opportunity and led to a life and career-changing experience for Brian from which he benefited hugely. He told Tony that he was forever grateful to the Rotary Club, Dublin for nominating him for the scholarship.
Brian joined our Club in 1969 and was for many years Chair of the International Committee. This Committee organized an annual reception in Newman House for foreign students attending UCD and supported them generally.
Brian, a nephew of President Patrick Hillery, went on to have a distinguished academic career as Professor of Industrial Relations at UCD, Governor of the Central Bank, a T.D for the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown constituency and a Senator. Brian is a brother of Bray Rotarian Tom and a relative of our Past President Derek Griffith.
Ar dheis De go raibh a hanam dhilis.
Personal Addition to Obituary for Past District Governor John D Carroll R.I.P. As a fellow Trustee of PDG John's for over ten years PP Tony Keegan wishes to add, as a matter of record, to Past District Governor John D Carroll’s Obituary, published in the Dubliner last week.
Tony had worked with PDG John for over ten years as a Trustee of the Rotary Club of Dublin Trust Fund along with fellow member Alan Harrison. PDG John was instrumental in introducing him to a manager in the Bank of Ireland College Green and to a Fund that the Trustees used to invest capital from the Trust Fund. They invested €50,000, the capital sum was guaranteed and the outcome was that €50,000 became €67,000 when cashed in.
RobbieBurns Robbie Burns was born January 25, 1759, Alloway, Ayrshire, Scotland—died July 21, 1796, Dumfries, Dumfriesshire), national poet of Scotland, who wrote lyrics and songs in Scots and in English. He was also famous for his amours and his rebellion against orthodox religion and morality. Born to a farmer in Ayrshire, his father was bankrupted and died young. Burns saw his father being beaten down and it seems to have made him resent many things to the extent that he became a rebel against the social order of the day and bitter satirist of all forms of religion or politics which condoned inhumanity in any way and his poem “A man’s a man for o’ that” speaks powerfully to just that thought.
His religion seems to have been a humanitarian deism, although it’s known he was an enthusiastic Freemason! Though he wrote for his own amusement and that of his friends, Burns remained restless and dissatisfied. He won the reputation of being a dangerous rebel against orthodox religion, and, when in 1786 he fell in love with Jean Armour, her father refused to allow her to marry Burns even though a child was on the way and under Scots Law mutual consent followed by consummation constituted a legal marriage. Jean was persuaded by her father to go back on her promise.
Robert, hurt and enraged, took up with another woman, Mary Campbell, who died soon after. On September 3rd of that year, Jean gave birth to twins out of wedlock. Meanwhile, the farm was not prospering, and Burns thought of emigrating. In the midst of his troubles, he went ahead with his plans for publishing a volume of his poems which were well received.
Simple country folk and sophisticated Edinburgh critics alike hailed it, and the upshot was that Burns set out for Edinburgh to be lionised, patronised and showered with well-meant but dangerous advice.
Edinburgh unsettled Burns, and, after a number of amorous and other adventures there and several trips to other parts of Scotland, he settled back to farming which he found difficult, though he was helped by Jean Armour, with whom he had been reconciled and married in 1788.
He became an exciseman as farming was hard, but he nearly lost the job as the French Revolution excited him greatly and he made a number of remarks which did not go down well with the authorities. He had to recant in a quite humiliating fashion.
One outcome was his poem which included the lines:
“We’re bought and sold for English gold, sic’ a parcel o’ rogues in a nation.”
Probably his most famous song known all over the world is of course Auld Lang Syne (For old times sake). He never actually claimed it as his but said it was a fragment from old song and it wasn’t sung then to the tune we know so well today.
After his death a group of his old friends and colleagues met and decided that he should be honoured which became known as Burns Suppers (25th January) and usually “The Address to the Haggis” starts the proceedings.
He wrote some beautiful songs, Alan’s favourites being: “Ae Fond Kiss” and “Highland Mary”. He was at his best writing in Scots rather than the English language where in Alan’s view he was wooden (for instance My Heart is in the Highlands).
President Alan ended his presentation with YouTube rendition of a Burn’s song by Kenneth McKellar, “My Love is like a Red Red Rose.”