Today’s talk is by John Shackleton on Shackleton’s expeditions inclusive of “Endurance”.
Forthcoming Speakers and Events
Jun 7th Public Holiday.
June 14th Senator Alice Mary Higgins will speak on the topic of "Climate and Peace".
June 21st Claire Casey of the Childhood Development Initiative will speak on the topic of
"Restorative Practices in Schools".
Jun 28th Club Assembly.
Jul 5th Presidential Handover
Jul 12th Patrick Hamilton Walsh, former member, speaking from Stockholm.
Jul 19th David Ellis – How Rotary is perceived by the public.
Jul 26th Gavin Walker, Rotary Club Bangor, “Lend with Care, microfinance”
Aug 6th Eamonn Allen,” From Darkness into Light, a brief history of ESB”.

Visitors and Apologies
At today's meeting Member's apologies were received from IPP Mariandy Lennon, Roger Owens, Alan Harrison, PP Ethna Fitzgerald.
Club Friend Poonam Sood sent her apologies, as did Marie Mueller.
There were 21 Club Members in attendance with a guest Dr. Lamina Kaumi, based in Sligo. He had been a member of the Barcelona Rotary Club.
Our guest speaker was Dr Nnamdi Elenwoke, a consultant neurosurgeon from Nigeria, who studied medicine in Cuba, and after some time in Venezuela now works in Barcelona. He shared his experiences of Covid 19 as it happened in the Teknon Medical Center in Barcelona. He was introduced by Veronica Kunovska and the vote of thanks was delivered by PP Tom O'Neill.
The 'Thought for the Day' was given by PP Paul Martin, who enthralled all on the evolution of 'words' and the significance of charity for Rotary.
Rotary Rangers Schedule
The Rotary Rangers outings have been recommenced. Contact PP Brian George for details.



President’s Announcements
President Alan said that, as of the circular sent by Secretary Tony, an online meeting with our twin club Tours Rotary Club will be held on Monday 31st at 6pm our time. The Agenda for this meeting has been sent by the Tours Club which he will circulated. All are invited to join in. Alan also reminded us that we on Saturday next we can join in the Leonardo da Vinci Award celebrations held by the Rotary Club of Vienna this year. They are starting with a YouTube concert, followed by a Zoom session in which the Prize is awarded.
Three quarters of club members have responded to the question about what they wished to do with the €60 rebate from District. Alan thanked those who have donated their refund to Foundation or St. Vincent de Paul. Those who have not replied should do so before the end of the month.
Alan told us of the availability of funds from an international grant in cooperation with two other Dublin clubs. This grant application needs to be focused on hospitals and children and must be submitted by the end of the month. Some ideas are already under consideration however suggestions are welcome.
Alan has written to Donna of the Grand Canal Hotel asking her if she has any news about when we can meet in the hotel once more. He will let us know what she replies.
He also reminded us that Foundation is holding a Quiz on 16th June, with Eamonn Allen as Quizmaster, details to follow.
Other Announcements
Present Elect Alexander Kopf spoke about the evening District Assembly Breakout sessions, the first held last Wednesday on the Environment. There were 60 people on the Zoom session, exchanging ideas, from 8 to 9pm, discussing club environmental projects. Other sessions are focused on Membership, Finance, Community, Vocational, Foundation and International. PP Bernadette Mulvey then gave us details of two grant applications she has made to District. The first of these is in aid of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library which was established in Dublin in 2019. The Rotary club Dublin is listed in their Website as supporting them as we had run a Table Quiz to raise funds and also had received a matching grant from District. Bernadette told us that she was recently was approached by this organisation asking if the Rotary Club Dublin could help with funds again. Since many of our members are avid readers, indeed we have a well-established Book Club she thought that something involving books would be a novel idea to raise some funds. The idea is that members would donate previously loved books of all types from cookery books to novels Initially Bernadette will take up to a max 20 per member, mixing them up into bundles of 6 which would be wrapped and sold as a lucky dip for 20 euro to members and friends. Bernadette hopes that we might be able to meet up in small groups at which club members can bring their books and indeed she is willing to meet people at their convenience.
The second grant application she has made is in for Women’s Aid. Last July four female Rotarians from Dublin club walked a minimum of 80 km in the month of July to raise funds for Women’s Aid. They were sponsored by friends fellow Rotarians raising €2300. We will again do the 80km walk and link it to the Rotary club website and Facebook page with all sponsorship going directly into our charity account. Bernadette hopes that more people will take part in doing the walk which our club sponsored last year. Plan is to have a GoFundMe link on Rotary club Facebook page and website.

PP Tom welcomed our guest Dr. Lamina Kaumi, a friend of our speaker today and recommended that he get in touch with Past District Governor John Doyle in Rotary Club Sligo who will welcome him.
Veronica introduced our speaker Dr Nnamdi Elenwoke, RC Barcelona, a neurosurgeon who speaks English, Spanish and Catalan, who has worked in Barcelona since 2019 and is passionate about teamwork.
Last Week’s Speaker
Dr. Nnamdi sent us greetings from both the Rotary Club of Barcelona and also from the Rotary Club of Nigeria. He started his talk with three quotes. The first quote by William Osler was as follows, “Humanity has but three great enemies: Fever, famine and war; of these by far the greatest, by far the most terrible, is fever” (1896). The next quote he gave us is by Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the WHO, “We do not know where or when the next global pandemic will occur, but we do know that it will take a terrible toll, both on human life and on the global economy” (2018). Although some have been expecting a pandemic, others have been in denial. He quotes Dr. Cuddihy (Director of the HSE's Health Protection Surveillance Centre) who said that the “Likelihood of a case of coronavirus emerging in Ireland was “quite low” (Jan 23rd 2020). When the first wave of COVID-19 began in Teknon Medical Centre Barcelona. Barcelona, surgery was cancelled. And then lockdown came. The situation remains the same to this day. All patients were removed except Covid 19 patients. They then created a Covid 19 team. Each day consisted of – wake up, mental preparation (articles to read), hospital, family, sleep. He prepared for each day, going to the Covid corridor where he donned his 8 piece Personal Protective Equipment. He found that PPE caused difficulty with seeing (mist) and got very hot. He had to use cling film to cover his phone. The team met every morning in café discussions, to review the day’s work. He and others experienced uncertainty, fatigue, stress, helplessness and fear of infecting family members. He attended 572 patients, 48 were in intensive care, 435 were discharged. Mass vaccines began in Spain and in June were immunising the under 50’s. The whole world has had the greatest vaccination programme. However, there may be more waves. We, in Rotary, have done so much for polio, now we can promote the Coronavirus vaccine. The Barcelona club is organising a global grant in cooperation with Nigeria. Our club is welcome to join in.
President Alan asked Dr. Nnamdi how a Nigerian ended up in Cuba. He responded telling us that he received a Fidel Castro scholarship. This was a wonderful experience.