Thanksgiving Day is celebrated more widely than Christmas and that’s understandable. Whether or not we believe in Christianity we all know when we have reasons to be thankful. That is not to say, of course, that we always remember to be thankful. In our busy lives we often groan and moan about what we haven’t got. We aspire to bigger houses and better cars. We want more money. If the recession has taught us anything it may have taught us that these things aren’t important anymore.  What are important are all the things we celebrate at Thanksgiving. On that day we acknowledge the importance of family life, of food on the table and of the freedom to celebrate.
On that day it would do us no harm to spare a thought or a prayer for those less fortunate in our world. The group Amnesty tells us about prisoners of conscience throughout the world. The newspapers tell us about the starving in Africa, about drought and flooding. Each one of us knows someone who is ill or in hospital. So when we are gathered around that family table let’s stop and think how lucky we are and each, in our own way, express thanks for the gifts we’ve been given…

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Halloween has become almost as commercialised as Christmas. Children won’t play Trick or Treat unless they have appropriate costumes. Every store has hats and brooms for witches. Every home that has children has to be decorated too. There’s no need to ask, ”Is there a ghost in the house?” because at least one of the children will be dressed up in a white sheet uttering ghostly noises. In many windows hallowed out pumpkins hold candles which cast out a flickering light, thus adding to the ghostly atmosphere. It’s doubtful whether today’s children play those old-fashioned Halloween games such as snap apple any more. It’s even more doubtful whether they put chestnuts to roast on an open fire. Busy parents buy their costumes these days instead of making them. Yet despite these differences children still love dressing up, taking a bag and knocking on doors hoping to be given lots of lovely things to eat. Halloween may be commercialised but children will always be children.

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The nights are getting darker
The evenings drawing in
Winter’s just upon us
Let’s take it on the chin
Because, you see, it’s party time
When we go on the town
Dressed up for the function
In an evening suit or gown.
There’ll be toasts to the ladies
Carry on that leads to Hades
Dancing the whole night through
Votes of thanks to speakers too
Forget the cold and instead
Go out and paint the town bright red.

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Veteran’s Day is fast approaching and with it will come the sound of marching feet, barked commands and utter silence. Flags will fly at half mast and those present will remember and salute the dead. Amongst them will be the veterans of war, those who survived the carnage. Some will have been badly injured, others will sport medals and yet more will still have nightmares thinking of what battle really means. Those who fought or died are entitled to be honoured in this way. They did their duty and were loyal and patriotic. Yet surely too such gatherings must tell us that we have not learnt our lesson well. We continue to invade and to fight. We spend billions on war when we should be spending it on want. We have not learnt to live at peace with our neighbours. Certainly we have not learnt to love them. Their actions are not always lovable of course but that old adage of an eye for an eye leaving everyone blind is true. Perhaps the best compliment we could give to our war dead is to ensure, through diplomacy, that no other mother should lose a son.  Now that’s a challenge and a war worth fighting.

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Robert Burns night is not until January but already Scots are organising the haggis, tasting the usice beatha and pressing their kilts. They fully intend doing great justice to the Bard and all his works. Scotland is not the biggest country in the world but in terms of celebrations they certainly know to party. Wherever they are around the globe they get together to toast Robbie Burns and to spend a night amongst their own. It’s a night full of pomp and ceremony, fun and laughter, a little nostalgia and the use of words that aren’t always in the Oxford dictionary. After all Robbie wrote in his own dialect and the songs and ballads he wrote summed up the people and places of his time. For a man who spent his whole life in Scotland he and his works are famous throughout the world. Most of his life was spent on farms but, unfortunately for him, he was not a farmer and his crops always seemed to fail. That is why he became an excise man. He needed the income to feed his family because although he was a prolific writer it wasn’t a profitable occupation…
He was born in an era where travel was slow and ponderous yet today his works on the internet are available wherever lovers of literature search.  Robbie wrote ballads and poems of the people and places he knew and they always reflected the human condition. Perhaps that is why on New Years Eve even those who don’t know him or his works sing lustily “Should auld acquaintances be forgot.”

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Labor Day is a day when we don’t go to work. Yet, strangely, on this bank holiday we are celebrating the work ethos and how workers rights have evolved. It is a day when there are parades and speeches and for lots of us it as a farewell to the summer season… Yet for those who know the history of the trade union movement it is a celebration of the rights workers sought and gained because of strikes and even deaths.
In Europe they won’t be celebrating on the first Monday in September. They will, instead, be celebrating for the same reason but they do so on May Day which is the beginning of the summer. In Britain the workers had traditionally sown the seeds and were entitled to a day off to rest and celebrate with Morris dancing and the May Pole. Whatever form the festivities take it is often forgotten that there is a long and bloody history attached to the rights and holidays most of us enjoy today.

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Let’s bring patriotism back. That’s the real answer to the fiscal crisis. If we really believed in our country we wouldn’t belittle it in any way. Instead we’d work even harder to make it a success.
That is not to say that we haven’t made mistakes. Our foreign policy, for instance, has cost us a fortune and meant that thousands of soldiers have died. It has also brought us respect and gratitude from those that were under the yoke of dictators such as Saddam Hussein.
The U.S. has problems but they can and must be solved and the American people are the ones who can do it if they have the willpower and the determination. On July the 4th as we celebrate Independence Day we should think about how lucky we are to be free.
We should think about how much we have gained from all people who have become part of our nation. We should think, plan and act positively. Patriotism means more than fireworks and flying the flag. It means showing our love for our country by making it work.

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St. Patrick’s day is approaching and with it Irish people all around the world celebrate the feast of Ireland’s Patron Saint. How they celebrate depends, of course, on who they are and why they have left home.

Some will be serving with the United Nations in army bases in Africa. Others will be playing Aussie rules instead of hurling. Yet more will be pack-packing around the world.

Some will be will be bringing their business skills to companies in America and Europe.
On St. Patrick’s Day though they will all be Irish and proud of it.

Pride in your race is hard to define. It’s what makes you shout for your country’s football team or drink Guinness. It’s what allows you to criticise your leaders without allowing others the same privilege. For the Irish it’s about being both Celts and Christians.

In a secular world that’s a difficult combination but its there. Most of us still say a prayer for someone in trouble. Most of us believe that we have a mission to help those who are starving in the world. Somewhere in our background there is something that makes us want to influence the world for the better.. Our missionaries, our volunteers, our writers and artists have all spread the Irish message even if, in these days, we are slightly confused about what that message actually is.

On St. Patrick’s day, whatever their understanding of being Irish, the diaspora will celebrate and for a little while think of home and what it means to them. They will, in fact, be wearing the Shamrock with pride.

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Australia Day is often celebrated with barbeques on beaches. That’s probably apt because the day celebrates the arrival of the first fleet in 1788. The Australian person of the year is announced and like anyone else who is the person of the year he or she is lauded with speeches given praising his or her contribution to Australia. There are those, of course, who do not think it apt that Australians should commemorate the fact that the British colonised their country and destroyed the Indigenous culture. To them the other title for the day, “Invasion Day” is much more suitable. Whatever about that there are undoubtedly many official dinners and events on the day and with them will come the need for welcome to the guests speeches and toasts to the honored guests. Whatever is said at such functions for the average Australian it’s just a public holiday and a day off work. With a glorious climate and miles of glorious beaches it’s not surprising that
they will be quite happy to forget history and wallow in the water or drink beer on Bondi.

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Topicality is a speechwriters’ best friend. That is not to say that in January your speeches should be confined to Chinese New Year speeches or even Australia Day speeches. It does not mean that you have to write about Martin Luther King either although his day is celebrated that month. It simply means that these events give you some link that you can use, something with which to tie your own particular speech. At a son’s 21st birthday party in January for instance, you could start by saying. “We are not the only ones raising a toast this month. All over the world Scots are raising a glass to toast the immortal memory of their favourite Bard Robbie Burns”.
Today though we are toasting our favourite son..Obviously then you would go on and speak about your own son and his growing years.
Whether you link your speech with some historical event or with a current happening it will add a some interest and capture the attention of your audience. You have, you see, introduced the unexpected. So whether you are speaking at a wedding anniversary, a company function or a sporting occasion spread your net a little and make your audience think.

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