JCI Dublin - Junior Chamber International Dublin

Alison and the JCI Dublin guests (left to right: Ray, Anthony, Elizabeth, Alison, Kevin, Michelle, Tudor)

This year's Colquhoun dinner was in the memory of Robert Kerr Fulton, a well known Scottish comedian. The venue was the Trades Hall, a magnificient old building which apparently had very sensitive smoke detectors recently installed - a small detail of which the guests were quicly made aware. The fire alarms started sounding almost as soon as the guests had sat down, and everybody was rushed ouside in the cold (or alternatively in the very warm and cosy Steps pub across the street). A more spiced up version of that can be found directly on JCI Glasgow's website! 

All in all, it was a great opportunity to find out quite a few unique things about our twins in Glasgow: JCI Glasgow's has a Chairman rather than a President, they all loved Rikki Fulton, are great with a speech, their arch-enemy chapter is JCI Edinburgh, the 71st Colquhoun dinner was the first one in a long time when a member of the rival Edinburgh chapter was allowed to address the public and there is an old tradition about running to the Steps pub across the road for a drink in between the meal and the speeches (for speakers to get a chance to ...err... clean their throats!)

JCI Dublin guests there found out that altough our glaswegian twins are masters of the word, they are a bit less gifted when it comes to images - it took our good friend Richard 5 attempts to take a photo without chopping off somebody's head, arm or leg!

The Glasgow dinner gave us the opportunity to meet our twins' twins, Marianne and Ari from JCI Oulu, Finland, as well as our "lost" twins from JCI Leeds, represented by Julia. We hope to meet again soon!

The Burns Supper was hosted in the Radisson SAS hotel, right in the heart of Edinburgh's centre. We started the day off with a powerful training on "making the most of me" delivered by Scott from Scotland (actually Scott Johnston from Glasgow - choice of trainer showing that the two chapters actually enjoy a fruitful rivalry!) The training was followed by whisky tasting (without an "e", for the scotch variety). Five bottles of the highland spirit were presented, the qualities of each commented out before revealing its identity. Still, the Dublin team were able to spot the whiskey among whiskys, rightfully selecting the triple distilled single malt one as the best among the others, without knowing in advance what it said on the label!

The dinner commenced with haggis washed up with whisky, the traditional Scottish way (including bagpipes to present the haggis!). The meal was followed by effervescent speeches in which we learned about Rober Burns' rockstar-like status, had he lived today, as well as witnessed a proper toast to the lassies, and an even more proper reply. The night's grand finale was traditional ceilidh dancing, which had the whole audience spinning, turning and twisting on the dance floor!

JCI Dublin would like to thank our twins in Glasgow, as well as their rivals in Edinburgh for showing us such a great time!  

Tudor Borlea
JCI Dublin - February 2008

Tudor, Marianne, Kevin and Julia - Courtesy of Richard - 5th attempt