The day began with ‘skipping’ out of bed at 6am, shower, teeth, uniform and on the road for 6:30am.
The first engagement was in Wexford Town at the South East Provincial Conference. There was a great atmosphere once you entered the hotel, a real buzz, neckerchiefs everywhere, scouters mingling, talking, deep debate on the pros and cons of SI and the goings on at the moment. It was a lovely touch to have the conference opened by a Flag Party of youth members and was followed by some genuine and uplifting words from the Mayor.
Once the conference kicked off, we saw Scouters and Youth members head to their prospective sessions with round table discussions and presentations on all things scouting. I was disappointed that I was unable to stay for the whole day but with a start like this to my day, it really renewed my confidence in Scouting Ireland and the leadership we have at every level in the Organisation.
As my tour of the East coast continued, engagement no. 2 brought me to Glendale Wilderness Lodge, for their Flag Ceremony. All I can say is ‘What an amazing facility’.
This should be an example to all groups as to what is achievable when a group of focused, visionary, brave leaders can achieve, when they put their mind to it. Of course, these Scouters are standing on the shoulders of giants, the leaders that took the initial step in the 1960’s. I really enjoyed meeting some of the older people, listening to their stories, the build of the old cabin, the work weekends, painting, landscaping, and of course the lifelong friends they made. I had one piece of left over business from Cruinniú, last September, a small presentation of the ‘Chief Scout Woggle’, to Oscar, the Venture Scout that invested me as Chief Scout, of course Oscar was manning the gate, directing traffic and far away from the formalities of the event. He still got the woggle though, out the window of the car. As the flags were raised there was a visible pride from the whole Group. Well done to all and here’s to the next 60 years.
From the mountains and woods of Glencree it was off to Navan Road for the Tolka Scout Show. What a fantastic end to my day. We had, I’m pretty sure, all sections represented on the stage, with dancing, singing, magic and everything in between on display from Tolka but also a few periphery groups close by. I must say I enjoyed the show from start to finish and I’m already looking forward to next year when hopefully we will have a National Scout Show, bigger but it’ll be hard to be better than what I experienced last Saturday. Congratulations and Bravo to all of the talent that was on display and a ‘Thank You’ to all the Scouters that quite obviously put so much time into delivering an event second to none.
Last Saturday I got to experience so many different Scouting Activities, Outdoor, Indoor, meetings and greetings. All of them really gave me a massive lift and a renewed confidence in where Scouting Ireland is going, confidence in our abilities and how we can deliver Scouting to our membership at every level, Group, County, Province and National. When I’m out and about my primary focus is to listen to our membership, young and old and try and look for solutions to the difficulties that some of us are having, but what I saw on Saturday was young members and adults all part of a solution driven organisation, all part of an organisation that has a can-do attitude, full of young people supported by adults in the delivery of the highest quality of scouting.
Looking forward to meeting you on your scouting trail where hopefully you’ll share more of your stories with me.
Yours in Scouting,
Eoin Callanan
Chief Scout of Scouting Ireland
