Armagh & District u3a Chairman’s Report
Report from the Chair (Tim Hanna)
Another year has passed which is another year for the effects of Covid to further reduce and enable a more normal running of our U3a. I think it is unrealistic to expect everything to revert to “as it was” overnight and therefore the activities of Armagh U3a need to be viewed in this context.
At its’ core, U3a is essentially made up of its’ membership (160+ at the moment) and its Activity Groups. During the last year we have started 4 new Groups, namely, French Conversation (which my spies tell me is a runaway success) The Pacemakers (no running here but still a success) The Book Group (literary criticism unleashed) and finally Petanque (sounds a gentle pursuit but scarily competitive.) A big thank you to everyone who has started and run these activities and to those running our existing Groups.
Our monthly meetings in the O’Fiaich Library have been well attended and a wide range of talks delivered and enjoyed. A big thanks to Roddy for providing the coffee. Highlight has to have been Jim Campbell’s illustrated talk on Sir John Lavery which almost encroached on lunchtime with his audience blissfully unaware of the time!
Other bits and bobs include Margaret Oakes resurrecting the Out to Lunch Group with recent outings to Dungannon and Newry. The Christmas Quiz run by Dennis Hay. The Christmas Lunch in the Armagh City Hotel in January, with special guests Moon & Earth performing an excerpt from Toxic Relationships. Our participation in the ABC Council 500plus event in the City Hotel which not surprisingly, failed to attract enough votes for a Grant, but did at least publicise U3a.
We have sadly lost a number of members through the year namely Julia Maginess, Peter Conway, Mairead Morgan, Roger Jones, Marty Murray and Margaret Garvin.
Finally, a number of Committee members are standing down, Dennis Hay (Treasurer & Membership Secretary) and Margaret Meehan (Business Secretary) – a big thank you to both. As you can imagine their departures leave a large “hole” in the committee and so we ask again for those who have never been on the committee to consider putting their names forward and help keep the “show” on the road.