The Anstruther Rotary Club’s meeting on January 24th at the Craw’s Nest Hotel was its annual Burns supper, where members and guests enjoyed a meal of haggis, neeps and tatties, followed by superb entertainment celebrating the work of the great poet.
John Mitchell piped in the haggis. senior vice-president Derek Mathie took the chair, and then president John Wood provided an excellent address ‘To a Haggis’. This was followed, after the meal, by The Immortal Memory presented by club member Andrew Lindsay. Andrew convincingly argued that through his writing one really gets to know Burns as a person. Also, as well as giving Scots pride in their language, Burns celebrated fundamental human values, concerning goodwill, friendship, shared responsibility and truth.
Ian Brunton then followed with The Toast to the Lassies, which had some interesting points about the teasing relationship between men and women, and also about the different types of women in Burns’ life; there were also a large number of irreverent jokes in Ian’s affectionate, but slightly insulting speech. Councillor Elizabeth Riches had the somewhat daunting task of replying to this, but she rose splendidly to the challenge, with her theme of ‘What exactly are Laddies for’? Fortunately she was able to find one or two positive answers to this extremely difficult question.
Club members then read some of Burns’ better known poems. Graham Meacher gave an eloquent rendition of ‘Holy Willie’s Prayer’; John O’Neill appropriately read the ‘Address to the Toothache’; Alastair Graham presented ‘To a Mouse’; and Bill Henderson, with great passion, ‘A Man’s a Man for a’ That’. In between, club member Roderick Skinner, drawing on the fact that Burns was a ploughman’s poet, presented his own hilarious poem, in Burns’ style, about the contrast between the agriculture of present-day times and the agriculture of Burns’ day.
And finally club members were privileged to hear Tam o’ Shanter in a brilliant rendition by guest Peter Peddie. Derek Mathie then proposed the vote of thanks, which included an appreciation of club member Jim Braid, the organisational brains behind a very successful evening.
