Report on the Ladies Lunch

On Friday the 25th of January 2019, Sacred Heart School had its 10th annual Ladies Lunch.
The Ladies Lunch is a yearly event for the TYs where a guest speaker comes in to talk to
us. Here I will talk about the preparation for and the events of the day.
While the Ladies Lunch committee were in charge of organising the event, the CEOs and
deputy CEOs of each mini-company were also involved. They had to help organise the
menu and the CEOs had to prepare a speech for the day. The cost of the Ladies Lunch
was €18 per person, with each person having to pay €10 themselves, and the mini-
companies having to pay the remaining €8 for each person in their company. As a
member of the finance team of LettuceEat Ltd, it was the job of Kara, Shreya and I to
collect the money from the girls, record everyone who had paid, withdraw the €136 (€8
per person x 17 members of LettuceEat Ltd) from our Credit Union account, and pay the
money into the office.
All of the TY students and the relevant teachers received an invitation to the lunch,
which we had to RSVP to. We also had to learn social etiquette, which we covered in our
Culinary Skills class with Ms Griffin. There we went over table layout and decided as a
class on a list of rules of social etiquette that would serve us for both the Ladies Lunch
and life in general.
On the day, we had all gotten dressed up. At 11am, we walked down to the Bridge
House Hotel, which was the venue of the Ladies Lunch. There we had our photos taken
on the main stairs in groups, which included the photograph of all of TY and our guest
speaker, Evelyn Cusack. Then, we went into the ballroom and sat down.
Before our lunch, the CEOs of the mini-companies each gave a speech about the ways in
which TY has benefited us all. Karen, our CEO, went 1st and so she also had to welcome
us all. In the background, a PowerPoint created by Aoife Khasri with pictures of the TY
students at various events throughout the year played.
Next, we had our lunch. There was soup or melon for starters, chicken curry, beef
stroganoff or pasta for mains, and then a selection of desserts. While we were finishing
our desserts, Evelyn Cusack got up to give us her speech. Evelyn Cusack is a famous
meteorologist and weather presenter who has had a long-distinguished career in Met
Éireann. She talked to us about how she got into her job in Met Éireann and gave us
some advice on careers. One thing she told us was that while people are told to do what
they are passionate about, most of us do not know what that is for them, so Evelyn
advised us to, at the very least, never ever do something you hate. This was one of my
favourite parts of the Ladies Lunch as I am interested in science and physics.
After giving her speech, we were allowed to ask Evelyn Cusack any questions. At the
end, all the CEOs presented her with a bouquet of flowers and thanked her for coming.
The Ladies Lunch finished at around 2pm.
Overall, I found the Ladies Lunch to be a very memorable experience. It was great to
spend time with my friends and to get to hear Evelyn Cusack speak.