Last Saturday evening, 26th January, St Augustine’s Parish Hall was filled to capacity when a highly successful Burn’s Night Supper was held, organised by the Weymouth and District LIFE Group.
The evening consisted of Scottish Music, Singing and Dancing to commemorate the Bard. A supper of the Traditional Haggis with optional dishes of Casserole or Vegetarian Lasagne. Guests brought their own wines, spirits or soft drinks.
At 8 o’clock sharp, the Haggis was brought in and paraded around the assembly.
Fr Stephen in preparing to address the Haggis, mentioned that his family had a connection with Robert Burns via his ancestor, a Bishop Geddes in penal times in Scotland and Burns was quoted as saying that ‘that papist bishop was the only man who spoke any sense’.
Fr Stephen addressed the Haggis in a Scots dialect which was however totally incomprehensible to us sassenachs.
The denouement -
After the meal, we drew the raffle and people also pitched silver coins competing
for a bottle of Whisky. The nearest coin would win the bottle and and the big question
was -
Then followed the singing of favourite Scottish airs, ably led by Paddy Thoyts. Everyone had a ‘Burns Night Song Book’ with selections from the bard, complemented by songs such a ‘The Skye Boat Song’, ‘Scotland the Brave’ and the ‘Eriskay Love Lilt’. Harry Lauder was not forgotten with rousing choruses of ‘I love a Lassie’.
The Master of Ceremonies was the ebullient Dave Hammersley
He ensured that the evening went with a swing
£430 was raised for the LIFE Pregnancy Care Centre in Weymouth. Our grateful thanks to everyone who worked behind the scenes to make this evening such a fantastic success!
