Jimmy Connolly, new president of Kilkenny Rotary Club

The Rotary Club year begins at the start of July each year, and so this year the office of President of Kilkenny Rotary was taken on by Jimmy Connolly.
He spoke recently at a meeting of the local Club where he noted that he is the ‘latest link in an unbroken chain of Presidents, going back exactly 40 years’.
He said that the Rotary organisation’s purpose is really simple and can be summarised in two words: “Fellowship and Service”.
For him, this simplicity is one of Rotary’s attractions and the quality of its Fellowship and Service is the yardstick by which a club is measured.
The new President told the club that his first priority is to begin work with the Rotary council on a three year strategic plan, providing a roadmap to get to where the club wants to be in the future.
All the good work already undertaken by the lub will continue and will feed into this plan.
He listed events such as the Youth Leadership Programme, Remembrance Tree project, quiz night, speakers programme and crocus appeal as examples.
Enhancing
He, like his predecessor, Róisín McQuillan, said his emphasis would be on enhancing the social and fellowship aspect of club life.
The incoming president paid tribute to Róisín who has completed her presidential year and thanked her on behalf of the club for her service during that year.
Barry Rassin, who is this year’s Rotary International President from Nassau in the Bahamas, takes his inspiration from the words of Paul Harris, Rotary founder of 113 years ago.
As Paul Harris put it, “Rotary is a microcosm of a world at peace, a model which nations will do well to follow. Rotary is not only a model, but an inspiration”, hence Barry has chosen the theme “Be the Inspiration” for the Rotary year 2018-19.
“We are to try to be the Inspiration by our Service, locally, nationally and internationally, and by making every effort to live out High Ethical Standards in business and professions, helped by the Rotary Four Way Test of the things we think, say and do,” Jimmy said.