Our Annual General Meeting will be held on Monday 26^th April 2010 at 19:00 hours at the Green Room, Stade Louise II, Fontvieille (Western entrance of the Stadium opposite the Marriott Hôtel).

Agenda of the Meeting

-          Approval of the minutes of the last A.G.M

-          Treasurer’s Report

-          Other matters: amendment of rehearsal days; next production, etc...

‘Human life is best understood, by the wise man’s rule, of regarding the end’

(A Tale of a Tub)

On 12^th March 2010 the Monaco-Ireland Arts Society gave an evening on the works of Jonathan Swift, 18^th century essayist and Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.

Swift considered that life in general was a ‘farce’ but that old age was ‘a ridiculous tragedy’.

His favourite homily was ‘on the privy all men are equal’.  This provoked James Joyce to remark that Swift had a cloacal obsession.  (Joyce himself had a similar obsession when it came to his sexual relationships).

The attendance on Friday 12^th was a discerning audience, quick to appreciate the pungent satire and amused by the scatological extracts.  Although Swift is generally considered an author for children, the Monaco-Ireland Arts Society wished to acquaint their public with the censored pages of ‘Gulliver’s Travels’.  His scatological poems are often ‘edited’ in anthologies of Swift’s work, or not published at all.

Apart from the poem ‘The Lady’s Dressing Room’ which was presented on this occasion, Swift wrote four other highly controversial poems : ‘The Progress of Beauty’, ‘A Beautiful Young Nymph going to Bed’, Strephon & Chloe’ and ‘Cassinus & Peter’.

His obituary, of his own composition, sums up his view on humanity, thus :-

                          “He gave the little wealth he had,

                           To build a house for fools and mad :

                          And shew’d by one satyric touch,

                           No nation wanted it so much...”