CBS past pupils mark half century since Leaving Cert
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The CBS Mullingar class of 1975 photographed at the school, Coláiste Mhuire, on Friday evening.Image 2 of 13
Joe Martin, Gerry Whyte and Oliver Connolly on Friday evening.Image 3 of 13
Niall O’Brien (current deputy principal) with Tony O’Gorman (former deputy principal).Image 4 of 13
Gerry Raleigh and Cyril Kiernan at the reunion.Image 5 of 13
Pat Kearney, Eugene Kilduff and Eamon O’Reilly from Mullingar.Image 6 of 13
Eugene Bourke and Michael Hyland at Coláiste Mhuire.Image 7 of 13
Anna and Patrick Lyons at the 50th anniversary event.Image 8 of 13
Chris and Bernadette Costello at Friday’s reunion.Image 9 of 13
Anna Mills, Oliver Mills, Paul Connolly and Pat Egerton at the CBS reunion.Image 10 of 13
Declan Quigley and Aidan Geerah from 1975 class.Image 11 of 13
Michael and Ber Duffy with Aidan Maguire.Image 12 of 13
Antoinette Duffy, Pat Duffy, John Corroon and Neil Weir at the Coláiste Mhuire reunion.Image 13 of 13
Tommy Daly from The Downs and Bernie Kiernan from Killare.In June of 1975 a total of 63 students of Coláiste Mhuire CBS, Mullingar participated in the State Leaving Certificate exams. On Friday June 13 a group from that Class of 1975 returned to College Street, Mullingar to reminisce on times past: “We had a great evening and a great night,” CBS past pupil Gerry Raleigh said.
The former pupils returned to the secondary school they left half a century ago: “It was a lovely evening. We met at the school at seven. We got a warm welcome from the current vice-principal. He said a few words and brought us up to date with developments in the school.
“We got an informative tour of the school building, which has changed remarkably in 50 years. It’s twice the size it was and really is impressive,” Gerry said.
The organisers of the get-together tried to include as many past pupils as possible: “There were 63 people on the roll in 1975 who did their Leaving Cert. We had 24 or 25 of those present on Friday night.
“And it was wonderful to meet them and reminisce, people I hadn’t seen for 50 years. So it was great just to meet again, share stories. Unfortunately, we’ve lost a number of classmates in that time.” Gerry said it was a special evening: “There is a strong bond that exists between the lads who were together in 1975. Remarkably so.
“People had such positive experiences from school in 1975. We were also joined on Friday night by a number of people who taught us. That was wonderful. It was an opportunity to meet them, but also to thank them in a particular way for their work in putting foundations underneath us and setting us on our way into adult life.”
The organisers embraced modern technology to reach out to as many past pupils as possible: “We recorded the whole event and spoke to everybody there. There’s a piece-to-camera video from all who attended, and we were joined on video and with messages by classmates who couldn’t attend, lads from all over the world and here in Ireland.
“We tried to make sure that the night was as inclusive as we could for everybody. It’s great that so many people who weren’t able to attend were able to participate in the event.”
After the tour of the school the former Coláiste Mhuire students had a get together at the Greville Arms Hotel, Mullingar.