Pure joy at Mayo 50-year class reunion
A group of four women decided to see if there was any interest in celebrating the golden 50 years since doing the Leaving Certificate in St. Louis Convent, Balla, in the year 1976.
It was a mammoth task to obtain contact details for all of the girls as it had been a boarding school as well as a day school and the women were now spread far and wide.
Add to this the fact that there were absolutely no forms of social media or phones or such like in 1976.
Young girls just left school and got on with their new lives wherever they had landed. Contact after that was mainly with their families.
A year list of names kept diligently by one member was used to start the ball rolling. Messages were sent, calls were made – a network of sleuths was born and the search was on.
Family death notices were trawled through, planning applications were searched, one woman drove around the back roads of Longford looking for an old school friend, another was almost attacked by dogs but fled into a neighbour’s house who not only saved her but gave her the information she was looking for.
The enthusiasm and teamwork was infectious – the aim had been that every single girl on that list would be contacted and know about the planned reunion.
Soon a large proportion of the phone numbers had been gathered, and WhatsApp was employed as the tool to link all these together.
And finally, success!
Every single girl had somehow been contacted and knew about the planned reunion.
Athlone was chosen as it is so central and the Sheraton Hotel as it is near the railway station – free travel was of course an essential part of the celebration as we are all now (unbelievably!) OAP’s.
August 25, 2026, was the date.
Of the 60 girls from the Leaving Cert year of 1976 in Balla school, six live abroad now (USA 5, UK 1), though there are a number who did live abroad and have returned. 28 live in Mayo, 12 in Dublin, four in Galway, two in Kildare and the rest individually in counties Donegal, Cavan, Louth, Offaly and Westmeath (three address unknown).
Five of the girls are sadly no longer with us.
A total of 37 women descended on the Sheraton in Athlone.
From the get-go, the joy, the laughter, the delight was to be felt and heard. There was never a lull – old friendships were rekindled, stories exchanged.
The room was just buzzing with women mixing, greeting, smiling.
The 50-year gap was bridged instantly and it felt like the years just fell away. Of course there were many grey heads where once they’d been auburn or brown or even black.
Of course there were wrinkles in the once smooth teenager skin but the heart and the laughter and the friendship and the warmth were still there.
One of the former students, Lillian Clesham, an interfaith minister, performed a very simple and moving ceremony in honour of the five girls who are no longer with us.
Each girl was remembered, with a red rose being placed in a vase by Lillian while she talked about each girl.
A sixth rose was placed in the vase in memory of all our departed loved ones. It was beautiful, bringing tears to many eyes and touching every heart deeply.
Photographer Alison Laredo, as always, captured the joy of the day so well, recording the many memories being made.
In 1976 we had all stood there on the threshold of our adult lives and now here we were in our late 60’s with all the adventures, achievements, sorrows and joys of our individual journeys in life, together for the first time after 50 years.
It turned out to be a watershed moment for our friendships of old and one of the women described the event as “one of the most genuine and joyful celebrations I have ever been at."
It was a whole day of simple joy and rekindling old friendships that had lapsed due to no fault in the friendships themselves but due to the times that were in it in 1976.