A REUNION of pupils of St Nathy’s College in Co. Roscommon took place this month — with the final missing member of the class tracked down with the help of The Irish Post.
The college reunion included pupils from the 1961-1966 class - all of whom are now aged around 68.
Organiser Cormac Gordon, and several of his former classmates, began their search for other former classmates last year, and initially managed to obtain the names of all the 66 students in the class.
They then began tracking them down.
Cormac found out that 11 of the classmates had sadly since passed away.
And when it came to the surviving members, all were accounted for except for one - Ollie O’Brien.
He was believed to have emigrated to England, so Cormac contacted The Irish Post for help, and the tactic came up trumps.
Gordon told us: “As a result of the publicity in The Irish Post we located Ollie. Initially I got a few calls from people in London saying that they’d known Ollie but hadn’t seen him for a number of years.”
So the search for Ollie by the organisers continued. Then lady luck, and The Irish Post, intervened.
“I got a call from a relative of his in London who had been contacted by a man living in Castlerea, Co. Roscommon. It seems he’d worked with Ollie. As it happens, both of them were also involved in St. Geraldine's GAA club in the late 80s.
“So the relative contacted Ollie, he got in touch, and made it along to the reunion. He lives in London now, having been in England for many decades,” Cormac told us.
Out of the 66 former pupils 40 managed to attend St Nathy’s for the reunion.
“Six of the group had travelled from various parts of Britain for the event,” Cormac said.
The six exiles from St Nathy’s in Ballaghaderreen are Ollie O’Brien (London), Thomas Vesey (Beckenham, Kent), Fr Joe Feeley (Ashford, Kent), Noel Kenny (Alton, Hampshire), Anthony Killoran (Liverpool) and Patrick King (Cricklewood, London).
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