Scoil Lorcain class reunite after 60 years

Sixty years after being the first to complete the entire cycle of the school, Brother Cross’s Scoil Lorcain Primary class of 1964 held a reunion last week.

Over 20 past pupils gathered to reminisce on days of old and recount cherished childhood memories spent in the St. John’s Park area of the city, in the school and in the surrounding estates.

The day kicked off with the gathering of the class at the school. As the past pupils arrived one by one they chatted about childhood, their youth spent under the tutelage of Brother Cross, life and work after Scoil Lorcain and how much Waterford has changed over the years.

Current Principal of the school, Ms. Caroline Douris welcome the group into the school hall for refreshments, before guiding them on a grand tour of the school grounds. That evening, the group travelled to the Mansion House to further reconnect.

Organiser of the reunion is former student Michael (Micky) Hanlon, who tracked down his classmates.

It was a mammoth task the find all 54 of the students who were in the class, a task which was taken on by Michael, who said: “About four months ago, I went on Facebook, the John’s Park website and a couple other places, and just started messaging people looking for help to get contacts for a reunion”

“When we were young, I knew where most of the boys were living so what I did was literally just knock on doors to see if they were still there, but I found that most of them were after moving so I had no addresses. But thanks to the men and women from the postal service, I was able to find a lot of the names."

From the class of 54 students, some are now living in Norway, Australia and the USA. 11 of the class have passed away.

“I really thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it,” Michael said, “It took time but I found 54 people and I was delighted to get that number. I’m over the moon and I was hoping and praying that we’d get the numbers we got today.” 

“I couldn’t have done this 20 years ago when there was no Facebook or none of the websites and the people in John’s Park were very good and a lot of people came back with a lot of information.” 

Reminiscing on his classmates, Michael said,  “Everybody who is here today, and everybody who isn’t with us anymore, they all did well in life. So many of them who are here now, they’ve changed a lot but their features and voices are all still the same. It’s unreal. It’s like turning back the clocks.” 

Brother Cross was an integral part of the boys' lives in the school and he was remembered fondly during the reunion. 

Speaking on the significance of Brother Cross, Michael said, “When the school opened he was principal and every time you moved class he moved with you. I don’t really know what happened to him after we left, I made enquiries but nobody knows.

“He was a gentleman and he was a great man for ‘Feile na Scoileanna’. Every school put on a play and you went to the Theatre Royal. One of the best ones Brother Cross ever did was ‘Oklahoma!’. It was just brilliant.

Another former pupil, Francis Flynn, said, “We’re all trying to figure out here today, how Brother Cross controlled 54 monkeys, because that’s what we were like. He was unbelievable and he was a brilliant teacher."