Annual Reunion Dinner 2025

The social highlight of our year is our Annual Dinner in Clontarf Castle, held this year on Friday, 28th February. It was a great success - much enjoyed by all who attended.

There's a great buzz about it right now on our "anniversary year" WhatsApp Groups (5 yearly from 1970 to 2005). Latest indications are that around 130 were at the Dinner.  What an occasion - non-stop chat between past pupils at tables reserved for their year and for groups of years close together. Good representations were also put in by other years, notably 1959 and 1966.

Representatives of other CBS schools (O'Connell's, Synge St. and Westland Row) were also in attendance.

There were 6 speakers:

Hon. Treasurer and MC for the evening, James Rogan (Class of 1982), welcomed our guests, teachers and past pupils. He also introduced the other speakers.

School Principals, Tiarnán Crowe (Primary) and Ciara McDonnell (Secondary) told us about recent and planned capital and other developments in both schools.

Joeys Alumni President (Class of 1966), Dave Rafferty, spoke about our achievements over the past 8 years and of the long service and advancing age profile of committee members, including himself. Networking is our union's core strength and is much valued by past pupils and the wider school community. But long-term sustainability has now become our priority issue. With that in mind, we are currently preparing a white paper outlining our vision for the future of the alumni network. This will be shared with all alumni in the coming months. We don’t want this to be a one-sided conversation—we need your insights, ideas, and feedback to shape a strong and sustainable plan. He thanked all alumni for their continued support. Alumni involvement is what makes our community strong, and we look forward to engaging with our members in the months ahead as we shape the future together.

Fr. John Flaherty (Class of 1975) spoke briefly of his association with schoolmates and the school and said grace.

Our Strategy & Planning Coordinator, Brendan McGrath, introduced and ran our raffle. He thanked all our sponsors for the prizes, all of which had been donated (including a painting by artist, Brian Byrne, Class of 1970). He also spoke about our book "The Epic Origins of Hurling", which we had on sale. On conclusion of the raffle and presentation of prizes, he advised that the proceeds of approx €3,500 would be used to assist with funding our running costs and projects.

Our heartfelt thanks go to all who assisted organising the event, who made things happen on the night and to our photographer, Alan O'Dowd (Class of 1991), whose photos at the event (supplemented by a small number taken by members), can be viewed here: Joeys Alumni

More photos taken at the Dinner by Alan and any others sent to us will be posted later.

Many thanks also to all who attended, to those who support us financially and with their time and expertise - agus Joeys Ar Aghaidh!