On Saturday, 1st October 2022 a large group of former 'Ranch' students met up in St Mary’s University College to celebrate a 52 year reunion. Some had travelled from England and Dublin and many apologies had come from former students now living in USA and New Zealand.
The day began with a 'Meet and Greet' session with each participant needing to wear a name tab for obvious reasons!! This was followed by a 'Memorial' to all those year group students who had died, some in very tragic circumstances. The session ended with an appropriate hymn sung by one of the 1970 intake and well known member of Barnbrack, Alex Quinn.
The final session was entitled 'Life after the Ranch' which involved Peter Finn in conversation with a number of past Ranchers recalling their time at St Joseph's College of Education in the early 70's and the years since then.
Everyone then made their way up to St Gall's GAA Club where they had a meal and indulged in more reminiscing on those memorable years spent at the Ranch over 50 years ago. Again the evening was enhanced by the music and songs of Alex Quinn.
St Mary’s had gone to great lengths to facilitate the reunion and we would like to thank all the staff involved in making this such a memorable occasion for everyone, especially the Principal, Peter Finn, and Eilís
McAteer.
Finally, the Organising Committee would like to thank all those past 'Ranch' students who attended the reunion and hope you enjoyed your day.