Balloonagh Reunion Archives

AH, 1987.

The heyday of U2, Madonna and Michael Jackson, Johnny Logan warbling his way to Eurovision glory, Stephen Roche becoming a cycling hero winning the Tour de France and the National Lottery was launched to turn us into millionaires/paupers.

It was also the year a group of over 100 girls in Balloonagh sat the Leaving Cert and began new chapters in their lives.

Well, 30 years on, those chapters will be reviewed and schooldays relived when they get back together in The Ashe Hotel on August 12 for the ‘Class of 1987’ Reunion.

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The Balloonagh School Class of 1987 at their Debs Ball. Recognise anyone?

The event is being organised by Rose Dillon a number of other past pupils. A few weeks ago she sent a message on Facebook suggesting the class gather together for a reunion. Through Facebook and WhatsApp they have managed to catch-up with a lot of past pupils.

“I’m getting lots of help from my twin sister Moira Dillon and fellow classmates Irene O’Grady, Caroline Scully, Stella O’Connor (O’Mahoney) and Orla Morton (O’Regan). Between us all and the additional tracking skills of others, we’ve made quick progress in a very short timeframe!” said Rose.

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“Mary Dillane (Culloty) had made a detailed list of names of almost everyone in the Debs photo at the time. so we have been working from that and have successfully tracked down all but six girls from the class of 1987,” she added.

“We are very much looking forward to reconnecting and catching up. The large majority of us haven’t been in touch for 30 years. Many are travelling to Tralee for the reunion, from Wicklow, Dublin, Cork, Limerick, all over Ireland really, as well as England and France. Unfortunately some who are in Australia just can’t make it… so, it’s the perfect excuse to plan our next reunion,” said Rose.

Teachers from that period are also invited to come on the night. So Saturday, August 12 in The Ashe Hotel is set to be some get together, where it will be a strictly private event with 1987-only past pupil attendance…complete with name badges!

IT might have been just a get together to organise a school reunion, but there were many laughs and memories shared by some of the Balloonagh Class of 1991 at Bella Bia on Thursday night.

“It’s just a meeting to organise a bigger reunion at some stage,” said Georgina Hobbert. “It’s been 25 years so it’s long awaited. There were four classes of us back then.”

One former student, Caroline Brosnan, was back from Australia for the meeting on Thursday night.

“I’ve been in Sydney for the past 17 years. My husband [John Kennedy from Lixnaw] and I come home every 1½ to two years. Edel Fitzgerald put out the feelers to see how many of the girls are still around and we’ve a nice gang here tonight. It’s great to get together, some of us haven’t seen each other in 20 years,” said Caroline, who now has two children, Jayden and Eli.

The ladies had a great time catching up but no concrete date has yet been set for the real reunion. If you were part of the Class of 1991 in the school you can find out more by clicking here on their Facebook page.

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