There was a great sense of nostalgia at an event at the Hotel Kilmore, Cavan on Saturday evening, November 4, when the Ballyhaise Agricultural College class of 1984 gathered for a reunion.
Speaking to Agriland after the reunion, Tom Kellegher who was a member of the class of 1984 and one of the reunions’ organisers said “there were people from Donegal, Sligo, Longford, Cavan, and Dublin in our class”.
Tom said the reunion provided a great opportunity to reunite with old classmates and to ‘catch up’ on what has been happening in the lives of their old classmates.
“Of the 50 who started in our year, 33 attended the reunion which was very successful. Of the other 10, six or seven of these are now abroad in countries such as America, Canada and New Zealand. Seven of our classmates have sadly passed away,” he said.
“Many of our classmates are still farming at some level and there are about 12 of us that are dairy farmers.
“One lad manages a pig farm for in Bailieboro, another is a Department of Agriculture inspector, and there are two lads from the year who are are scanning cows in the area. These are well-known on farms around Cavan and the surrounding areas, Kenneth Burns from Killygarry and Padraig Reilly from Mullahoran.
“There is a postman, a store manager with Aurivo, another of us is now working with Leitrim County Council, and plenty of us are part-time farming.
“Coincidentally, Oilver Burke taught us the sheep modules in Ballyhaise. He became the Teagasc regional manager for Roscommon and Longford, and I replaced him following his sudden death in May 2014.
“We were also joined by some former staff of the college. Olive Browne who worked in the canteen and John Doherty who was the farm manager. Both of these staff have since retired.
“Roy O’Brien was student supervisor when we were there and he now works as regional coordinator with the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) in Connaught. His wife Teresa also joined us at they reunion. They met in Ballyhaise, while she was working there in the canteen.
“We had a good football team that year and the whole class went on a trip to Europe. We visited France, Germany and Holland. It was a brilliant trip that the lads still remember.”
On Sunday, November 5, the former students returned to Ballyhaise Agricultural College where the principal John Kelly took the group on a tour of the college.