De La Salle past pupils to walk down ‘memory lane’

De La Salle past pupils to walk down ‘memory lane’

By Maurice Garvey

OVER 130 former pupils of De La Salle National School, are expected to attend a final walk down memory lane at the Ballyfermot school on Friday, February 1.

Ballyfermot’s first school opened in 1952, but is set to close in the summer.

De La Salle Primary school Ballyfermot 1fina

De La Salle school 

Past pupil Ken Larkin, from Ballyfermot Heritage Group, floated the idea last year and hundreds of people responded online and requested to be involved.

“We’ve had good support from the teachers and staff,” said Ken, who met with De La Salle Principal Naomi Plant this week to finalise details for the event.

“The plans is to assemble at St Benilda’s hall on the day. Br Eugene and the De La Salle band will play music, former pupils will be able to have a chat and go for a walkabout.

“Approximately 130 guys have confirmed, but it is an open invitation and we are expecting more. When I was there, it was 52 in a class and 36 classes, so that tells you how big the school was.”

Ken Larkin and Sean Brennanfin

Ken Larkin

However, in recent years, numbers have fallen sharply, with the land sold by the De La Salle Brothers, and plans for De La Salle to amalgamate with St Gabriel’s, St Raphael’s and St Michael’s in 2014 deemed “not tenable” by the Archdiocese of Dublin.

The schol will remain open until June and Ken said attendees on the day can make a voluntary contribution towards a maintenance and repairs fund if they wish to do so.

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