Carnlough school to celebrate 70th year

The celebrations on August 20 will feature the launch of a book to mark the major milestone and a special mass.

The event starts in the Garron Tower Chapel at noon with a Celebratory Mass. Bishop Donal McKeown and Bishop Alan McGuckian will be the chief Celebrants, while another past pupil, Monsignor Paddy Delargy, the last priest to be President of St MacNissi’s College, will deliver the Homily.

Also in attendance will be the Bishop of Down and Connor, Noel Treanor and the Singing Priests - former Tower students, Fathers David Delargy and Martin and Eugene O’Hagan.

The Tower’s 70th anniversary celebrations will continue with a Book Launch in the College gym from 2.00pm to 4.00pm.

The hardback tome, named ‘The Tower. Seventy Years of Memories. 1951-2021’. retails at £30 and contains 568 pages of the varied memories of former Tower students and staff.

The seven decades of Garron Tower’s history are condensed in an exceptional array of recollections from the birth of secondary education in the fabled Castle, starting in September 1951.

Author and retired journalist is Denis O’Hara, the first pupil to be enrolled at St MacNissi’s College.

He gives enthusiastic contributors a free rein to express their adventures in the spell-binding setting of Garron Castle.

The book recalls the growing pains from the college’s opening, right through the second half of the 20th Century, including the move to co-education in 1983 and the establishment in 2010 of St Killian’s College.

Families and friends are welcome to enjoy the open day with a barbecue and refreshments available.