Dalriada school reunion raises money for charity

Claire Lyons got the idea to catch up with the old school friends of 20-22 years ago after having bumped into an old classmate at Christmas last year.

She explained: “It seemed like a good idea to get everyone together and celebrate our successes from the past two decades. It started with a Facebook group and quickly grew to reach most of our classmates.

“We discovered that amongst our chosen careers were retail assistants, architects, engineers, chefs, civil servants, medics, police officers, tradesmen and business persons to name but a few. Many had children who were now going to Dalriada themselves. A few had travelled from far and wide to attend including one from Sydney, Australia. Unfortunately there were many who were unable to make it due to work commitments or family commitments. They have contacted me to wish everyone a good night and to raise a toast for all those who were not able to attend. Everyone had great stories to tell and we all appear to have aged well despite the years!

“We thought that it would be a good idea to make the event a fundraiser, and we settled on proceeds going to St Christophers Hospice in London. This hospice is linked to our group as sadly, one of our classmates, Patrick Shannon passed away last year from cancer and the hospice looked after him during his final days. His family have been told about our reunion plans and are happy that we are going to be helping the hospice through our event.”

Shenanigans, Portstewart was chosen as the venue, and manager, Kabeer Kher was keen to make a donation to the hospice from the ticket sales.

This generosity, along with additional money from tickets sold has raised £320.00 for St Christophers.

Claire added: “We also currently have a donation site set up for those who wish to contribute to our fund - www.justgiving.com/Claire-Lyons1. To date this has raised an additional £170.00 for the hospice and remains open for donations.

“The event was a resounding success with everyone having a great night’s craic. I am sure that many of us will now be staying in touch and that it will not be another 20 years until we all meet again!”