Welcome
To our Rector, Fr Paddy Greene, Bernie Millar, Kevin Lynch and CJ Barry (our outgoing and incoming Presidents) and to my Fellow Committee members & Belvederians.
Intro
I am very grateful for the opportunity to share with you this evening some of the accomplishments and the journey we have travelled together over the last 12 months in the 2023/24 academic year. We have done this as one community working across many societies and key charitable groups to support the Belvedere diaspora in its widest sense.
At our core we continue to play our part in fostering a strong sense of community across the Belvedere family, providing a platform where alumni can stay well connected, and play our roles in supporting past pupils and many associated groups with a helping hand to those who need it.
Hon Secs
As is customary for this brief address I have drawn heavily on the minutes of our meetings throughout the year. These were prepared by our joint Hon Secs Niall Behan and Neil Owens and I would like to thank them both for all their hard work throughout the year.
Thanks to Ciara Banks
While she has been trying to retire for a number of years, Ciara Banks was still very active in support of the dinner and lunch this year and for this and for over 10 years of hard work as the Union ARO we would like to extend our sincere thanks.
Welcome to Bernie Millar
We are delighted to welcome Bernie Millar as our new ARO. Bernie has just joined and brings significant experience and expertise to this key role. I would like to wish her the best of luck in the new job.
Activities
While we could be here for some time with updates of activities and newsworthy items over the last 12 months, I’ll do my best to stick to the highlights. There are many people who have contributed in so many ways to the Union and Belvedere Community and my apologies in advance to anyone whom I don’t get the opportunity to acknowledge their own individual contribution.
School
The school itself is in rude health and one of the highlights for me of being involved in the Union is the strong engagement from the school with its community of past pupils. This is led by Gerry Foley and in particular this year Colin McCarthy who took over from Tom Doyle as Union Liaison. Colin provides the Union with updates at each meeting
The school has a long and distinguished list of achievements across many activities from Academic to Social Responsibility and Sports, the narrow loss of our football team in the Senior National Final being one of this year’s notable highlights.
The opportunities afforded the Union by the school to participate in activities such as debates, reunions and Graduations form a key part in helping us achieve our aims of fostering a sense of community amongst Belvederians. We will continue to work to develop and support these engagements as a key priority of the Union in the years to come.
A big thanks to Dan McCaffrey who organised the past pupils re-engaging in the Sleep Out for the first time since Covid. Over 200 students, teachers and past pupils were involved, with €330,000 raised for Focus Ireland and The Jesuit Refugee Service.
Junior Union
The Junior Union led this year by Anthony McDonnell continues to set a very high standard. We look forward to 24/25 chair Sean Carroll continuing to develop the aims of the Junior Union and to encourage their engagement with the Belvedere Community.
JAI
The JAI continues to play a key part in ensuring we are well connected to the broader Jesuit school fraternity with events in Sydney and London – and important to acknowledge the continued hard work from John Treacy with this key group.
Strategic Review
In November the committee met with a range of past pupils to help develop an understanding about what priorities the Union should have over the coming years.
We took several learnings out of these meetings focussed on Communications, Events and Clubs / Societies.
Many of these such as appointing an ARO, re-igniting the Business Lunch and updating the committee through a revised succession plan have been implemented. Several more will be addressed in the coming year and we are committed and open to further engagements and discussions on the Unions future.
Belvedere Support Network
The Belvedere Support Network (formerly the Belvedere Benevolent Association) , which so often flies under the radar due to its very delicate and confidential work, continued to provide its essential service – supporting Belvederians and their dependents at a time of most need.
Social Justice Award
The Social Justice award this year was presented to Donal Birthistle for his work with the Belvedere Support Network. This allowed the Union to thank Donal for many years of dedicated work and emphasise the importance of the BSN in the process.
Finance
A sincere thanks to Brian Terry who looks after the Finances so well, providing regular updates and prudent stewardship to the whole group on our accounts.
The Annual Dinner
Our flagship event the Annual dinner continued as a very special and well attended evening. Both the venue and the date were moved after several years in the Mansion House during the mid term to the RDS in October. This change set to continue into the medium term was a great success.
This years dinner is to be held once again in the RDS on the 18th October and we hope to see as many of you there as possible.
Network Forum
The Business forum had an excellent year ably led by Ivan Hammond. Ivan in his first year on the committee made a huge contribution and is due huge thanks.
We hosted 2 sold out breakfast meetings. At the first in Grant Thornton, Andy Dunne gave us some insights into health and wellbeing. At the second in AIB Tommy Kinsella charted his career in building brands with Diageo and AIB. Fair to say there was slightly less emphasis on health and wellbeing.
The lunch hosted once more in Fire was a great success. Andy Lowe of Element Pictures talked us through his extraordinary Oscar winning success and significant funds were raised for the Belvedere Youth Club in the process.
Website
There has been a large amount of work done on the Website and associated databases and social media platforms by Colin Meagle and his team. We now have a solid base from which to improve our outreach to Belvederians over the coming years.
BYC
I’m delighted to recognise the continued success of the Belvedere Youth Club which is very proudly supported by the Union and so many Belvederians. As everyone knows, BYC provides such invaluable support to so many children and young adults in the North East Inner City. They expanded the educational and arts programmes during recent times and BYC Alumnus Barry Keoghan’s success is testament to the great work done there.
Last year the 4 Provinces Cycle organised by Andy Kinsella and Darragh Lynch raised a much needed €30,000 for the BYC. The cyclists are off to the West in 2 weeks time for this years event and I would encourage you all to support it and raise awareness where you can.
70% of the BYC’s budget depends on fundraising efforts and your support is always appreciated.
Golf
We had a good year in the Golf Society. Our Captains Prize in its 99th year was held in Roganstown hosted by Belvederian Ian McGuinnes. Our Presidents Prize at Royal Dublin is taking place tomorrow and there are a few spots left if anyone feels the urge to hit the links.
Old Belvedere
The rugby club had a good year of success narrowly missing out on promotion on the last day in a tough fixture in Dooradoyle. The Mens and Ladies teams, continue to run a really strong programme across all levels. Thanks to David Monaghan for his work in the club and the Union over the last several years.
Reunions
Already in August the diary has been set for the reunions for next year. The reunions are now being scheduled in springtime to allow the Annual Dinner to become the focus of our autumn get togethers. The reunions are an excellent way for Belvederians to re-establish connections with the College for so many, after years away. As such they will remain a key focus both for the Union and the college.
Turning to the future, there is even more ambition for how we can further enhance the connectivity and support across the Belvedere family.
President
And finally, to our President Kevin Lynch, a debt of gratitude is owed to you by so many for your work and service to the Union both as President and in many other previous roles in recent years. In what has been somewhat of a transitional year for us post-Covid, your leadership was key to charting our journey throughout the year.
Thanks Kevin for all your work and all the best to you for the future and what the next chapter might bring.