Hello, happy New Year, and welcome to the latest Belvedere Union update – to keep you apprised of some our activity since the last round up and to mark your calendars with a number of upcoming events.
Union Dinner 2024
The first few months of the 24/25 Union term got off to a busy and successful start, with the highlight undoubtedly being the sold-out Annual Dinner in the RDS on October 18th.
I’d like to once again thank all our supporters, especially our title sponsor – Bay Advisory – for all their help in making it a fantastic event.
You can view a selection of images from the event here, but the occasion is perhaps best captured by our media partners – Fearless Media – in this short video.
Please mark your diaries for the 2025 dinner, which will be held on October 17th in the Round Room at the Mansion House. We are looking forward to it already.
Charitable efforts
The annual sleep out, now running for over 40 years, set yet another record in 2024 with many of our past pupils helping the college students to collect just shy of €350,000 for charity partners Focus Ireland and Jesuit Refugee Service. This achievement is simply incredible – congratulations to all involved.
The Union Dinner itself managed to raise over €8,000 for the newly renamed Belvedere Support Network, to help Belvederians and their families in need, while the Mothers of Old Belvederians’ group also raised almost €11,000 for the same cause at its October lunch in Clontarf Castle.
Separately, the Union was delighted to present a cheque for €10,000 to the Belvedere Youth Club on the back of the highly successful and sold-out Network Forum lunch last May, which was sponsored by Clinch Wealth Management.
Networking
We are busy planning a series of 2025 breakfast events for our popular Network Forum, off the back of well attended talks at AIB and Arthur Cox in 2024. Please keep your eyes peeled (on our website and LinkedIn) for the launch of our February event, which will be publicised in the coming weeks. We have an excellent speaker and venue lined up and look forward to sharing this with you.
Please also ensure to mark your calendars for the 2025 Network Forum Lunch in Fire restaurant on May 9th which promises to be an excellent day out.
For those Old Belvederians in London – be sure to put the next London Lunch (held by our friends in Jesuit Alumni Ireland) into your calendars – the 2025 event will be held at Smith & Wollensky on September 26th.
Reunions
We are looking forward to the ten year reunion of the 2015 graduate year next Friday (January 10th) and tickets, which are free, can be booked here. This comes off the back of a great evening in Belvedere House in celebration of the class of 2004, which held a late 20th reunion in November.
Faith
We were delighted to welcome many families from the wider Belvedere community to a special Mass in the college chapel during November to remember those who have died throughout the past 12 months. A special thanks must go to John O’Reilly and Martin Ryan for all their hard work in bringing this important occasion together.
Separately, it was incredible to see an unprecedented 1,000+ people from the Belvedere community turn out for Christmas Eve Mass in Gardiner Street Church.
Union engagement
Outside our own Union, we have also been busy engaging actively with other college unions, and I’ve personally had the pleasure of attending the annual dinners of St Mary’s, Gonzaga and Belfast Royal Academy over recent months.
In addition, our Senior Vice President Colin Lynch attended the St Michael’s dinner, while our Limerick representative Cian O’Carroll attended the Mungret and Crescent dinners on the Union’s behalf.
News of the Past
While there is far too much to mention in this brief update, a special note of congratulations must go to Cian Healy for becoming the most capped Irish rugby player of all time. Let’s hope his achievement can inspire our SCT to victory against Wesley in the first game of its upcoming Leinster Schools Cup campaign, not to mention the JCT in its first match against Terenure.
While Government formation talks continue, we must also congratulate our Belvederians in the new Dail – Jack Chambers (FF), Cian O’Callaghan (SD), Joe Neville (FG) and Barry Heneghan (Ind) on their recent elections.
Debating
We are trying to establish a Debating Society to take on the organisation of the Annual Past v Present Debate (2025 date: March 28th). If you are interested in helping or being involved – please email belvedereunion@belvederecollege.ie.
Fitness
Our golf outings for 2025 have now been confirmed for May 23rd in Portmarnock (Captain’s Prize) and August 28th in Royal Dublin (President’s Prize), so be sure to hold the dates.
Finally – we are delighted to team up with the college as it relaunches its newly refurbished performance facility. The college is opening the gym doors to any past pupils that wish to book in for a session on January 18th – you can do so here.
Thanks for reading!
Cathal J Barry (OB ’08)
President, Belvedere Union