On the 9th of October the alumni of the once Patrician inner-city schools of Waterloo, Redfern, and Forest Lodge, gathered at the Castlereagh St Catholic Club for Mass and reunion dinner. This event has been taking place every year for many years now.

The history of these schools began in 1886 with the opening of the Redfern school and finished in 1967 with the Brothers closing the school at Forest Lodge (Redfern: 1886-1963; Forest Lodge: 1890-1967; Waterloo: 1908-1963).

The alumni reunions come together through the energy and dedication of Kevin Scott (l) and Kevin Hilferty (see photo below), both ex-students of Forest Lodge. Both are also responsible for the production of the quaterly inner-schools newsletter "The Green Sash", and what an amazing publication it is, everything you could want to know about the Brothers in the "early days" and more. It teaches the Patrician Brothers about the Patrician Brothers.

The annual reunion is quite a simple affair. This year it began with Mass celebrated by alumni patron Fr John Knight, parish priest of the Waterloo parish, which was followed by a sumptuous and voluminous dinner prepared at the Catholic Club. There were a few speeches, some more formal than others, some very spontaneous.

Like all such gatherings, the point of the exercise is to get together and share stories of the good old days, when eighty or more constituted a class; when a playground the size of a basketball court coped with the sporting activities of 300 students simultaneously; when a meeting with the principal meant talking with him in the doorway of his very full classroom; when a Science lesson saw one bunsen burner excitedly surrounded by an entire Science class; and when the Brothers struggled to live off the nominal school fees brought in by the children of families who had financial struggles of their own. A very far cry from the way things are today, and yet it wasn't all that long ago.