1 ODA Contacts Chairman Dr Gareth W Griffiths Gorwelion Ffordd Penrhyngeiriol Trearddur Bay LL65 2YW Tel: 01407 860137 Secretary (Temp). Elfin M. Edwards 3, Cae Mair Beaumaris LL58 8YN Tel: 01248 810340 E-mail: [email protected] Treasurer (Temp) Colin Ll Dixon 2 Belmont Drive Bangor LL57 2HS Tel: 01248 362032 E-mail: [email protected] Welsh Affairs John Bryan Jones Heulfryn 7 Victoria Rd Old Colwyn LL29 9SN Tel: 01492 515558 & fax E-mail: [email protected] Committee members Barry A Wynn 7, Ffordd Islwyn Bangor LL57 1AR Tel:01248 353851 Co-opted member responsible for IT Don Parry-Jones 21 Laurel Avenue Bangor on Dee Wrexham LL13 0BQ Tel: 01978 780005 E-mail: [email protected] Co-opted members with responsiblities for recruiting younger members Paul D Smith Patrick R Hemphill 5 Parc Derwen Springhill The Green George Lane Denbigh Glemsford LL16 5TJ CO10 7SB Tel: 01824 708017 Tel: 01787 282307 E-mail; [email protected] 2 LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN As another General Meeting in April approaches, I wish all O.D.A. members a belated “Happy New Year” and trust that you all will enjoy good health and the continued friendship of good memories of our past together. After nearly 12 years as your (unelected, dragooned!!) chairman, I shall be standing down at this year’s meeting - together with another sterling worker for the cause, Colin Dixon, our acting treasurer. When, under the vigorous prompting of Alun Jones, we resurrected our Association, we had misgivings as to how long it would survive in its new form - happily , we have continued to flourish, due to the support of you the members AND an enthusiastic and energetic committee. It has been a privilege to be a minor part of this process, and I sincerely thank you all for the tolerance and support which you have given my puny efforts. Truly, stalwarts in the ongoing work have been the Editorial Team, led by Phil, the vast amount of time and expertise of Don Parry Jones in producing the comprehensive web-site (a mystery to me, as a minor user of computer knowledge - yet NOT a complete dinosaur!), and Hefin in defining, sorting and liaising with Don and various other bodies as he catalogued our considerable archive material. These have been time-consuming tasks, and our debt to them ALL is truly considerable - da iawn, hogiau, diolch yn fawr I chwi gyd. (Acting) Secretary Elfyn has proved the recent lynchpin of the ODA, bringing a new enthusiasm and efficiency to our overall administration - hopefully we can persuade him to continue his work on our behalf. At committee meetings, a subject always on the agenda is recruitment / new membership, and I can assure all members that we try and find any means of a practical nature to entrap younger Dominicans; encouragingly, membership is not undergoing any sharp dip, it would seem - in spite of our still advancing ages. We thought that this year the invitation of the Head Boy and Head Girl to our dinner would be innovative and possibly productive - I do hope that they will respond to our invitation to be our guests. Tony Gray, the former Welsh rugby international and coach has accepted the invitation to be “Guest Speaker”, so that should provide stimulus for attending the dinner. Once again, thank you all for your support and courtesy to myself, and to the hard working committee of YOUR Association - please do not throw too many hard boiled eggs, or tomatoes at me at my swansong at the General Meeting! I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible in April. Hwyl, semper in excretum but “nemo me impune lacessit”. Gareth Griffiths 3 LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY "The old school isn't the same now as it was in our day". How often have we heard that one when we see an old school chum after all those missing years of earning a living, having a family, picking up life’s' bruises and collecting the physical and emotional scars that go with post Friars experiences. The other day, I went to the very well presented Training Restaurant at Coleg Menai. After a splendid evening of good food and attentive and friendly service, I suddenly became aware that I was sitting facing what used to be the blackboard wall in "Dickie" Davies' room where once I had wrestled for hours with the complexities of History and only a few feet away from where "Humph" once reprimanded me for sticking pins into his candle wax effigy during a French lesson. On our way out, I passed a group of young students sitting outside Boss’ old office. "I often sat there waiting for the cane" I quipped cheerily. This was met with blank stares, and when I went on to explain how, in my day, the headteacher would inflict corporal punishment on pupils, often for trivial crimes, I thought I saw their expressions mellow into something like pity. Then again, I could be wrong, perhaps their pity was directed at me, a somewhat deranged old chap rambling on about some fantasies or other. The point is that each generation has its own memories unique to itself and their peers and future school leavers cannot be expected to grasp what school life was like in previous decades and the further away they are from them the more inexplicable they become. Life moves on. So it is with our Association. How much do school leavers from the 1980s' onwards empathise with the old Friars School of the 1940s' to 1970s'? Probably not a lot, but what we do have in common is our bonds of friendships made during those schooldays, our values established in those years, and perhaps above all, our growing appreciation with age, of our sense of belonging to a special group of people who have made a considerable contribution over centuries in time to society in its wider sense. All this sounds a bit vague perhaps, but when we think about where we are and what we have done (or are doing) with our lives, then these values do count for something in my view and why it is a good thing we have an Association, some framework for helping us to keep in touch and remind us where we started from. 4 This may be a difficult concept to put over to the pupils in Friars School today but undoubtedly this message will ring a more strident bell in their ears as they progress in life. We need to see that The Old Dominicans are always here for them. I look forward to meeting you in huge numbers at our General Meeting on April 16th and at the Dinner in the Carreg Mon Hotel. Hwyl fawr i chi i gyd ac edrychaf ymlaen ich gweld ar 16ed o Ebrill. Foedero fraterno Elfyn M Edwards From the Archivist I would like to thank members who have sent me some of the missing copies of the "Dominican" and also photographs of school days of many years ago. I would also like to thank Mr. Bill Lewis and his wife Margaret who both taught at Friars until their retirement for their contribution to our collection. They have given me a collection of photos from Friars and also The County School for Girls which in time will appear on our web site. If I may appeal once more for any photographs or other memorabilia including copies of the Dominican of which we still have gaps in the collection so that we can share with our fellow members. I can assure you that all items will be returned to you if that is your wish . My thanks also goes out to the members of the committee for their encouragement and continued support. Finally I would like to thank The Head Teacher, Mr. Foden and his staff for the help given and their contribution from their own collection . " Foedere Fraterno " Hefin Williams A Message from the Headmaster II’m not sure where 2010 went but gone it has. Our examination results last summer were the second best ever. Our pass rate at A level was 99% (also our second best ever). As the competition for university places remains stiff, it is very pleasing to see that three of our sixth formers, Andrew Wieteska, Helen Griffith and Glyn Stevens have been offered places at Cambridge. We had 239 pupils in the sixth form in September, the largest number since I have been at the school. Our numbers further down the school are also very buoyant and we are now full for new admissions next September. 5 Old Dominicans may wonder why I go on about pupil numbers to the extent that I do. This is because schools are financed according to the number of pupil on roll and some secondary schools in the south of the county are likely to shrink to such an extent over the next decade that their very existence may be threatened. Fortunately, our success means we are not in that position. A very well-supported harvest festival service was held in the school with a significant number of donations of food being made which were passed on to the Bangor women’s aid. The service in the Cathedral and the senior citizens’ Christmas party were both well attended but unfortunately Iorrie Williams, our former caretaker and a well known character in the community, is gravely ill and will not make it to 40 years as MC in the latter. Further sad news for the school was the death of Ben Muskett, a former Head Boy, who was killed in a car accident near Ganllwyd.