A Beautiful Celebration of Casino’s Rich Parish History

The St Mary's Primary School, Casino community came together to celebrate the hundred year anniversary of the St Mary’s convent building. (5 May 2023)

An amazing community celebration was held at St Mary's Primary School, Casino marking the hundred year anniversary of the opening of the historic Casino landmark, St Mary’s Primary School convent building. Parents, former staff and students poured into the school to celebrate this marvellous milestone.

The convent building, paid for by the generous local community, was blessed and opened on 5 May 1923, with 40 students and two sisters who had travelled from the St Mary's Convent of Mercy, Grafton to teach at Casino.

The morning began with a moving liturgy at the front of the convent building led by Fr Peter Slack and Principal John O'Brien, who enthralled the crowd with the history that echoed through the walls of the notable building.

‘This celebration of our convent building is less about a building and more about the foresight people had to ensure we had and still very much have a very strong Catholic Education for the kids of Casino. The Casino Parishioners were also and are still so very generous. Their money paid for this building to be built. We can never lose sight of this great generosity and the foresight of great leaders and great leadership,’ said Principal John O'Brien.

The celebration then moved to the back of the school with the blessing and opening of The Catherine Centre. This contemporary learning space was damaged in the 2022 Floods and has been revitalised to provide the students with an active and creative learning space. Students received a unique medal that was blessed by Fr Peter to commemorate the event.

This special event ended with a generous spread of coffee, tea cakes and sandwiches for morning tea and a walk through of the convent building. Quiet murmurs filled the corridors as former students relieved their time being taught and boarding in the convent school.

‘In celebrating this moment in the life of the “Convent,” we cannot but be filled with gratitude, for the generosity of the parishioners, under the leadership of Archpriest Barry. In the main, they were farmers of Irish stock who mortgaged their farms to underwrite the loans. They committed themselves to raise the £12,000 for the convent and associated school,’ said Parish Priest of Casino Parish, Fr Peter Slack.

Congratulations to the St Mary's community on the success of this incredible landmark and sharing the school's rich history.