THEIR past pupils include several Taoisigh, business high-fliers such as Tesco CEO Terry Leahy, and Hollywood actors Liam Neeson and Gabriel Byrne.At one time they boasted 1,300 brothers in Ireland and 4,000 worldwide.
But the once powerful Christian Brothers order is now a shadow of its former self with just 250 members left in Ireland and another 50 scattered around Europe.
"In the last 20 to 25 years there have been no new vocations into the congregation," Brother Edmund Garvey, the Dublin-based head of the order, told the Irish Independent.
While stressing there was no suggestion of the order winding down, Brother Garvey acknowledged there were real difficulties facing them in the future.
"The Province in Ireland and England is an aging one. Many are over retirement age," he said.
The decline of the Christian Brothers is part of a general trend in the number of religious here.
Recent recruitment campaigns have failed.
"I have placed adverts inviting men to join, but I have had no response," said Brother Garvey.
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