SOUTHILL Junior School was established in 1972 and caters for children from Junior infants up to second class.
It is located in Southill and is attended by many local children, who often start at age 3 by attending the preschool, which is on the same grounds. foto by Keith Wiseman www.kwisemanphoto.ie
South Boston’s Billy Higgins continues his efforts to support young people in Limerick, Ireland through the Southill Children’s fund which was formed in 1985. At that time, Billy Higgins and State Sen. Jack Hart shown at last year’s Limerick-Boston Golf Classic held in IrelandHiggins had gone to Southill, a section of Limerick and witnessed firsthand the problems kids were facing growing up in a housing project that much reminded Higgins of his own childhood grown-up in South Boston’s lower end.
Southill children are as traumatized as children living in war zones according to a renowned education psychologist.
In an open letter to Limerick City Council, the parish priest of Southill, describes the shocking findings of psychologist Stuart Shankar, who spent time in the troubled estate last year.
I DRIVE up to O’Malley Park and Southill these days and it’s very depressing how bad things have got,” says Billy Higgins, the retired Boston businessman who has donated thousands of euro to the community for over the past 20 years.
Billy is sitting in a cafe in Roxboro on the day Limerick Regeneration Agency publishes the master plan that aims to transform Southill over the next 10 years. He recognizes the history of the occaission but he says people living in Southill need help now and not just over the course of the next decade. Existing problems can’t be put on the long finger with the promise of regeneration.
Local Criminals in Southill are forcing families from their homes through campaigns of intimidation and violence[/caption]Criminal intimidation tearing the heart of the community, as Council services all but ceases
A CITY grandmother who was forced to abandon her house in Southill after a campaign of intimidation as described how seeing her house being demolished on TV “tore through my heart”.
The woman, who wishes to be known only as J., had been forced out by “gangs of teenagers and children as young as six or seven” and at the bidding of local criminals.
Choir members will pay their own fare and raised money for other expenses through concerts, table quizzes and a golf classic, according to director, Tracey Fitzgerald. “It’s the first time the choir has done anything like this. We got involved because I know Billy Higgins, who has been doing work
Ireland’s Best Church Choir Visits America’s Best Irish City Holy Trinity Abbey Choir of Limerick
They came to sing at Masses but they sang anywhere, at the drop of a coin. They sang at the airport, the hotel lobby, the State House and the Higgins’ home.
Growing up in Boston, I can’t remember a soul from Limerick, Ireland.
Southie’s Billy Higgins Has Built a Charitable Bridge Between the Communities
Retired South Boston businessman Billy Higgins says “I’ve been blessed in life. That’s why it’s so important for me to give back to others.”
In Higgin’s case, a great many of the “others” who have benefited – and continue to benefit – since 1985 from his commitment live in Southill housing project, just outside Limerick. Higgins, who has traveled numerous times to the neighborhood, is the founder of the Southill Children’s Fund, which through a variety of educational and sports programs, has made an immense difference in the lives of the neighborhood’s young.
As over one hundred Southill children settle back into life in Limerick again after a unique three weeks spent in Boston, Liz Ryan reviews their American tour and takes an affectionate look at the man who made it all possible.
