REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OPENING OF THE NEW SOUTHILL AREA COMMUNITY CENTRE SOUTHILL
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OPENING OF THE NEW SOUTHILL AREA COMMUNITY CENTRE SOUTHILL, LIMERICK
Dia dhíbh a chairde. Tá an-áthas orm bheith ar ais arís i bhur measc inniú. I would like to thank each of you for the very warm welcome back to Southill. It is good to be back and I would particularly like to thank Brendan Kenny, Chief Executive Officer of the Limerick Southside Regeneration Agency for the invitation to join you here today for the official opening of the Southill Area Community Centre. My special thanks also to your Chairman, John Fitzgerald.
Looking around this wonderful new facility which has already opened its doors to your community, I want to acknowledge the time and effort that has gone into making this dream a reality. This is the culmination of a decade’s work, which started with a recommendation by the O’Malley Park Task Force in 1998. There were many challenges, some almost insurmountable, as for far too long, it seemed that the Southill and Ballinacurra Weston area had become stuck in a rut of social problems, a vicious circle of disadvantage and exclusion with no clear way out. Yet on my visit here in January 2008, you could feel the mood for change, the determination and the focus on the future. The Fitzgerald report gave voice and vision to that mood. So here we are just nineteen months on and this wonderful Community Centre is the bricks-and-mortar evidence of that vision translated into reality. The people of Southill are the true architects of this place for it was their engagement with Regeneration Agency and the Government that created the machine which is delivering real change, even through these tougher economic times. So at last here it is a place for babies and toddlers, school kids and families, for the middle aged and the seniors with all sorts of built in support for individuals, families and the community. In a short space of time, it has truly become the heart of the community, a place to be community to one another and to enjoy a much richer individual life. The Community Area Centre is of course just one part of a wider picture of regeneration, with better housing, enhanced education and employment supports and improved security all forming part of the new Southill.
Last year, I was here to launch the plan entitled ‘Our Community, Our Vision, Our Future’. Now we can begin to speak about ‘Our Community, Our Vision, Our Present.’ That is thanks to the sheer hard work and care of so many people. Congratulations to you all. Enjoy this place as it was meant to be used and enjoyed and I’ll be back again soon, I know, to keep faith with the promise I made to be with Southill for the duration of the journey to its best ever future.
Comhghairdeas libh agus go raibh maith agaibh go léir.