The handball revival continues in Limerick city

At the launch of the Limerick City Southside Handball Club jerseys.

The ever evolving handball revolution that has been taking place in Limerick city over the past year took a further step forward when Limerick's newest club, Limerick city Southside Handball club based in the Southill Area Centre, were presented with there new jerseys & shorts, in the parish colours of red & yellow, recently. On hand at the unveiling and presentation of the jerseys & shorts was Jennifer O Brien, manager of the Southill Area Centre who kindly sponsered the gear for the 30 young members, both boys & girls, who are presently active in the club each week. "It was a great opportunity for us (Southill Area Centre) to come on borad & recognise the great strides that Handball has been making with the young people in the area centre each week, our youth work team along with Ger Downes & Pat Murphy of the GAA along with the local volunteers have been very entuastic & the young people just seem to love the game." said the popular Area centre manager. "I wish to thank everybody who assists with the facalitaing of handball coaching & games each week, from the Area centre staff to the youth work team, to the volunteers, to the kids themselves & in particular I wish to thank the Board of Management who when approached to assist the new club with the sponsering of jerseys were only too glad to." she continued.

The club was formed in October 2010 in response to the uptake of the game in the alley among the young people and to provide competition for those wishing to play the game outside of school hours. Club secretary Greg Dillon takes up the story "The young people loved coming up here and playing so we decided to get them coached properly. So Ger (Ger Downes Southside Development officer for Limerick GAA) & Donal (Donal Hayes City Handball coach) came in & hosted a very succusfull week long summer camp here last August to compliment the coaching that they were doing here during the weekdays & from here the idea of forming a club grew, so a few young people & myself travelled out to Broadford handball club in west Limerick & had a brilliant day there one Saturday last summer & on the way back the lads said they would like to form a club". Last October, with a small committee of local volunteers headed up by Chairperson Damien Nash formed what now is Limerick City Southside handball club.

Indeed it has been busy times for the club with honors arriving in the first number of weeks of its existence with Jamie Carey capturing the county u17 handball title in Feburary last.

The u17 doubles partnership of Aaron Dawson & Dylan Robinson came agaonisng close to capturing the u17 doubles county championship but to be defeated by one Ace in the tie breaker in the alley in Galbally. Since then the club has played in neumours tournaments along with hosting games in the alley in Southill. Presently Shannon Hayes & Shannon O Callaghan hold the City schools doubles B title, again a huge achivement for the club.

Damien Nash continues "They (young people) love it, the biggest problem we have is getting enough time in the alley for them, the girls are very handy & as good as any of the lads" he says with a smile. A draw at Easter for an Easter egg & some registration have been the only source of income to the club but the club has planned to do some bag packing locally to raise more funds. And this summer promises to be bumper with two Handball summer camps planned for the centre, one in July & another in late Auguest all with the anticipation of improving the skills of the players even further. Present City Handball coach Pat Murphy will lead the camps "The players here are as good as anywhere in the county or indeed the country, they are constantly practcing & improving and they are no bother to deal with because they want to listen & learn so they can improve".

The club is now an integral part of the community in Southill & at last it gives the majority of young people living there, a focus & something to work on and believe in. The social aspect of the club is as important as actually playing the game, and developing friendships, teaching discipline and enhancing character & self belief in the young people is as important as winning any trophies to the people involved.

For now the hard work continues as Limerick city Southside is gripped with handball fever.

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