All About Cork: Vincent’s make light of bad weather to honour Tadhg O’Shea in street league

It was a pretty miserable night recently at Páirc Uinsinn but the boys of St Vincent’s made light of the weather and provided great entertainment for their parents and supporters who came out to cheer them on as they took part in the annual street league finals played in memory of outstanding Vincent’s man, Tadhg O’Shea.

The O’Shea family turned out in force to present the medals to all participants and trophies to the winning captains.

Cormac O’Shea, himself a coach, thanked all his colleagues for their dedication during the past year and praised the efforts of Vincent Ahern and Bertie Cotter of Gurranabraher Credit Union who continue to sponsor the event.

Piper, Sean Murphy, was also on hand again to lead the parade.

A pleasing aspect of the night, according to Cormac, was to have the sons of former Vincent’s stalwarts taking part.

The trophies were presented to the winning captains by Ruairi, Susan, Aine, Mia, Lorraine, and Lily O’Shea as follows: Alfie Dunlea (U6), Jake Morey (U7), Fionn Buckley (U8), Kayden Cullen (U9), Oisin Dowd (U10) and Ollie Kenny (U11).

All participants and a few of the coaches enjoyed an ice cream cone before heading home, wet but happy.

Ellie to box for Ireland at Euros

Ellie Curtin Murray from Knocknaheeny is representing Team Ireland in the European Under 15 Boxing championships this coming week in Montenegro.

Boxing out of Golden Gloves Boxing Club in Churchfield, Ellie is one of 17 Irish boxers heading to the championships and the only one from Cork. The team includes boxers from Antrim, Armagh, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Laois and Westmeath.

She took up boxing a few years ago, around the age of nine or ten, and will box in the 51kg category at this championships, which get underway today.

She won the national title in August, on the day of her 14th birthday, and then travelled to Dublin every weekend to train specifically for selection for these European Championships.

Speaking to The Echo, her mum Rachel Murray said that Ellie’s flight was an early morning one from Dublin on Thursday, but despite the early start, she expected Ellie would be straight to the gym once they landed.

“That’s her dedication, her training, her dieting. She’s on the ball with it for such a young age,” Rachel added.

She also highlighted the influence John Morrissey in Golden Gloves has had on Ellie. “He is a big part of her life and he treats her like his own,” she said. “All his work and his travel every weekend with her all over Ireland for spars, helping her all the way — the training and dedication and support.”

On Facebook, Golden Gloves posted a ‘good luck’ message for Ellie: “Good luck to Ellie Murray and Team lreland in the u15 European championships in Montenegro. We at golden gloves are very proud of Ellie.”

Ellie’s family will be watching the championships online and cheering her on from Cork.

The championships run for 10 days.

This competition, for boxers aged 13 and 14, is the inaugural championships held by World Boxing’s European confederation, European Boxing.

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