St Colman's Boxing club represent all that is good about boxing and have done so for the past 40 years

Forty years ago, in the picturesque east Cork village of Shannagary, the now famed St Colman's Boxing Club was established.

This was in the summer of 1984. 

It was a big year on the Cork sporting horizon. 

The Gaelic Athletic Association was celebrating its centenary and the Olympic Games were taking place in Los Angeles.

Fr Bertie Troy was a very prominent name on the Cork hurling horizon. 

He trained the Cork hurling team to win three All-Ireland’s in a row from 1976-1978. 

During that period, a fellow selector Christy Ring had asked him was he interested in any other sport, and he said he would like to see a boxing club set up in east Cork. 

Fr Troy was also very impressed by the boxing contribution of a fellow priest.

This was Fr Horgan, who based in Guarranabraher in 1959 helped to set up a club in that area of Cork’s northside, which the committee named after their parish priest. 

He provided them with the newly built Parochial Hall, for training purposes. 

This club went on to become a great bastion of Cork boxing. 

Fr Horgan's is still thriving today, and last year celebrated the winning of an Irish elite title following Ryan McCarthy’s magnificent achievement.

In addition to that club, Fr Horgan went on to set up the boxing club in Bantry which is still there, and he helped to set up the Ballinlough club in the seventies.

Over five years after that conversation with Ring, Fr Troy, along with John Hartnett, and Tim Murray went about setting up a boxing club in Shannagary. 

Around that time, the big name in Cork boxing was Kieran Joyce from the Sunnyside Boxing Club. 

He was the Irish senior champion who was going to the Olympics in Los Angeles and the late Brendan Mooney wrote about him extensively in the local press, and this increased the profile of boxing all over Cork.

The three aforementioned hurling men set up, and affiliated the club to the IABA in 1984; among the first boxers to join the club, was Billy Walsh. At that time, his father Maurice, who knew nothing about boxing, but was a fitness fanatic was training the local GAA junior club. 

Fr Troy was impressed by the Maurice method of training, and invited him to join forces with the new boxing club. 

This Walsh duly did, and after a shy start Maurice went on to produce one of the greatest club in the country over the following 35 years.

In 1985, the All-Ireland Juvenile IABA Championships took place in the City Hall in Cork to mark the Cork 800 celebrations. 

Young Billy Walsh won the club’s first national title and Maurice became convinced he would now play a major role in the development of the club. With a major plan in place, the club began to prosper and attracted many young athletes to the new club, from all over east Cork.

The club went on to enjoy many great years of national success. 

1993 was an outstanding year for a proud but very modest Maurice Walsh. 

In that year, his three sons created local history by winning three Irish titles in the same season.

Billy won the Elite Light-Welter Belt, Kevin secured the Intermediate Middleweight Crown, and Pa bagged the Irish Junior Welterweight Gold Medal. 

Pa went on to win a silver medal in the European Cadet Championships in Greece in 1994. 

Over the following years, all three brothers, as internationals represented their country with distinction.

The club produced a conveyor belt of champions and it would take a lot more than this column today to pay tribute to the great male and female athletes who represented the St Colman's club.

However, some of their great stalwarts in the early years included Kevin Hartnett, an All-Ireland hurling winner with Cork, Niall McCarthy, who was on the last Cork team to bring the Liam McCarthy Cup to Cork in 2005, Adam Curley, Jason Daly, Kevin Butler and Dr Eanna Falvey, who brought the last elite title to the club in 2002.

Some of the club’s greatest coaches and administrators included the current President Pat O’Brien, John O’Connor. John Hartnett, Tim Murray, Adrian Lewis and numerous others, who assisted the club in various capacities.

In 2020, Maurice Walsh passed away but left the St Colman's Boxing Club on very solid foundations.

On Saturday, 2nd October 2024, lifelong friend Dan O’Connell unveiled a plaque in memory of Maurice at the Boxing Wall in Bishop Lucey Park. Young boxers dressed in their club tracksuits representing all Cork clubs attended the ceremony. 

On the day, Kevin Walsh addressed the huge crowd and gave a history of their club. 

This occasion was recorded by the young Daniel O’Connell and is well worth viewing on YouTube by entering Egomotionpro.

Today, the club continues to thrive under the direction of Liam Hickey, who is head coach and secretary.

Last year the club celebrated another All-Ireland title when Kealyn O’Flynn brought national glory to the famed club. 

The club is now considering a date for a 40th anniversary tournament and re-union of all former boxers; the current committee includes Anthony O’Connor, Barry Kelly, Mary O’Flynn, Andy Fitzsimmons and Richard O’Flynn.

To mark the 40th Anniversary of the club, the chairman of the Cork Ex-Boxers Association John Murphy has confirmed they will present the St Colman's club with a plaque to mark this special year. 

The President of the Cork County Boxing Board Michael O’Brien wished Liam, and the committee continuous success and congratulated them on their 40th Anniversary.