Cork's newest first citizen Fergal Dennehy has been a long time supporter of boxing in Cork

Last Friday night Cllr Fergal Dennehy was the toast of all in Cork boxing circles, following his election as the new Lord Mayor of Cork.

His elevation to the status of Cork’s first citizen was warmly welcomed by all in the packed Council Chamber at the City Hall. 

On such an auspicious occasion history had beckoned for the hard-working council election poll-topper from the heart of Togher on the southside of Cork city.

Dennehy was a founder member and is secretary of the Togher Boxing Club for the last 12 years. 

He was also the club’s delegate at the Cork County Boxing Board for a numbers of years.

As a founder member of the now well-established and very successful Togher Boxing Club, Fergal played a pivotal role in laying solid foundations from the outset.

As a politician, he had many contacts in various agencies and organisations that helped the club. 

From the beginning, the new club aligned with many of these groups, which helped to build an immediate solid grounding for the club. 

The new Lord Mayor said: “Originally, we set up the club to help focus the minds of young people in the Togher area.

“Instead of hanging around the streets, we wanted boys and girls to get involved in sport and we in the committee believed that amateur boxing is a great platform to help them to develop and mature with a sense of purpose."

Dennehy was the second acting secretary of a boxing club in Cork, to be elected the Lord Mayor of the City. 

The first was the late John Birmingham in 1968. 

Following his election that year the Glen BC secretary was congratulated by the then Taoiseach Jack Lynch, and last Friday night, the current Taoiseach Micheál Martin was also in the Council Chamber to congratulate Cllr Dennehy.

Forty years after John Birmingham’s year in office, his son, now the late Brian Birmingham, was elected Lord Mayor in 2008. 

During that year he also held the post of vice president of the Cork Ex-Boxers Association. 

Ironically, just over forty years ago, Fergal’s father, John Dennehy, equally enjoyed a very distinguished year as Lord Mayor of the ancient and proud Rebel City.

During his term in office John Dennehy was one of the main driving forces behind the organisation of the Cork 800 Celebrations which took place in 1985. 

A trade unionist with fundamental principals, John had the Fianna Fail brand of republicanism at heart. 

He is still fondly remembered as a man on the ground with the people and for the people. 

John went on to give many great years of service as a member of Dail Eireann, representing the constituency of Cork South Central.

As a Lord Mayor John Dennehy welcomed many boxing delegations to the City Hall. 

These included, Frank O’Sullivan and the Birmingham BC Frank left Shandon Street in 1953 and went on to establish one of the most famous and respected clubs in the world.

Frank was honoured by the Queen with an MBE in 2012.

As a sprightly eighty four year old John was proud to be in the chamber last Friday night to see his son elected Lord Mayor. 

Following Fergal’s election, many of the Councillors in their congratulationary tributes also referenced John Dennehy’s outstanding public service to the people of Cork. 

Many in the packed galleries had a long association with the Dennehy voting machine. 

Among them was Mary Fay, who was Constituency Secretary to John for many years and one who always encouraged Fergal in his political endeavours.

In recent years, Fergal Dennehy has been busy on the diplomatic circuit. 

He was elected Deputy Lord Mayor to Cllr Tony Fitzgerald in 2017, and had deputised for various Lord Mayors in the intervening years. 

From the world of boxing, he has welcomed to the Lord Mayor office, Ireland’s first Olympic champion Michael Carruth, world super middleweight champion Steve Collins and double Olympic champion Kellie Harrington. 

The new Lord Mayor also welcomed to City Hall the officers of the IABA, who held their first national convection in Cork in 2018.

Amongst the Cork Boxing delegation in the public gallery in City Hall were, the board president Mick O’Brien, Conal Thomas, the president of the Cork Boxing Fraternity Association, and Dan O’Connell, vice president of the International Friends of Cork Boxing.

Following his election as Lord Mayor at City Hall, the new Lord Mayor went on to attend the celebration bash in his honour at the Metropole Hotel. He was accompanied by Karen Brennan, the Lady Mayoress, and by Margaret McDonnell, the elected Deputy Lord Mayor.

He was congratulated, welcomed and introduced to the guests by boxing colleague Michael O’Brien who acted as MC.

In his introduction, O’Brien pointed out that the celebration was taking place in a famous hotel located on a street named after Tomas Mac Curtain. 

On entering the ballroom, the new Lord Mayor and his party received a warm standing ovation. 

In his address to the guests, Fergal Dennehy thanked many people for their help over the years. 

The Taoiseach Micheál Martin also said a few words of congratulations.

On Saturday, the Lord Mayor's first official function was to open the Shandon Street Annual Summer Festival.

This was indeed very appropriate as Shandon Street all over the world is renowned as the Boxing Boulevard of Cork.