Cork city and county has a super spread of boxing clubs to cater for all

Senior boxing in Cork is beginning to thrive once again.

On Saturday next, commencing at 2pm, the Cork County Board, in conjunction with the Golden Gloves Boxing Club are promoting a senior boxing extravaganza at the St Vincent`s GAA Complex at Hollyhill.

Following many years of unprecedented success in the national boxing championships at juvenile level, the county board had to encourage the clubs to harness this rich harvest and to convert much of the Leeside Boxing talent into champions in both elite and senior grades.

The geographic landscape of clubs in Cork now in both the city and the county is the strongest ever, and for the purists of the sport this is a delight to behold. 

It's the dawning of a new era, as Cork's young boxers develop into an array of multi-talented athletes in their quest to secure further national honours for both club and county in the adult ranks.

Across the great terrain of the largest county in the country boxing is flourishing. 

In every town and hamlet between Bantry and Youghal, which is known as the Leeside Rio Grande, there is a prominent boxing club within a five-mile radius with many more new unit's to follow in the coming year.

Meanwhile, on Sunday next, 19th October, The Mayfield Boxing Club are staging their annual tournament at the Mayfield Community College. 

Mayfield, as the Cork Boxing Club of the Year and winners of the Victor Aston Cup have set a very high standard. 

They are also the holders of the Mannix Shield as the most successful club at the County Boxing Championships.

Once again, this club have promised a very well-matched bill with some great contests on the horizon. There is ample parking available for all patrons and the event will be well organised and stewarded by club officials.

Elsewhere, as of yet no official date has been set for the reopening of Bishop Lucey Park. 

The city centre Park is being revamped as part of major renovations, and on completion will have a plaza style design with many new features. 

It is hoped the park will be available to the public from mid-November and will be back in use in time for Christmas. 

The main boxing interest in the new park will focus on the unveiling of a new Hall of Fame Boxing Wall.

Prior to the commencement of work on the park's new design many plaques of great Cork boxers graced the old southern wall. 

These plaques as part of the historical history of the sport in Cork provided visitors with an opportunity to appreciate the achievements of many pugilists whose sporting life and times are detailed on many of these plaques. 

Leeside's first and only world boxing champion was Jack McAuliffe, and he was born in Bishop Lucey Park.

To be precise, it was in Christ Church Lane which now forms part of the park on the northern side. McAuliffe was born in 1866 and baptised in St Peter and Paul's Church across the road. 

The Late boxing guru Tim O'Sullivan produced a copy of his birth certificate and also established that he was an altar boy there for a few years. 

Young Jack went to school in the 'Lancs' this was a national school situated on Lancaster Quay. 

In 1913 the 'Lancs' was closed down and replaced with a new school on the Mardyke St Joseph's. McAuliffe's father worked as a cooper in the local Beamish and Crawford Brewery on the South Main Street.

When Jack was ten years old the entire family emigrated from Cobh and arrived in New York. 

They settled in Maine and later lived in Long Island. 

It was a great opportunity for the family to put down roots in a place where many an Irishman called the new world. 

The McAuliffe’s left behind in Cork a city of poverty and destitution.

It was only twenty years after the great famine when during those dreadful times it was common to hear, ' There is a stranger walking the roads and his name is hunger.' 

The Cork Penny Dinner Kitchen was established around then and young McAuliffe was very much aware of how they were trying to put food in the bellies of the needy.

Following his very successful career as a boxer and a businessman Jack set up kitchens and lodging houses in New York where he took people from the streets and provided them with food and shelter. 

If he was alive today and got an opportunity to come back to Cork, he most certainly would be delighted to see the remarkable and outstanding work carried on today by Cork Penny Dinners, and their great band of volunteers.

During the last twenty year's this service has been expanded and the many needs of Cork people today are catered for through the vision of one woman the inspirational Caitriona Twomey. 

For over twenty years now she has worked tirelessly on behalf of the hungry, the lonely the suicidal the addicted the depressed and those who got little chance in life coming from broken homes and dysfunctional habitats.

Today for many, Cork has become a city of prosperity, and opportunity where most people live in relative comfort, but for others the dark side of the city still exists. 

This is what Jack McAuliffe also found when he looked around in the early 1900's and saw prosperity and destitution thrive side by side in the Big Apple. 

Imbued with the spirit of Cork Penny Dinners Jack became a great humanitarian and while he never returned to Cork, equally he never lost his leeside spirit of decency and compassion.

When Bishop Lucey Park reopens and one has an opportunity to look up at the boxing wall, the plaque to Jack McAuliffe should mean a lot more than just honouring a world boxing champion, it should also mean that the people of Cork are truly proud of this sporting emigrant.

Today, this work continues to prevail in Cork. 

In this city there are many volunteers doing tremendous work for the under privileged, but very few could match a woman who did so much for the needy in society. 

But when all is said and done, Cork people will find it difficult to argue with the truism that there was only one Christy Ring, and their is only one Caitriona Twomey, who one hundred years later is truly depicting the spirit of Jack McAulliffe.