Cork Boxing: Brilliant juvenile championship bouts light up Glen Rovers

After two hectic weekends of bumper boxing where patrons enjoyed many cracking contests, the Cork County Juvenile Championships were concluded at the Glen Boxing Club on Sunday afternoon.

This year’s event was widely acclaimed as one of the best ever in the 112-year history of the Cork board, and ideally held in the Glen, Ireland's longest-established boxing club. Glen head coach Tommy Kelleher was adamant that this year's championships were the best ever in his memory and he is reflecting on over seven decades. 

Kelleher, along with Bob O'Driscoll, once again guided a number of young Glen athletes to their first county boxing titles. 

A full report with photos of this year’s Cork County Boxing Championships will be carried in the coming weeks. 

The Cork Juvenile Championships are divided into two categories the boys and girls 1,2,3, catering for boxers 11, 12 and 13 years old and the other category caters for boys and girls from 14 to 16. The top boxer in each category is presented with a cup named after a deceased member of the Cork boxing fraternity.

The cup presented to the younger group is named the Tim O'Sullivan Cup and the second cup is named after Maurice Walsh. The Maurice Walsh Cup was presented to Keelan Holden, representing De Courcey BC, the presentation was made by the President of the board Michael O'Brien. The Tim O'Sullivan Cup was presented to Sean Quigley of Cove BC and the presentation was made by Paddy McSweeney.

The names on these cups represent respect and recognition of two men who made a great contribution towards the development of boxing in Cork. Maurice Walsh was the famed St Colman’s BC coach and Tim O’Sullivan was a former international and a founder member of the Cork Ex-Boxers Association. 

GEM

Recently, the boxing museum in the Glen club received another acquisition to its magnificent array of memorabilia.

In 1950, Tim O'Sullivan represented Ireland in an international against Germany. 

Following the bout, he was presented with a gold medal by the German Boxing Federation, with the inscription written in German and displaying the laurel wreath of victory embossed around a boxing glove. 

This gem has now been gifted to the museum by a friend of the late Tim and this unique piece of Cork boxing history will now be displayed in the Tomás MacCurtain Museum.

DUAL STAR

Meanwhile, next year Sunnyside celebrate their centenary having been established on Fairhill in February 1927. Many distinguished dual sports personalities lined out for the club, including Ireland's most famous road bowler, the illustrious Mick Barry.

The bowling legend was born in Waterfall in 1919 and began age seven. Barry worked most of his life as a groundsman with UCC at the Mardyke. He showed great flair style and class from an early age, but he was also very interested in boxing.

During his youth, world heavyweight boxing had a great following in Cork, and the young Barry was very influenced listening to talk about John L Sullivan, Jack Dempsey and the Brown Bomber, the great Joe Louis.

While maintaining his interest in bowling, Barry joined the Sunnyside club. When he first entered the ring, he displayed an aptitude for the sport. This was not lost on his coaches, who were called trainers in those days. The coaches at Sunnyside then were the legendary brothers Johny and Tim O'Driscoll.

In 1940, Barry was 21 and for the next five years, he enjoyed great success with Sunnyside while equally building a big reputation as a champion bowler. During his five years in the ring, he won four Cork county titles and three Munster championship crowns, mostly all at middleweight. 

He won a host of trophies at various tournaments and was very popular in all boxing circles. 

Barry never drank or smoked and after his five-year career in boxing, he applied himself permanently to road bowling.

In 1955, Barry was 36 when he won his first senior All-Ireland title, that same year he did what is still fondly remembered by many in Cork when he threw a 16-ounce bowl up and over the Viaduct. Barry became a big crowd puller; he went on to win 10 senior All-Ireland titles and 13 Munster championships. 

Mick Barry was to bowling what Ring was to hurling.

The Waterfall native graced the sport for six decades. At 78 years of age, Mick won his last tournament in 1997 in Monkstown when he defeated Liam O'Keeffe in the final of the veteran’s tournament. 

Barry had all the natural attributes of a first-class athlete who would have excelled at many sports..