This has been a memorable year for the Irish Boxing family, marked by incredible achievement on the international stage, and growth within our community.
I don’t think any of us will ever forget the surge of pride we felt when Kellie’s hand was raised in victory in her Olympic final. She, as part of an historic team of 10, made history in defending her title and coming home with Olympic gold a second time.
Kellie is as incomparable as the potential within our sport. Her glorious victory reached far beyond the boxing family – it reached so far that clubs registered 2,887 members in the 4 months after her win. That’s staggering, and its due not only to Kellie’s generational talent, but to the wall-to-wall coverage of that talent. Her final was the most-watched sport event in Ireland in the last decade. She spread boxing’s message, boxing’s appeal, boxing’s potential, to almost every household on this island.
It goes without saying that we are all proud of all boxers who performed so admirably on the international stage in 2024.
2024 had its challenges, some of them profound:
- We are no longer part of the Irish Olympic family. We knew this could happen, and we shared this possibility with clubs in October. We also shared with clubs, after this month’s AGM, correspondence confirming we are not now a member of the Olympic Federation of Ireland. How that sits with us, given we are Ireland’s most successful Olympic sport, is something each of us, each club, each provincial Unit, Central Council and the Board of Directors, needs to reflect on. What that means for our future is something we must decide together. As it stands, our current Junior boxers are not on course to contest the 2026 Youth Olympics, as Lauren Kelly, Dean Clancy and Dearbhla Rooney did in the last iteration of these Games in 2018. Our current Youth and Elite boxers are not on the path to contesting LA 2028 and continuing our Olympic legacy.
- The culture upheld by some members of our community, one of harassment, abusive language and misinformation, diminishes us all, and damages not only our clubs and our sport, but our ability to attract any external sponsors. It undermines the very volunteerism on which boxing is built, and drives good people, people who are capable, knowledgeable and skillful, from our sport. We introduced a Social Media Policy and Complaints and Discipline Code in May, which enables members who feel wronged by online or in-person activity to seek recourse. I encourage any and all members who feel the behaviour of others has been below the standard we all expect of the Boxing Family to make use of this Code. As I shared at the AGM, the behaviour and choices of a small cohort of members in recent years has cost the Association sponsorship which should have been invested in to boxing – in to training and provisioning teams, holding residential training camps, hosting dual and multi-nations tournaments, in to a Youth and Juniors pathway. I am aware that some members of our community find it difficult to believe that online behaviour, and behaviour in competitions, at meetings, could have any impact on a sponsor’s decision to invest in us and have their reputation aligned with ours, but this is the reality.
In March, we introduced the payment of expenses for National Championship officials, a first in the long history of our Association. This is designed to honour the service and commitment of officials without whose work National Championships could not take place. These expenses are in addition to the payment of accommodation fees for officials by IABA.
In June, clubs unanimously voted to return E49,000 in expenses incurred by 25 members who, in August 2021, were removed from the IABA by the then Central Council. The 2021 decision was upheld by an IABA membership committee on 12th November of that year. These members successfully appealed through SDSI arbitration to restore the members, and it was reimbursement of these legal costs that the Board of Directors put to members at the June EGM. All 55 clubs in attendance agreed.
We also launched our keynote 4-year Strategic Plan, In Your Corner, which will guide the growth of the Association until 2028. This plan could not have been completed without the contribution of members at 7 in-person consultation workshops. It includes provision for the reform of the Association’s internal architecture, a High-Performance Youth and Juniors Pathway, from grassroots to the top of the podium and ambitious targets for member, club and coach growth.
The year ends with the exciting installation of a new Central Council, directly elected by IABA clubs to administer boxing. This Central Council, under the guidance and leadership of President Anto Donnelly, has the honour and responsibility of administering all National Championships, and acting as the key governance and oversight body of all county boards and provincial units. These are high-responsibility tasks, and Central Council has my full support in independent administration of our sport. Boxing should be run to the highest possible administrative, sporting, development and welfare standard. Boxing should be run to this gold standard by boxing people.
I remind all clubs, as I shared at the AGM, that under no circumstances will IABA members be allowed to participate at international benchmark competitions under any flag other that the national flag in 2025
Looking forward, we are introducing important changes to IABA, not least of which includes the appointment of a permanent CEO, and High Performance Director. We’re also making headway in identifying the best CRM/club portal for boxing, supported by club members who are part of the CRM Working Group, and we will be launching a fresh website early in the New Year.
In a perfect world, I would end this message on the hopeful note of success to come, but the reality is that we stand at a cross-roads. It is the choice of which road to take which will determine our future direction, and how we grow nationally and on the international stage. I encourage all clubs and members to take the opportunity of down-time this Christmas to think on where you see us in 2028 – in LA, or at home. Who will we be watching win Olympic gold?
For now, I want to thank all of the members for the Trojan work done in clubs day in, day out. Without you, there is no Association.
Merry Christmas to all who celebrate, and a prosperous and happy New Year to everyone.
Niall O’Carroll,
Chair, IABA Board of Directors.