Ten National Senior/Elite Championship finals were decided at the newly opened National Stadium in the 1940s.
The Championships had been running since the first edition of the tournament, the finals of which were decided at the Abbey Theatre, in 1922, although an All-Ireland competition was resolved at Dalymount Park, the home of the FAI, in 1920.
Following the drama at the Abbey, the Nationals were run at various venues throughout Dublin until the official opening of the National Stadium in 1939.
Light middle Kevin Doyle was the first man to win an Irish Senior/Elite belt on a walkover at the Stadium in 1947 after the semi-finalists in the corresponding bout were disqualified.
Eighty National Senior/Elite belts were claimed in the 1940s.
Irish boxing strode into the 1950s with a spring in its steps with a new home established and the flagship tournament of the sport up and running at the first purpose-built boxing venue in the world.
The sport received an enormous boost in the new decade with five Olympic medals, including a first podium finish at an Olympiad, claimed.
The 1953 finals featured Ireland’s first two Olympic finalists, John McNally (1952) and Fred Tiedt (1956), but both men were beaten by Andrew Reddy and Harry Perry in Dublin.
(1960s results to follow)
Please see below link for results.
NATIONAL SENIOR ELITES NATIONAL STADIUM
(Image: Archive picture of the National Stadium on official opening night in 1939)