The latest installment of the Seconds Out: Stories of Irish Boxing series is a profile of Monivea BC’s Gus Farrell.
Gus Farrell was selected by the Provincial Council as a person who has made a singular contribution to boxing in Ireland.
Gus was born in Wexford, and is the county’s first ever National Elite Champion. He has two Elite titles under his belt (bantamweight and feather), and is a multi-Elite silver medalist. He has boxed for Ireland and as part of the Irish National Senior Team which toured the US in 1977. During that time, he visited Deer Park to watch Mohammed Ali prep for his bout with Leon Spinks and had a now historic interaction with The Greatest. “I started at 9. I’m 67 now. I’m a very years in this game and I love it. I’ve never looked back since I came in the door in St. Pat’s in Enniscorthy”
In the early 1980s, Gus moved to Galway and founded Monivea Boxing Club, which has gone on to produce multiple provincial and national champions, and international boxers. Gus also shares how he “accidentally” founded Monivea BC after an announcement by the town’s Parish Priest at Mass. “I went to the local priest to look for somewhere to leave and to keep training, because I was married with two kids at that time. He announced it at Mass the following Sunday – he said, there’s a boxing club starting next week in the old hall. I said to myself, what’s he talking about? I just wanted somewhere to keep fit. Low and behold, I went home. The next Thursday night we came up, and there was about 60 kids and 20 parents and it blossomed from there. We’ve been very lucky. Very lucky with the community and with the people that get involved”
Gus’ coaching career is impressive. He was a High Performance coach before the formalizationof HP coaching in the early 2000s. He became an Olympic coach as part of the backroom team for the Atlanta 1996 Games. Gus is a qualified IABA Coach Developer, which means he can deliver training to qualify people to coach boxing. He is also a member of the IABA Coach Education Committee, responsible for design and delivery of coach qualification courses.
In 2023, he was elected a member of Connacht Provincial Council. After filming of this piece concluded, Gus won election as Interim President of Connacht.
This profile includes contribution from members of Gus’ family and the wider Galway community, including High Performance boxer, Adam Hession, Galway County Board Secretary and now Interim Connacht VP Alan Donnellan, and Gabe Cronley
Adam says “Gus has had a massive impact on where I am today. Jesus, without Gus, I definitely wouldn’t have achieved what I have achieved to date. He’s a role model. He has definitely a role model for me, inside and outside the ring”.
Alan says “He gives so much to the kids in his club in the community. And that’s really what he’s about. He really is about representing the community, doing as much as he can. Even though he is synonymous with boxing, he does so much more for people outside boxing in the community”
This short film is part of a series of shorts on Irish Boxing – Seconds Out: Stories of Irish Boxing, commissioned by IABA and produced by Lowki Culture, and supported by Sport Ireland
Check out the full suite of Seconds Out: Stories of Irish Boxing pieces.