IABA’s Vice President, Eugene Duffy, has been honoured for his lifetime of service to boxing and to his local community by Derry & Strabane District Council.
The function took place yesterday evening at the historic Guidhall
A native of Derry, Eugene began his boxing career in Derry Sports Club in 1957, joining St. Eugene’s BC in the early 1960s.
By 1978, was officiating at county and Provincial level in Ulster. At the close of the decade, had begun officiating at national championships in the home of Irish Boxing.
Eugene has officiated at competitions including the 2003 World Elite Championships in Thailand, Olympic qualifiers in Europe, America and Trinidad and Tobago, European championships, USA World Golden Gloves Invitational Tournament in Minnesota in 2005, the Commonwealth Games finals in Kuala Lumpur in 2004, as well as over 70 other box cups, round robins and international tournaments.
Outside the ring, Eugene holds the record as the long-serving elected member of the Ulster Boxing Council. He has also served as UBC Registrar, and Chair of the provincial council’s Referee and Judging Committee. Closer to home, Eugene has held every position in the Derry County Board, bar that of Treasurer, and was a member of Central Council in the 1990s.
The President of St Joseph’s Boxing Club was honoured by the I.A.B.A. for Outstanding Services to Boxing in 2017, was presented with a Life Time Achievement Award at the 2024 National Elite Championship Finals, and has just been elected Vice President of Central Council.
Eugene was also honoured by IABA as part of the Seconds Out: Stories of Irish Boxing series, produced by Lowki Culture and supported by Sport Ireland.
As part of this piece, he voice of Irish boxing, stadium announcer Peter O’Donnell of Raphoe BC in Donegal highlighted Eugene’s social contribution to his community through boxing “ I don’t think men like Eugene get enough credit for what they’ve done, especially in the 70s and 80s. These men, these volunteers, have actually saved lives. Young men, when the Troubles was going strong in Northern Ireland, these men kept the boxing clubs going throughout all that era. Kept young boys on the right path – other than that, there would have been a lotta young lives lost.”