Paddy Barnes, David Oliver Joyce and Joe Ward could be in action on Day 1 of the Olympic Games in Rio in August.

Barnes’, Joyce’s and Ward’s light-fly, light and light-heavy classes are in action on August 6, the opening day of the boxing event at the 31st Olympiad.

Click here for Rio 2016 boxing schedule.

Women’s boxing begins on August 12, with four bouts slated for decision in Katie Taylor’s lightweight class.

Eight Irish boxers have qualified for Rio so far.

Ray Moylette will be aiming to improve that number to nine over the line at the final Rio qualifiers which begin in Vargas, Venezuela on Sunday (exact day to be confirmed).

The Mayo light-welter and his Irish and club (St Anne’s BC) coaches Eddie Bolger and Martin Brennan left for Venezuela early this morning for the last throw of the Rio dice for Irish and international boxing.

A top three finish is required to book a Rio ticket in the light-welter class at the Latin American qualifiers which are ostensibly a World Series of Boxing (WSB) versus AIBA Pro Boxing (APB) tournament but which are also open to pro boxers. Moylette is eligibe through APB.

Irish boxing – except for the 1936 Games in Berlin – has been represented at every Olympiad since Ireland first entered the Olympics as an independent nation at Paris 1924.

Irish Rio 2016 Squad

49kg Paddy Barnes (Holy Family)

52kg Brendan Irvine (St Paul’s Antrim)

56kg Michael Conlan (Clonard)

60kg Katie Taylor (Bray)

60kg David Oliver Joyce (St Michael’s Athy & AIBA Pro Boxing)

64kg ?

69kg Steven Donnelly (All Saints)

75kg Michael O’Reilly (Portlaoise)

81kg Joe Ward (Moate & AIBA Pro Boxing)

 (B)

Fans can avail of a final opportunity to see Ireland’s Rio bound boxers in action before the Olympic Games at the National Stadium in Dublin on Friday night.

Team Ireland meet a Russian selection at the home of Irish boxing in a test match in their last outing before the opening bell for boxing at the 31st Olympiad on August 6th.

All media are invited to attend to Friday’s test match.

Current World and European Elite champion Michael Conlan, ex European Elite champion Paddy Barnes, a three-time Olympian, World Elite silver medallist Joe Ward, the only Irish boxer to claim two European Elite belts, three-time European Union Elite champion David Oliver Joyce, European Games silver medallist Brendan Irvine, World Series of boxing dynamo Steven Donnelly, European Games bronze medallist Sean McComb, John Joyce, Jeffrey Kavanagh and Thomas Carthy line out for a formidable Irish team against a top Russian selection.

Currently, Conlan, Barnes, Ward, Joyce, Irvine, Donnelly, Katie Taylor and Michael O’Reilly have qualified for Rio.

The class of 2016 have surpassed the Irish qualification record set by the Barcelona 1992 squad (six) and the London 2012 panel (six). The present qualification system was introduced for Barcelona 1992.

Irish boxing legend Freddie Gilroy sadly passed away today aged 80.

Freddie Gilroy, who was from Ardoyne in north Belfast, won a bronze medal for Ireland in the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne.

The Irish bantamweight, who boxed out of the St John Bosco BC, received a bye in the preliminaries in Melbourne. He beat Boris Stepanov of the USSR and Mario Sitro of Italy en route to the semi-finals where he was beaten by Germany’s Wolfgang Behrendt, the eventual Olympic champion.

The Melbourne 1956 boxing team won four medals, a total only equalled by the London 2012 side.

Freddie Gilroy switched codes after the 1956 Games and won British, Commonwealth and European titles.

In 1960, he lost on points to France’s Alphonse Halimi for the World Bantamweight title.

The Irish Athletic Boxing Association extends its deep condolences to the Gilroy family.