The Women’s World Championship draw has taken place today, in advance of the beginning of boxing in Istanbul, Turkey, on Monday.

The IBA streamed the draw live on its YouTube channel, here

Tokyo Olympian, 57kg Michaela Walsh, has a by and will meet USA’s Amelia Moore in the Women’s Featherweight Round of 32 in Wednesday’s afternoon session. 54kg Niamh Fay also as a by, and meet Modestine Munga Zalia of the Democratic Republic of Congo in Thursday’s afternoon session, in the bantamweight Round of 32.

At 50kg, Caitlin Fryers will make her tournament debut on Thursday, in the afternoon session, against South Africa’s Thandolwethu T. Mathiba. Carly McNaul, contesting at 52kg, will open her Women’s World Championship account in Wednesday’s evening session, against Burundi’s Ornella Havyarimana.

48kg Shannon Sweeney is between the ropes on Tuesday’s evening session, meeting Florencia Aldana Lopez of Argentina. Kaci Rock, 66kg, also has to wait until Thursday’s evening session to begin her campaign – she boxes Austeja Auciute of Lithuania in the evening session.

Aoife O’Rourke opens her account on Wednesday in the afternoon session against Naomi Melissa Graham of the USA.

Originally, two Team Ireland boxers were to be in action on the first day of the competition. However, IBA issued an amended programme, showing 70kg Lisa O’Rourke boxes Mbabi Brigitte of the Democratic Republic of Congo in Bout 6 of Ring A’s evening session.

Amy Broadhurst, competing at 63kg, will now take on on Croatia’s Sara Beram on Wednesday.

Watch Ring A’s evening session here

Watch Ring B’s evening session here

Day One’s up-dated programme:

Team Ireland Squad

48kg Shannon Sweeney, St.Anne’ BCs, Mayo

50kg Caitlin Fryers, Immaculata BC, Belfast

 52kg Carly McNaul, Ormeau Road BC, Belfast

 54kg Niamh Fay, Phoenix of Ballyboughal, Dublin

 57kg: Michaela Walsh: Emerald BC, Belfast

 63kg Amy Broadhurst: St.Bronagh’s  ABC, Rostrevor

 66kg Kaci Rock, Enniskerry BC, Wicklow

70kg Lisa O’Rourke, Olympic BC, Galway

75kg Aoife O’Rourke: Olympic BC, Galway

 Coaches:

Zauri Antia

John Conlan

Eoin Pluck

Noel Burke

Competition Venue:

Sinan Erdem Dome in Istanbul, Turkey

Competition Dates:

May 6^th to 21^st.

Team Ireland has had an enormously successful year so far in international competition, with 29 medals in all – these include 2 golds at Strandja, 3 golds at the European U22 Championships, 5 at the Golden Belt/Nicolae Linca tournament and 3 at the European Youth Championship.

Draw sheets for all weight categories are available here

Competition Calendar:

Full list of competitiors:

Affiliation for the forthcoming season is open. Unique usernames and passwords for affiliation via the Blocworx portal were issued on Friday, April 29th, along with resources to support completion of the affiliation process.

Please note: Clubs have been able affiliate to the IABA for season 2022/23 since 12:00 pm/noon Saturday 30^th April. The affiliation period will run from April 30^th to May 31st.Only clubs, county boards and provincial councils which have fully completed the IABA’s affiliation process before 1^st June 2022 will continue to enjoy the privileges of membership. Clubs, county boards and provincial councils can still submit applications after this date however, they will only enjoy the privileges of membership from the date on which their application receives final sign off. Any club, county board or and provincial council affiliating beyond June 1^st should be aware that their organisation will not enjoy the privileges of membership between June 1^st and the date on which their late affiliation is signed-off on.

Online Affiliation Process:

A link to access the affiliation platform, Blocworx, was emailed to Club Secretaries, on Friday, 29th April.

• Clubs could begin their affiliation process after midday on Saturday, April 30^th.
• Click on the link and use the unique log-in details provided in the email from IABA head office to access the online affiliation platform.
• To assist clubs, and to streamline the process, the IABA has included the most up to date membership data from last season 2021/22. 
• Clubs will have the option of adding new members or deleting members from their overall list.
• Easy to follow instructional videos will be made available to members.
• Staff will also be available to assist members with the digital affiliation process.
• Clubs in Munster, Leinster and Connacht can submit their queries to info@iaba.ie and clubs in Ulster can submit their queries to ulster@iaba.ie

Submission of an affiliation application is not confirmation of successful affiliation.

All applications will be reviewed, in full, and signed off on before a clubs, county boards or provincial council will be deemed successfully affiliated.

For the avoidance of doubt: membership shall only become effective on the date all approvals have been finalised. If a dispute arises in relation to a body’s application for affiliation to IABA which leads to the application not being accepted, any monies paid as part of the affiliation process will be refunded to the body in question.

Clubs can change their mind about affiliating to the IABA.

To do this your club will need to give notice in writing. You can do this at any time up to 31^st August 2022 after making your membership application and your entire membership will end. If you or any of your linked members enters a club to use the facilities during the cancellation period, the IABA will charge a proportion of the affiliation fee to cover this period and we will refund the balance of any fees you have already paid.

Clubs will only be viewed as affiliated members of the IABA following receipt of an official affiliation letter of acceptance from IABA head office.

The Olympic Federation of Ireland Olympic schools programme, Dare to Believe, has unveiled 2 boxers among its newly appointed ambassadors.

Dare to Believe was launched in 2019, bringing the Olympic Games, and the Olympic values to primary schools around Ireland. The Dare to Believe Secondary School curriculum has been unveiled this week, as well as the addition of 15 Tokyo 2020 athletes to the programme, bringing the total of Olympic and Paralympic ambassadors to 31. This includes boxing’s Team Ireland Tokyo Co-Captain, Brendan Irvine, and Team Ireland boxer, Grainne Walsh. They join Tokyo Olympic champion, Kellie Harrington, who has been a Dare to Believe Ambassador since 2019.

Kellie says “I want to give kids what I have had in my sporting career, and I want to let them know that believing is achieving. That anything is possible once they believe. Through the Dare to Believe programme, as ambassadors, we can show them the power of believing in their dreams, and that if they dare to believe they can achieve something positive in their lives, be it an actor, a singer or a sports star. I’m excited to see the programme expand to transition year students, and think that this can make a real difference for someone out there.”  

Over 77,000 primary school children have engaged with the programme over the last year. Since 2020 Dare to Believe has included hugely popular virtual challenges such as the Road to Tokyo, as well as a successful collaboration with RTÉ’s Home School Hub. Dare to Believe is an interactive ‘Five Ring’ curriculum teaching students about Olympics values such as respect, friendship and striving for excellence, and includes a classroom visit from a Team Ireland ambassador.

The secondary school curriculum is based on the same principles and has been developed in conjunction with teachers and explores important topics through the lens of sport. Aimed primarily at Transition Year students, topics that are addressed range from the positive impact of sport on society as a whole and well-being, to important topics such as respect, equality and hate speech, through the ‘Don’t Scroll By’ module. The curriculum encourages dialogue around key subjects such as mental health and racism.

Chief Executive of the Olympic Federation of Irelad, Peter Sherrard, says “We are delighted to have Permanent TSB’s support to grow and develop our Dare to Believe schools programme. Since it started in 2019, it has gone from strength to strength. The athletes have shown how powerful and inspirational their stories can be to children all over the country.

“Thanks to Permanent TSB, we have an exciting new secondary school curriculum that will see our athlete ambassadors engaging students through a range of stimulating and relevant topics that transcend sport – helping teenagers so much at a critical time in their development journeys.”

Registration for the Dare to Believe programme is free of charge and all details can be found on www.daretobelieve.ie for both primary and secondary curriculums.

Athlete Ambassadors

#	First Name	Last Name	Sport	County
1	Thomas	Barr	Athletics	Waterford/Limerick
2	Brendan	Boyce	Athletics	Cork
3	Sive	Brassil	Pentathlon	Dublin
4	Orla	Comerford	Athletics (PI)	Dublin
5	Clare	Cryan	Diving	Dublin
6	Billy	Dardis	Rugby	Dublin
7	Ollie	Dingley	Diving	Dublin
8	Philip	Doyle	Rowing	Down
9	Monika	Dukarska	Rowing	Kerry
10	Michelle	Finn	Athletics	Dublin
11	Martin	Gordon	Cycling Track (PI)	Dublin
12	Kellie	Harrington	Boxing	Dublin
13	Phil	Healy	Athletics	Waterford
14	Danielle	Hill	Swimming	Antrim
15	Brendan	Irvine	Boxing	Antrim
16	Aifric	Keogh	Rowing	Galway/Dublin
17	Eimear	Lambe	Rowing	Dublin
18	Sarah	Lavin	Athletics	Limerick
19	Marcus	Lawler	Athletics	Carlow
20	Thomas	Maloney Westgård	Cross-Country Skiing	Norway
21	Shirley	McCay	Hockey	Belfast
22	Brendan	Newby	Freestyle Ski	Utah, USA
23	Shane	O Donoghue	Hockey	Dublin
24	Sarah	Quinn	Athletics	Mayo
25	Louise	Shanahan	Athletics	Norway
26	Greta	Streimikyte	Athletics – Paralympian	Meath
27	Richael	Timothy	Cycling Track (PI)	Galway
28	Nicole	Turner	Swimming – Paralympian	Laois
29	Roisin	Upton	Hockey	Limerick
30	Grainne	Walsh	Boxing	Offaly
31	Ellen	Walshe	Swimming	Dublin

A 13 strong team of boxers has been named to contest the Commonwealth Games for Northern Ireland.

Boxing is Northern Ireland’s most successful sport at the Commonwealths with 61 medals, including 13 golds, 19 silvers and 29 bronze medal bronze.

The team includes 3 2018 Gold Coast Games silver medallists, in Carly McNaul and Aidan and Michaela Walsh, now Olympic bronze medalist and Olympian, respectively.

Ulster Head Coach, John Conlan, says “It’s good to get the squad in early enough to get them training together and get a solid platform of training going. The squad will train with the National team, will attend a sparring camp in Italy, take part in the Eindhoven Box Cup which is good for building international experience. The preparation will finish with a massive international training camp in Belfast, with teams from Australia, India, New Zealand, GB, Canada, and many of the smaller nations.”

John adds: “Dylan Eagleson and Clepson dos Santos are two very young boxers who have earned their right to go to name but a few, it’s an exciting time and I can’t wait to see what these boxers will do”.

The 2022 Commonwealth Games take place in Birmingham from July 28th to August 8th.

N.I Commonwealth Team:

48kg Nicole Clyde, Antrim BC

50kg Carly McNaul, Ormeau Rd BC

51kg Clepson Paiva, Holy Trinity BC

54kg Dylan Eagleson, St. Paul’s BC

57kg Michaela Walsh, Emerald BC

57kg Jude Gallagher, Two Castles BC

60kg Amy Broadhurst, St. Bronagh’s BC

63.5kg JP Hale, Star ABC

67kg Eugene McKeever, Holy Family BC, Drogheda

70kg Eireann Nugent, Immaculata BC

71kg Aidan Walsh, Emerald BC

75kg Jake Tucker, Emerald BC

92+kg Damien Sullivan, Emerald BC

The Irish Athletic Boxing Association (IABA) can confirm that it has received Bernard Dunne’s resignation as High-Performance Director. The Association deeply regrets Bernard’s decision, given the great contribution he has made to our sport since his appointment in 2017. The IABA would also like to note that its acceptance of his resignation is provisional as it has asked Bernard to reconsider his decision.

Bernard has been on leave from the company since the Tokyo Olympics. In October 2021, he submitted a complaint against two volunteers in connection with the dissemination of an anonymous document in February 2021

The IABA has always regarded this document as malicious and an appalling attack on a member of staff and on the High-Performance Unit. This is the most recent instance of a member of staff being subjected to undesirable behaviour solely because they are employees of the company.

CEO Fergal Carruth and Chair, Ciarán Kirwan, have both commented publicly on the grave nature of this attack on a staff member and have repeatedly stated unequivocal support for Bernard Dunne in his position as HPU Director. Under Bernard’s leadership, the HPU has been reinvigorated in the wake of the 2016 Rio Olympics. Since his appointment, Ireland’s boxers won 2 Olympic medals, gold, and bronze, 27 medals at World and European level– a feat made more remarkable by the fact Ireland’s boxers were not in competition for long periods of time due to Covid 19 restrictions.

The anonymous document entered the public domain in February 2021.  The person or persons who authored it have elected not to claim responsibility for it at the time of publication or at any stage since.  An initial hearing of Bernard’s complaint, made in October 2021, took place at the end of April, and was adjourned with the agreement of all parties. The process is ongoing.

It’s important to note that there are 28,000 people in the Irish Boxing family, and, like all families, there can be divergent views. A small cohort of the Irish Boxing family, however, has expressed robust dissatisfaction with the High-Performance Unit since its inception in 2003. They desire to see the selection of Team Ireland boxers for international competition and all connected matters, undertaken by people other than professionals/High Performance staff. This is not a realistic option in modern high-performance sport. This is not a risk that should be taken with Ireland’s most successful Olympic sport. Half of Ireland’s boxing Olympic medals have been won since the inception of the HPU and it is imperative that this winning structure is supported and protected.