Los Angeles 1932

The Irish Amateur Boxing Association sent a four-strong squad to the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, but the squad didn’t exactly travel to the USA with the ringing endorsement of all of Irish boxing.

Some of the biggest County Boards in the country expressed the view that the panel might not be up to task and even suggested at a Central Council meeting – a suggestion which went down like a led baloon – that the quartet should test themselves in the ABA Championships (English Championships).

The IABA Central Council overruled the County Boards in question, as reported in the Irish Independent and the Irish Times and various over publications in 1932, and the squad were dispatched to the USA as selected.

Paddy Hughes was the first into the ring in LA, but he was beaten by Argentina’s Carlos Alberto Pereyra in the bantamweight class, while Ernie Smith received a bye into the quarter-finals where he dropped a points decision to Argentina’s Carmelo Robledo, who went on to claim gold after beating Germany’s Josef Schleinkofer in the featherweight final.

Four years prior to the LA Games, Robledo was beaten by Ireland’s Frank Traynor in the quarter-finals at the Amsterdam Olympics. Welterweight Larry Flood also lost out in southern California, while Jim Murphy, boxing in the light-heavyweight class, was the only Irish boxer to record a victory.

Murphy, who received a bye into the last-eight, beat John Miller of the USA in the quarter-finals, but was then retired injured in the first round of his semi-final with Italy’s Gino Rossi – who lost to David Carstens (South Africa) in the final. The injury also forced Murphy to withdraw from the box-off for bronze with Denmark’s Peter Jorgensen.

85 boxers from 18 nations competed across eight weight categories at the 1932 Games between August 9th to 13th of that year. Argentina stunned the world of amateur boxing after securing two gold and one silver medal to finish on top of the medals table ahead of the USA at the Olympic Auditorium venue.

The ref was inside the ring for the 1932 Games, as opposed to sitting on a high stool outside the square circle, and in a new innovation boxers wore red and green ribbons around their waist. American heavyweight Jack Dempsey, who was of Irish/Cherokee descent, was one of the celebrities that attended the X Olympiad.

Ireland claimed two gold medals in LA, with Pat O’Callaghan winning his second gold in-a-row in the hammer throw and Bob Tisdall finishing on top of the podium in the 400m hurdles in a world record time of 51.7. However, the record was not recognised under the rules as Tisdall clipped a hurdle en route to victory.

The 1932 Games marked the last occasion that an Irish athlete competed at the Olympics before WW2 as Ireland did not enter the 1936 Games in Berlin. A number of publications, particularly in the USA, have reported that Ireland boycotted the 1936 Olympiad.

But the reason Ireland didn’t participate at Berlin 1936 was because of myopic wrangling in relation to flag and anthems and administrative authority between various national sporting bodies. There had been talk of an Irish boxing squad fighting in Berlin under the flag of the then International Boxing Association, but that also fell through.

From a boxing perspective, the non appearance at the 1936 Games was regrettable as the Garda boxing club at the time were clearly the backbone of Irish boxing and renowned throughout Europe. It was felt that a Garda boxer would surely have won a medal in the German capital.

But the bottom line was that Irish boxing would not throw a punch at an Olympid until after the guns fell silent on WW2.

Ireland’s pre WW2 statistics from three Olympics read: 20 boxers used. Wins 10. Loses 22 (including walkovers). Three boxers reached their respective semi-finals (enough for a bronze medal under today’s rules).

IRISH SQUAD AT LA 1932

Bantamweight: Paddy Hughes (Corinthians)
Lost to Carlos Alberto Pereyra (Argentina) Pts

Featherweight: Ernie Smith (St Andrew’s)
Lost to Carmelo Robledo (Argentina) (eventual gold medallist) Pts

Welterweight: Larry Flood (Army)
Lost to Robert Barton (South Africa) Pts

Light-heavy: Jim Murphy (Army)
Beat John Miller (USA) Pts
Lost to Gino Rossi (Italy) TKOI1
Bronze Medal Box-Off
Lost to Peter Joergensen (Denmark) W/O

Boxing has won more than half of our Olympic medals since Ireland first entered the Olympics independently at Paris 1924.

Sixteen medals – two gold, five silver and nine bronze – have been claimed in the ring.

Ireland’s Olympic boxing champions – twenty years apart in 1992 and 2012 – are Michael Carruth and Katie Taylor.

John McNally, Fred Tiedt, Wayne McCullough, Ken Egan and John Joe Nevin reached Olympics finals,

McNally’s podium finished was a first for Irish boxing at Helsinki 1952. Four years later Tiedt reached the welterweight decider at Melbourne 1956.

Egan and Nevin, team-mates at Beijing 2008, took home silver from Beijing 2008 and London 2012.

Overall, Irish sport has won 31 medals from the Olympics.

Please scroll down for Ireland’s Olympic (medal) performances 1924/2016. Ireland did not enter the Berlin 1936 Games.

IRISH SPORT AT THE OLYMPICS

Athletics: 4 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze = 7
Swimming: 3 gold, 0 silver, 1 bronze = 4
Boxing: 2 gold, 5 silver, 9 bronze = 16
Sailing: 0 gold, 2 silver, 0 bronze = 2
Rowing: 0 gold, 1 silver, 0 bronze = 1
Equestrian: 0 gold, 0 silver, 1 bronze = 1

Total: 9 gold, 10 silver, 12 bronze = 31

IRISH BOXING AT THE OLYMPICS

Helsinki 1952
54kg John McNally Silver

Melbourne 1956
67kg Fred Tiedt Silver
51kg John Caldwell Bronze
54kg Freddie Gilroy Bronze
60kg Tony Byrne Bronze

Tokyo 1964
60kg Jim McCourt Bronze

Moscow 1980
51kg Hugh Russell Bronze

Barcelona 1992
67kg Michael Carruth Gold
54kg Wayne McCullough Silver

Beijing 2008
81kg Ken Egan Silver
48kg Paddy Barnes Bronze
75kg Darren Sutherland Bronze

London 2012
60kg Katie Taylor Gold
56kg John Joe Nevin Silver
49kg Paddy Barnes Bronze
52kg Michael Conlan Bronze

We have an exciting opportunity for female members of the IABA working in leadership roles within their clubs, county boards or at provincial level.

A Women in Sport Leadership Programme will be delivered through a series of online interactive sessions that will develop candidates to thrive within their specific role. Several NGB’s are participating in this programme, including providing a diverse mix of perspectives and knowledge to draw from.

A combination of group and individual exercises will be included, ensuring that everyone is supported in reaching their own potential. Course content will be delivered by Leadership Experts and Consultants Lisa Clancy and Sarah O’Shea as well as guest speakers who will share their personal leadership experiences including Lisa Fallon (London City Lionesses Manager).

Course Details

• September 1st – October 20^th 2020
• 8 week online course
• Tuesday’s 7pm – 8.30pm
• Open to: IABA members working within the club/county/provincial environment

Core topics

• Leadership and Values
• Networking and Collaboration
• Handling Challenging Situations and Developing Resilience
• Crisis Management and Influencing in leadership
• Developing Your Personal Brand
• Well-being
• Change Management

All applications will be considered. Only 2 places are available on the course for the IABA. Successful applicants will join 14 participants from other sports to ensure optimal, personalised support for all candidates on the course. A selection committee will choose the successful candidates.

Application closing date: Monday August 10th

Canvassing will lead to disqualification

For further information & to submit an application please contact:

James Geraghty james@iaba.ie

National Development Manager

Dear Members,

As you are aware, the date of 1st August 2020 has been set as the date when IABA affiliated clubs can return to training, pending the completion of the required protocols and documentation. For more information please visit http://iaba.ie/covid-19-guidance/.

Please be advised, that only clubs who have fully completed the Club Declaration Form and have returned the completed / signed declaration form to info@iaba.ie will be granted permission to return to training.

Please see link to Club Declaration Form: Club Declaration Form

*Please note, clubs who do not return the fully completed / signed club declaration form will not be granted permission to reopen, until such time that they have submitted the completed declaration form to info@iaba.ie.

Amsterdam 1928

The Irish Athletic Boxing Association, then the Irish Amateur Boxing Association, informed the media that they had ratified their squad for the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam in June of that year.

Myles McDonagh, Frank Traynor, George Kelly, Willie O’Shea, PJ Lenehan, Jack Chase, WJ Murphy and Matt Flanagan would represent Irish boxing at the 9th Olympiad. 

All were current Irish Elite champions from the 1928 Irish Championships.

A record entry of 84 boxers, surpassing the previous year’s entry of 54, registered to compete at the 1928 Seniors in Dublin. Two of the titles, flyweight and welter, were vacant as defending champion George Kelly moved up to bantam and TJ Finn withdrew with an illness. 

The weigh-in was held between 8am and 12.30pm at Portobello Barracks. The IABA advised boxers – which they are still doing nearly a 100 years later – to weigh-in as early as possible to facilitate the draw.

Most of the 1928 Irish champions were included on an international team that won ten of eighteen bouts against Scotland at Portobello Barracks in 1928. The Olympic team also won seven of the eight bouts against Denmark at Dalymount Park in April of that year.

Matt Flanagan, who was selected as Irish flag bearer for the 1928 Games by the Olympic Council of Ireland, was the only Irish boxer not to win. His heavyweight bout with Niels Andreasen, described as a gigantic southpaw with a gap-toothed smile, was ruled a draw. The Irish Independent and Irish Times reported that just over 9,000 attended the meeting between Ireland and the Danes at the home of Irish football. Denmark also lost to the Irish Olympic reserve team at the Curragh a few days later.

Tipperary’s Paddy Dwyer, who had reached the semi-finals at Paris 1924, was Irish head coach for the 1928 Games which marked the first occasion that entries were limited to one boxer per weight division per nation. 144 boxers from 29 countries competed.

Dublin-born Frank Traynor reached the last-four in Amsterdam on August 10th, 1928.

The St Paul’s BC champion blasted his way into the semi-final at the Krachtsportgebouw venue after recording wins over Fuji Okamato (Japan) and Carmelo Robledo (Argentina) before losing out to Italy’s Vittorio Tamagnini.

He also lost out on points to Jewish bantamweight Harry Isaacs (South Africa) in the box-off for bronze. Willie “Boy” Murphy (Garda), who had won his first bout at the Paris Games in 1924, once again got off to a winning start in Amsterdam, this time out via a sensational first-round KO of Spain’s Jose Montilor Pastor.

But Murphy, who represented the Army at middleweight in Paris, exited after dropping a points decision to Germany’s Ernst Pistulla, who went on to claim silver, in the next phase.

PJ Lenihan and Jack Chase also secured wins for Ireland in the welterweight and middleweight classes, while Flanagan lost to eventual gold medallist, Arturo Rodriguez Jurado of Argentina.

As in Paris four years previously, boxing at the 1928 Games was contested across eight weight classes – flyweight, bantamweight, featherweight, lightweight, welterweight, middleweight, light-heavyweight and heavyweight.

The Amsterdam Olympiad marked the first time that an Olympic flame was lit at the modern Games and all athletes were given strict guidelines by the Federation International De Boxe Amateur (FIBA) and the International Olympic Committee as to what exactly constituted an amateur.

“An amateur is one who has never competed for a money prize, staked bet or declared wager, who has not competed with or against a professional for any prize (except with the express sanction of the Amateur Boxing Association of the nation of which he is a member), and who has never taught, pursued or assisted in the practice of athletic exercises as a means of obtaining a livelihood or pecuniary gain.”

There was no World Series of Boxing or AIBA Pro Boxing in 1928!

Italy finished on top of the medals table in the boxing event after claiming three gold medals and one bronze.

The legendary Pat O’Callaghan won gold at the 1928 Games in the hammer throw, Ireland’s first gold medal at the Olympics.

Ireland’s boxers helped shoulder our first Olympic champion, who was a good friend of Willie “Boy” Murphy, onto the boat home from the 1928 Games, but the search for Ireland’s first boxing medal would extend to Los Angeles 1932.

Irish Boxing at Amsterdam 1928

Flyweight: Michael “Myles” McDonagh (Army)

Lost to Brian Bril (Holland) Pts

Bantamweight: Frankie Traynor (St Paul’s)

Beat Fuji Okamato (Japan) Pts

Beat Carmelo Robledo (Argentina) Pts

Lost to Vittorio Tamagnini (Italy) Pts

Bronze medal box-off

Lost Harry Isaacs (South Africa) Pts

Featherweight: George Kelly (North City)

Lost to Rasmus Madsen (Denmark) Pts

Lightweight: Willie O’Shea (Army)

Lost to Jorge Diaz Hernandez (Chile) Pts

Welterweight : PJ Lenihan (St James)

Beat Arne Sande (Denmark) Pts

Lost to Ray Smillie (Canada) Pts

Middleweight: Jack Chase (Garda)

Beat Alfred Wilson (South Africa) Pts

Lost to to Leonard Steyaert (Belgium) Pts

Light-heavyweight: Willie ‘Boy’ Murphy (Garda)

Beat Jose Montilor Pastor (Spain) KO1

Lost to eventual silver medallist Ernst Pistulla (Germany) Pts

Heavyweight: Matt Flanagan (Garda)

Lost to eventual gold medallist Arturo Rodriguez Jurado (Argentina) Pts