Tralee Boxing Club has a part time position available from September 2022 for a Boxing coach in the club.

The position is 19.5 hours per week and paid as part of  a CE scheme. Full training  will be available to the successful applicant with the opportunity to receive up to IABA level 1 coaching qualifications.

The successful applicant will be required to receive Garda vetting and necessary child safeguarding  documentation before commencing employment, all of which will be facilitated by TBC.

For further details, or to apply for the position, please contact Pat, Tralee Boxing Club on 086 194 2824 or Lynda 087 766 3406

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Boxing accounts for more than half of all the medals Ireland have won across 29 Olympic games.

It is without question our most successful Olympic sport and the legendary champions our small country has produced, from Dan Donnelly, the first Irish Heavyweight Champ in 1815, to our newest European Champions in 2022, Lisa O Rourke and Niamh Fay, are a huge source of national pride for us all.

Yet for all our success, Irish boxing in recent years has revealed a darker side in terms of poor governance and lack of camaraderie, highlighted at the Tokyo Olympics with the resignation of Bernard Dunne, from his position as High Performance Unit Director.

Olympic gold medal winner Kellie Harrington described the complex political scenario in the IABA at the time as “a s**t show” that “needs to be sorted out because the only people missing out are the boxers.”

With admirable intention, to finally put an end to this damaging infighting, Minister for Sport, Jack Chambers sought to pressure the IABA to change its ways, to fall in line or to be penalised by funding cuts, eventually amounting to full funding cuts, if change was not implemented.

It was made clear to the people of Ireland that government plans were not going to affect the High Performance athletes, our current and future champions.

However, there can be no denying that the grassroots boxing clubs around the country are going to suffer from this fallout between the Minister and the IABA.

This cannot have anything but a knock on effect on the High Performance Unit in time as the next batch of HP athletes are expected to come from small local clubs such as our own here in Tralee.

As our own coach Pat O Shea says, if you don’t plant the seed, nothing can grow in the garden.

A good deal of funding may come to the IABA from government and Sport Ireland, but unfortunately not a lot of that trickles down into local clubs, who like ourselves, are obliged to constantly go into the community to raise funds to keep our doors open to the young people of the town.

We must fight relentlessly for every penny we can get.

In last week’s local papers, our neighbouring club Cashen Vale BC, Ballybunion, which has trained 14 national champions, admitted that they face an uncertain future in 2023 due to financial pressure.

Was this suffering of local community boxing clubs anticipated by the Minister?

Captain of the Irish Olympic Boxing team at the 2012 Olympics in London, Darren O Neill, commented, “essentially it is the sport and the boxers who are going to lose out.”

Clubs like ours have very little say in the politics of the IABA but will definitely be getting the short end of the stick if this conflict is not resolved.

Last Sunday, little local clubs from around the country did exercise their vote, we chose to fight, and we chose to change, a new board has been elected in the IABA.

The Minister can hopefully see this as a step towards change, give incoming president, Gerry O Mahoney, and the new board time to clean up the face of Irish boxing before cutting funding and potentially relegating our national boxing pride into old photos and history books.