Raphoe Boxing Club gloves up for its 35th anniversary

Long before the formation of the County Donegal Boxing Board in September 1950, the sport already had planted firm roots in the county.

The current Raphoe Boxing Club might be a relatively young club - it celebrates its 35th anniversary this year - but boxing was a popular outlet in the historic town in the 1920s and 1930s.

At one stage, Irish Row BC, Guest House End BC and Bingo Farm Boxing Club all operated from Raphoe.

It seems apt that the home of one of Raphoe BC’s founder members and current President, Peter O’Donnell, stands on the site of the old Bingo Farm BC.

In the mid-1980s, Brendan Ryan returned from a spell in Glasgow. Relocating to Raphoe, Ryan sought a club for his young son, Danny, who had shown some promise in Scotland.

The Ryan family rented a house in Raphoe and the teenage hopeful spent a couple of weeks at Letterkenny Boxing Club before moving to Twin Towns, with whom he won Boy 3 and Boy 4 Irish titles.

In 1987, Ryan floated the idea of forming a club in Raphoe and O’Donnell went to see Gerry Daly in Letterkenny. Soon, a new club was born.

Frank McBrearty senior rented them a premises above his bookmakers shop and the club sourced punch bags from the St Joseph’s Boxing Club in Derry thanks to the generosity of Eugene Duffy, who remains one of O’Donnell’s closest allies to this day.

With the assistance of Christy McGinley and Christy O’Donnell, the Raphoe club was off the ground with Jim McGranaghan serving as its first President.

Within a year of the club’s formation, Columba McBrearty won the Irish Boy 1 42kgs title - the first of 18 Irish titles that have now been won by the club.

Times were frugal when Raphoe Boxing Club moved its location to a portacabin at the Raphoe Vocational School in the 1990s. “We didn’t even have a drink of water in the place,” O’Donnell says. There was no heat and no toilet facilities.

And yet, they rejoiced.

In March 1993, O’Donnell was at ringside for what remains the standout moment for the club. The memory of Danny Ryan’s defeat of Denis Galvin in the Irish middleweight final remains as vivid now and he recalls it with all the enthusiasm of that fabled Friday 30 yeas ago.

A 19-year-old Fruit Of The Loom employee Ryan had Moate’s four-time Irish champion Galvin for company in the Elite middleweight final. Galvin was fancied, but Ryan utterly believed that he was to reach his destiny.

Midway through the second round, Galvin was down. A crisp left hook and a right cross from Ryan had Galvin dazed. The Moat puncher got up, but was counted out by European referee George Peters and that, as they say, was that.

When the first bell sounds at around 6pm on Sunday at the Deele College Sports Pavilion for Raphoe BC’s 35th anniversary tournament, the club might well have a second Elite champ in its midst. Danny Duffy has a chance to bridge a 30-year gap to Ryan’s epic night when he faces Oisin Worsencroft in the bantamweight final on Saturday night.

Raphoe Boxing Club coaches and boxers in 2023. (North West Newspix)

Raphoe BC’s early take-off saw the need for a home of its own. One Saturday, while the club was then operating from the Marathon Hall, O’Donnell headed for the home of local TD Paddy Harte, who suggested the ‘Pound Field’, to the rear of St Eunan’s Terrace, as an ideal location for a base.

A lease was swiftly arranged with Donegal County Council and, again with Deputy Harte’s assistance, a £4,000 interest free loan was obtained. Convoy man Sean Toner, then a woodwork teacher at the Vocational School, drew up the plans and the wheels were in motion.

The day a group of men, including O’Donnell, were marking out the foundations for their new home, Danny Ryan and Tommy Stewart were on duty at the Commonwealth Games in Canada while young boxer Gerard Keaveney was in New York representing a north west team.

Keaveney is now aiding the Raphoe Boxing Club head coach, former Ulster champion Gary McCullagh. At the 1992 Celtic Games in Dublin, Keaveney - who was the Ulster Youth champion at the time - won a bronze medal, losing narrowly to Dean Watson from Scotland in a semi-final.

Danny Ryan competed at the 1993 World Championships in Tampere, Finland and the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada before signing professional forms with Frank Warren. His last bout for Raphoe ABC was an exhibition fight against Mick Hirrell from Carndonagh ABC at the Marathon Hall in Raphoe - a week before he turned pro.

By the time Ryan retired in November 1998 with a pro record of 10-3-2, 1KO, Raphoe BC was in its new home. A 400 square foot extension was added in 2012 to include new changing rooms and showers and in 2017 a new extension, which houses a weights room, was built.

Raphoe BC has been well travelled. In October 1998, a Raphoe Select - with some guests from Dunfanaghy - enjoyed a ten-day trip to New York.

On their arrival in the Big Apple, the Donegal contingent were met by Raphoe native and Bronx barman Martin McCarron.

The Donegal men worked out at the world famous Gleason’s Gym on the Brooklyn waterfront.

A tournament was held at the Elks Club in Queens, where Joe McCullagh of Raphoe BC lost out to Alvin Acosta and Raphoe’s Stephen ‘The Prince’ McBride was beaten by Salad Ahmed.

Jason Ward (Raphoe) beat York Rosario and Joe Harkin (Dunfanaghy) overcame Kelly Colmete.

Tommy Stewart and Brendan Ryan receiving Raphoe Boxing Club's first ever strip from Jimmy McGee of Director of Star Upholstery in October 1988

The Boxer of the Night was won by Raphoe BC’s James ‘Bomber’ Brown. The flamboyant St Johnston man turned in a five-star display to see off Teroin Ghaslon.

Before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Raphoe BC took teams to Villa Park in Birmingham in February, 2019 and the KC Stadium in Hull in November of the dame year.

Before a crowd of over 600 people in the Holte Suite at the home of Aston Villa FC, the Raphoe squad lost out by seven bouts to four with Dennis Dennis Lafferty beating British Youth champion Bradley Ferrie of the Second City BC.

Over 80 tournaments have been hosted by the club in venues such as the Marathon Hall, Cathedral Hall, Frankies Nightclub and Deele College in Raphoe; the Inter-County Hotel, Gateway Hotel and Clonleigh Social Centre in Lifford; and the CPI Centre in Castlefin.

Boxers from visiting clubs like St Paul’s Hull, St Michael’s Chesterfield, Belgrove Leicester, Walsall Wood, Tamworth, Birmingham, Derbyshire and St Joseph’s Newport have all ducked under the ropes to face Raphoe boxers over the years.

Times were not always so bright and O’Donnell can remember the tough times when Castlefin boxer Stefan Brolly ‘was the only regular man coming here’.

From 1993-2014, Raphoe was without an Irish title before Cody Lafferty broke the barrier to win a Girl 1 31kgs title.

Since then, Leah Gallen won five Irish titles and added two European bronze medals to the sideboard.

Among the prized assets from Raphoe in Donegal boxing’s formative years was Francis Patrick Gallagher, who was known affectionately as ‘Paddy The Painter’. When he went on to become a soldier in the Irish army, and was based in Clonmel, he won an Irish Army Lightweight title. His photo hangs among a treasure trove of nostalgia on the walls of Raphoe BC now; a pointer to the past in a club that is very much moving forwards.

O’Donnell says now ahead of Sunday’s tournament: “I want to give a special thanks to all the boxers, coaches, officials and committee members and also everyone in the local community for their unending support of fundraisers, functions and tournaments. The officers of the Raphoe Boxing Club will be forever grateful to the late Brendan Ryan, Tommy Stewart and former club treasurer Christy O’Donnell for all their loyal service.”