Comeback kid Leah Gallen back in a familiar corner again

Leah Gallen thought she had bowed out of boxing.

The winner of six Irish titles and two European bronze medals, the Covid-19 pandemic pulled the mat from beneath her feet in 2020.

The European Youth Championships in Montenegro were a target from a long way out. And then there was nothing only silence and absence.

Boxing halted and when the GAA season began Gallen donned the colours of Sean MacCumhaills. Her performances there earned a call into the Donegal minor squad and she began life at ATU Donegal while it was still LyIT as a Gaelic football scholarship student.

Dylan Browne-McMonagle retains Champion Apprentice crown

With several races still to come, Letterkenny jockey Dylan Browne-McMonagle will be crowned the Champion Apprentice at Naas on Sunday

When she shook her head clear after her involvement in a car crash earlier this year, Gallen came to a realisation.

“I was in a car crash and something just hit me after that and I came back into the club,” the Raphoe Boxing Club puncher told Donegal Live.

“It just made me realise that life was too short and there’s a lot of things in boxing that I still want to achieve.

“I don’t think anyone expected to see me back. It was just a decision I had to make. When I started college, I had to make a choice with the amount of college work I had. The boxing club wasn’t opened so I just gave the Gaelic football a go and I loved it.”

Leah Gallen with coaches Gary McCullagh and Gerard Keaveney.

On Friday night, Gallen will go to the red corner of the National Stadium. She’s chasing Irish crown number seven with Portlaoise’s Tiffany O’Reilly in the opposite corner.

In February 2020, Gallen was crowned an Irish champion for the six time when she defeated Crumlin’s Shelby Myers in the Under-18 final.

Montenegro never happened, but Gallen is keen to get back to the European stage and into the Irish vest again.

She is is the only female from Donegal to win multiple European medals - a European Junior bronze medal in 2018 at 66kgs and a European Youth bronze in 2019 at 69kgs.

Earlier this year, Gallen watched Lisa O’Rourke, a former team-mate, win the world light middleweight gold medal.

“I was at that level and I know I was,” Gallen says. “I definitely want to get back to Europeans. That year I was supposed to go, I kept telling myself that it was my year. I feel as if I haven’t got to give my all in boxing yet.

“At the start of the year, I did both sports, but the Gaelic finished up earlier and I’m able to give it my all now to boxing.

“With Covid, it backtracked a lot of things. It was definitely harder to stay motivated. There was just no routine the way the world was.”

Leah Gallen with Peter O'Donnell

Back now under the tutelage of Gary McCullagh and Gerard Keaveney, there’s more than a hint of making up for lost time as Gallen speaks.

A vibrant club now, Raphoe’s fortunes have transformed in recent years and Gallen has noticed a rise in the female participation. Rachel Harron won the Irish Girl 2 55kgs title in 2021.

Gallen says: “It’s great to be back here in the club. The environment here is just unreal. It has got even better. I notice now a few young girls have started and I remember a time when it was just me and Cody Lafferty.”

Gallen was formerly out of the same Finn Valley Boxing Club stable that moulded Jason Quigley. Gallen has trained with Quigley, a regular attendee at the Raphoe club.

Sparring the likes of Ryley Doherty, Danny Duffy and Oisin McHugh has toughened her focus as she heads for the South Circular Road again.

The schedule is busy now, in her third year of four studying quantity surveying.

The meaning of life has become rather clearly lately.

“All eyes are on you in the stadium, but I’m excited for this,” she says,

“It’s more excitement now than anything. It’s been two years since I had a proper fight.

“This would be the most special of them all after everything that has gone on. It’s a big one for me. After being out for so long, this is my comeback.”

The gloves are on again.