Jimmy Walsh is hanging up his boxing clubs and stepping away from the sport after a staggering 72 years of service. He leaves behind him a Callan Boxing Club which now has some of the best facilities around.
Speaking on KCLR Live earlier, he said they were able to develop the club once they moved into their own place.
“We never had our own home as we call it until 15 years ago. Co-ordinator of the VEC he offered me the old tech, it was in terrible bad shape. Roof, floors, everything on it but we took it on and we got a grant from the IABA out of €30,000 and we done up the place. we have got a beautiful club now. Full size ring, there is 7 punching bags hanging around, punchballs, we have showers for the girls and the boys, dressing rooms, every dressing rooms have showers”
Callan’s Claire Grace joined the conversation, adding that Jimmy invested a lot of time into her when she began fighting.
“As a coach like when I started, he kind of took me under his wing straight away and kind of learned everything that I knew from Jimmy. He invested an awful lot of time into me as well so I suppose as a Coach, I kind of had full trust in him I suppose and it’s really important as well just to trust the person not to kind of let them over you as well, so I suppose I had full trust in him as well and he knew like when to push me and he always kind of knew the right thing to say in the ring as well, so he would always be my number one choice in the ring”
Ollie O’Neill from Paulstown Boxing Club says that what Jimmy has brought to the sport is phenomenal.
“Well I would like to thank him, I count him a great friend and a boxing companion and a man of great honesty and integrity and what he is after bringing to boxing is phenomenal really and when you look at Claire their, she’s ranked number 8 in the world, in a small town like Callan, Ireland is a small country but Callan is a small town as well and the Callan girl on top, ranked number in the world, it really shows what a great trainer he is”
The KCLR sports team would like to wish Jimmy all the best in his retirement. Listen back to Jimmy on KCLR Live earlier this morning in the clip below – skip into the 11.30 mark.
