Colm McCoy

Colm McCoy joined the Kilcullen Boxing Club after moving from Kildare and in 1953/54 won his first club title at light-welterweight. After moving up to middleweight, McCoy was runner-up in the Irish Championships in 1957 and 1958 before winning the title in 1959. He went to the European Boxing Championships in Lucerne that year, where he was one of three Irish boxers to win a bronze medal. He lost his semi-final against the reigning European and Olympic middleweight champion, Gennady Shatkov of Russia, who went on to defend his title.

McCoy stepped up another weight division in 1959 and won the Irish light-heavyweight title and then represented Ireland at the Roma (Rome) Olympics. He lost on points to Finland’s Matti Aho, while the gold medal was won by a little-known boxer called Cassius Clay … but that was soon to change! McCoy added the Ulster light-heavyweight title in 1961 before eventually retiring from boxing and running a nursery and landscaping business at Kilmeage, near Kilcullen, Co. Kildare.