Myles McDonagh

A double Olympian, Myles McDonagh was born in the Falls Road area of Belfast, the heart of the catholic population in the city. He went on to become a corporal in the Irish National Army and took up boxing in September 1923, just 10 months before the Paris Olympics. McDonagh went on to become one of the best flyweights Ireland ever produced.

Selected for the flyweight division in Paris, McDonagh was eliminated in the second round after receiving a first-round bye. He suffered a similar fate when he went to the Amsterdam Games four years later. Just a few weeks after the Paris Games, McDonagh lost on points to Len Donnelly of England in the flyweight semi-final at the inaugural Tailteann Games in Dublin. McDonagh emigrated to Canada in 1930 and died in British Columbia in 1975.