Neil McLaughlin

Born in the Bogside area of Derry in 1948, Neil McLaughlin’s first sport was gymnastics but after a falling out with a teacher at the club he took up boxing. With St. Eugene’s Amateur Boxing Club he was Irish flyweight champion in 1971 and 1972, and was a bronze medallist at the 1971 European Championships in Madrid. At the Munich Olympic Games he recorded victories in his opening two contests but in the quarter-finals was defeated by the Ugandan boxer Leo Rwabwogo.

A lifelong Republican, McLaughlin told the Bloody Sunday Inquiry that he heard bullets “whoosh” over his head as paratroopers fired at him as they moved into Derry’s Bogside on Sunday, 30 January 1972. He supported the Peace Process and the Good Friday Agreement, and he worked for Sinn Féin right up until he fell into bad health.