Dave Connell

Boxer Dave Connell started his career as a junior with the Avona Boxing Club, and after winning Dublin juvenile titles went on to win the first of four Irish national titles in 1946 when he beat Jack Foley to win the flyweight crown. Over the next two years he beat Tommy Dennis and Willie Lenihan respectively to capture the bantamweight title, and in 1951 Connell added the lightweight title to his list of achievements. His only defeat in a national final was at featherweight in 1950 when he surprisingly lost to Terry Milligan.

Between making his début against the USA in 1946 and 1952, Connell represented Ireland on many occasions at international level. He went to the 1949 and 1951 European Amateur Boxing Championships in Oslo and Milano (Milan) respectively. He also went to the 1948 London Olympics as a reserve in the featherweight division. Connell was short-listed for the 1952 Helsinki Games but declined to take part in the Olympic trials.

After living in England in the early 1950s, Connell eventually emigrated to Canada, where he died in 2004. In a poll in the Dublin Independent newspaper in 2000, Connell was rated the fourth best Irish boxer of the previous 100 years.