Willie Duggan

A member of Crumlin Amateur Boxing Club, Dublin, Willie Duggan won three Irish senior titles, at light-heavyweight (1950-51) and middleweight (1952). He reached his first national final (middleweight) in 1946, losing to Mick McKeon. That same year, Duggan made the first of seven Ireland international appearances, against Wales. Duggan went to the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. In the second round of his middleweight bout against the Romanian Vasile Tiță, however, Duggan was disqualified for using his head, having previously been warned for a similar offence. Tiță went on to the final, where he lost to the future world heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson.

Duggan, who later became secretary of the Irish Ex-Boxers Association, was a baker by trade and worked for the famous Dublin bakery Brennan’s. He remained an amateur throughout his boxing career. One notable opponent of his was the legendary Irish broadcaster Eamonn Andrews, who outpointed Duggan in 1945.