Sean McCafferty

Sean McCaffery spent over 70 years with Belfast’s St. John Bosco Boxing Club as a boxer, coach, manager, committee member, and chairman, after joining the club as a 10-year-old. A flyweight, McCafferty weighed just 84lb (38 kg) at the age of 17 and ate large quantities of porridge to get him up to the weight limit. A fellow-member at St. John Boisco’s was McCaffery’s hero, and subsequent mentor, Freddie Gilroy, the 1956 Olympic bronze medallist and future European and Commonwealth bantamweight champion.

Having won the Ulster and Irish junior and senior flyweight titles in 1963 and 1964, McCafferty was selected to represent Ireland at the Tokyo Olympics and, despite being the youngest member of the Irish team, reached the quarter-final before losing to the eventual gold medallist, Fernando Atzori of Italy. On his way to the quarters, McCaffrey beat Sulley Shittu of Ghana, a future double Commonwealth Games gold medallist. McCaffrey turned professional in 1965 and in a five-year career in the paid ranks had a 12-6-0 record. After retiring he coached young boxers in his native Belfast.