John McNally

John McNally started boxing as a youngster at the Immaculata club near to his home in the Pound Loney district of Belfast. Following a move to the St. Mary’s club, he won his first Ulster Juvenile title. Little did he know it at the time, but that was the first step towards him going on to make Irish boxing history because, when he won the bantamweight silver medal at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, McNally became the first Irishman to win an Olympic boxing medal.

In Helsinki, McNally reached the quarter-final where he came up against the experienced, and much fancied, Italian Vincenzo Dall’Osso, but the Irishman ran out the unanimous points winner. Dall’Osso had won the bantamweight title at the European Championships the previous year. After disposing of his Korean opponent in the semi-final, McNally then came up against the local favourite Pentti Hamalainen, who was searching for Finland’s first boxing gold medal of the Games. McNally did what he thought was enough to win the gold medal, particularly after the Finn had been cautioned at least eight times during the contest, but two of the three judges voted for the home favourite much to the Irishman’s disbelief. Nevertheless, McNally won silver, which was Ireland’s first Olympic medal in any sport since 1932.

After he got over the bitter disappointment of the defeat in the Olympic final, McNally won a bronze medal at the 1953 European Championships, and represented Europe against the United Sates in the Golden Gloves in Chicago before turning professional in 1954. In his seven-year professional career McNally had 25 fights with a 14-9-2 record. He maintained that turning professional was the worst decision he made as he stopped enjoying the sport as he did when an amateur. After quitting the ring, McNally turned to his love of banjo playing and he toured Ireland and Europe in the 1970s with the popular folk band, The Freemen, of which he was a founder member. McNally was inducted into the Irish Boxing Hall of Fame in 2008.