Marty Quinn

Belfast’s Marty Quinn started boxing at the age of nine and when he was 13 started a long association with the St. John Bosco club. After winning several junior Ulster titles, he won both the junior and senior lightweight Ulster and Irish titles in 1968. Those victories secured him a place on the Irish Olympic squad.

At Mexico, Quinn had a sensational start to his Olympic career by knocking out Cameroon’s Inoua Bodia in the first round and came close to a major shock in his next bout. Up against the defending champion, and reigning European champion, Józef Grudzień of Poland, Quinn was behind on points, but in the dying seconds of the contest put his opponent on the canvas for the first time in 241 fights. Inexperience then cost the 18-year-old Ulsterman an almost certain victory. With Quinn failing to retreat to a neutral corner after the knockdown, the referee did not start the count for a full five seconds. When he did start, the Pole got to his feet at the count of eight and with it came the bell to end the fight. Had the count started immediately after the knockdown, Grudzień could well have been counted out.

Quinn was going to emigrate to Australia in 1969 but changed his mind and the following year turned professional. Although he was a pro for five years, his fights were limited and he had a two-year period of inactivity.

Quinn became an apprentice hairdresser as a 15-year-old working for former hurling player Mickey Donnelly. When Donnelly emigrated to Australia, Quinn took over his Belfast shop and advertised himself as “The Sportsman’s Barber”. In 1971 Quinn and his father had to flee their Belfast home when it was attacked and set on fire by a mob. They lost everything, including Quinn’s prized boxing trophies and his 1968 Olympic competitor’s medal.