Pa Sharkey won an Irish junior championship in 1951 and a Scottish senior a few years later. Sharkey was living and working in Australia in 1956 at the time of the Olympics. In the run-up to the Games, in a bid to leave himself in the best possible condition for Melbourne, he left a lucrative job at the Snowy Mountain Hydro-Electric Scheme and went to Sydney to work at the building trade for one-third of his previous wage. At Melbourne, Sharkey lost his first round fight to a third round knockout in the heavyweight division to the Swedish champion Törner Åhsman. Sharkey also represented Scotland and Australia in the ring.
Ireland