Boxing: Saoirse’s Four-in-Row & Barry’s Call-up

Sliabh Luachra Boxing Club PRO, Paul Griffin has the pleasant task of reporting on another couple of great and productive weeks for the Castleisland based club.
Club member and Killorglin native, Barry O’Connor got the fantastic news last week of his invitation to join in Ireland’s high performance training squad in Dublin in the wake of his impressive, All-Ireland 39kg win a few weeks ago.
Five Kerry champions from the club entered the Girls’ Munster Championships in Limerick and emerged with three provincial titles and two runners-up medals.
“First  we had Bronagh O’Neill boxing in the final of the G1 46 kg against the Waterford champ.  This was only Bronagh’s third fight and, even though she lost, she was involved in an excellent contest and she will have gained valuable experience from it.
Next  into the ring was Bronagh’s older sister, Danielle in the final of the G3 48kg. In only her third fight, Danielle gave a fantastic display of boxing and won all three rounds. She was  crowned Munster champ 2015 to cap a great day’s work for the O’Neill sisters from Castleisland,” said club PRO, Paul Griffin.
Ava Fitzmaurice, in the G1 39kg cetegory faced into a final where she met the Cork champion. This was a massive battle and a great fight with Ava coming up just short against the more experienced girl.
Saoirse Kelly was in the Youth 2 60kg final and entered the ring aiming for her fourth Munster title-in-a-row. Saoirse did not disappoint and, boxing against a girl from Limerick in a very tough fight, the Glenflesk girl’s hand was raised at the end of the contest to achieve a first four-in-a-row for the club and a rarity at provincial level.
Katelyn Horan added to the club’s honour list with another title and brought the tally to three Munster championships and two runner’s up medals. Because of the calibre of their performances in the Munster championships, the runners-up have been invited to compete in the All Ireland finals.
“So far this year the club has won 11 county titles, five Munsters and Barry O’Connor’s All-Ireland and the boxing year isn’t over yet.
We had the honour of having Saoirse Kelly box for Ireland recently and now Barry getting the call-up to the high performance team in Dublin. That’s a fantastic achievement and a great foundation for further development in the club into the future. There is great credit due to the club’s boxers and coaches for achieving this level of success this year and more to come,” said Paul.