APATHY should not stop Irish boxing remaining part of the Olympic picture, according to the chairman of the Irish Athletic Boxing Association’s (IABA) board of directors, Niall O’Carroll.
Having initially been left off the programme for Los Angeles 2028, the sport was officially reinstated on Thursday when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) rubber-stamped World Boxing’s position as the sport’s new global federation, with the body now charged with organising future Olympic tournaments.
However, while it was a welcome development for boxing in general, Ireland is still outside the Olympic movement as it remains aligned with THE controversial International Boxing Association (IBA) – for now.
Having seen a previous vote on joining World Boxing fail in August 2023, the IABA circulated a letter to all its member clubs setting out its intention to move, with an EGM expected to take place on April 12.
In order to achieve constitutional change, 75 per cent of clubs are required to vote in favour of the motion – 71 per cent backed a move to World Boxing last time – and O’Carroll has urged members not to pass up this opportunity to shape Ireland’s Olympic future
“We probably had half our member clubs at that vote,” he said.
“If you don’t vote, you might as well vote no. If you don’t turn up and vote, you might as well vote no. Let’s be clear, what you’re voting for is removing the Olympic dream for every child and every future kid in this country.
“If there is a roll call of people in the future who are responsible for stopping our kids from having the Olympic dream, would you like your name and your club to be associated with that?
“It would be a very dark day for Irish boxing if people don’t turn up and have their say.”
World Boxing was only in its infancy at the time of the last vote, with a lack of clarity on its future plans leading to uncertainty when it came to decision time.
Nineteen months on, and with World Boxing’s connection to the Olympic Games secured, the position is clear – and O’Carroll feels there is a unity of thought across the association as a result.
“I think the general mood is that it’s very hard for anybody to justify not moving now.
“There were reasonable arguments put forward back then, and particularly around the issue of a calendar for underage boxers.
“The majority of our member clubs will never have an Olympian, but they will have a 15-year-old who will go to European Championships with a chance of winning a medal, so I understand and respect the views of the people who either were slow to change or were fundamentally against change.
“But I’m quite excited because this is the first time since I’ve got involved where the elected officials, the board of directors, the management of the company, the high performance unit, are all aligned in a common direction. And I feel we’ve never had that.
“I definitely felt there was strong resistance being fed back to us by the central council and the officer board, but they have supported my view and my move on this, and are supporting the vote.
“I definitely feel from talking around the regions and around the six units that there is, I won’t say universal support, but it certainly feels like it’s significantly more than it was last time.”
Should Ireland choose to join World Boxing, O’Carroll is confident that a letter of intent – marking the beginning of the affiliation process – would allow Ireland to immediately enter teams into World Boxing tournaments such as U17, U19 and World Championships this summer, as well as looking ahead to next year’s Youth Olympics in Dakar.
“Why would we not want that certainty, and to clarify the situation so we can start planning?
“We’ve been left with no clarity on what the future looks like at IBA, but we’re very clear on what the future looks like at World Boxing. And the reality is, if we don’t join World Boxing, first of all, we lose our Olympic dream.”
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