Despite producing Irish and European champions and nurturing future Olympic hopefuls, Cabra Boxing Club on Bannow Road has received no official word on where it might relocate or what’s in the future for the club.
Head coach Damien Flood said the club, which has operated at the site for 13 years, urgently needs a permanent building to continue training its 70–80 members.
“We haven’t been contacted by the council yet. It could be three years, five years down the line, but we need a plan of action now,” Mr Flood said.
“We’re not looking for anything for nothing; we’re prepared to do our own building, paint it, decorate it, and move all the equipment ourselves.
“We just need a place we can call home,” he added.
Macie O’Connor, Leaha Moor, Lioc Yonkan, Bobbi Flood, Cian Cramer and Senan Kennedy, all of them Irish Champions.
This concern is now amplified by Dublin City Council’s ambitious rezoning and housing targets; the draft masterplan for the redevelopment of Baile Bogáin envisions a mixed-use neighbourhood, with approximately 75pc of the land designated for residential use.
The council is preparing to rezone land across the city to accommodate up to 35,000 additional homes by 2040.
The Baile Bogáin (Ballyboggan) masterplan, which includes the club’s current site, will be the first to see new housing developments.
While the council has said that important community uses will be retained, no concrete timelines or guarantees have been provided.
The club serves members from six years old up to 40, representing every background and ethnicity.
Mr Flood and boxing coach James Cramer emphasised that boxing at Cabra is as much about building discipline and life skills as it is about producing champions.
“We’re in the business of creating champions, but we want to create good people as well,” he said.
“Today there is an uncertainty about not having any confirmation for our future, we could be out tomorrow, next week or next month, we know nothing.”
The boxing club have had members who have joined who went on to study medicine, join An Garda Síochána, work in the prison service and the defence forces of Ireland.
Macie O’Connor, European silver medalist
Head coach, Mr Flood, said that the club creates a space for youths in the area to be “set on the right path” which they have a track record of success in.
“We give people discipline through the sport, that’s what we push for, but we also push for a better quality of life for our members,” he said.
“When they leave the club, they can look back and say 10 years ago when I started here, I’ve changed my life and it’s been very beneficial.”
The club has had notable success producing Irish champions at a European level and is now hoping to get some of its members on the Irish boxing Olympic team in three years’ time.
One of their members has gone professional already and they hope to keep producing more success for the next generation of boxers who have started at the club this year.
Yet the club’s facilities are stretched. With only one bathroom and limited access to showers, the growing demand, particularly from female boxers inspired by Katie Taylor and Kelly Harrington, is straining the club.
“We need more funding for facilities,” Mr Flood said.
“We’re always the last to get it and any boxing club is, GAA or football clubs are always preferred above boxing. And yet, Irish boxing is our most successful Olympic sport.
“We’re 13 years here in this current location, we’re operating with one bathroom, we have nine girls here training, so they have to go in pairs to watch the door, so we need more funding for facilities, especially to keep females in the sport,” he added.
The club noted a particular thanks to Councillor Gavin Pepper, who has visited the club on numerous occasions and raised the issue at the council level at the latest monthly meeting.
Mr Flood and Mr Cramer both show up to the club to support their members six days a week, depending on what’s happening in the club, voluntarily, along with working full-time jobs.
Macie O’Connor, European silver medalist
“We’re here six days a week, showing the team what it means to work hard,” Mr Cramer said.
“This weekend we’re here because Katie Taylor’s dad brought a team from Holland over here,” he said.
“Whether we’re training or not, there’s always something going on and it’s done for the love of boxing and we just need help, we don’t care where it comes from.”
As Dublin City Council plan to push ahead with redevelopment and housing targets in the area, which will see a massive transformation for the neighbourhood, Cabra Boxing Club stands at a crossroads.
Its members hope that the council will engage with them on a one-to-one basis and offer reassurance that the club will be part of the project on Bannow Road going forward.
Dublin City Council has been contacted for comment.