Tributes have been paid to “the voice of Irish boxing” Peter O’Donnell from Raphoe, Co Donegal, who has passed away following a short illness.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Donnell, who was 75 years old, managed Irish boxers from club level to national teams and his distinctive voice called many to the ring across the country.<\/p>\n
As recently as last July, Mr O\u2019Donnell was the joint Team Ireland Manager for the Monkstown International Box Cup.<\/p>\n
IABA President Anto Donnelly said Peter O\u2019Donnell was the epitome of Irish Boxing – “incredibly dedicated, devoted to his sport at club, county, provincial and national level”.<\/p>\n
Mr Donnelly described him as a kind gentleman “who gave decades of service to the sport he loved so well, with a vast store of knowledge of boxing lore”.<\/p>\n
“His voice was the voice of Irish boxing, and he was the master of ceremonies during thousands of bouts across the decades.<\/p>\n
“He will be terribly missed – on behalf of Central Council and the Irish Boxing family, I extended my deepest condolences to his family and loved ones. May he rest in peace”.<\/p>\n
Peter O\u2019Donnell was the Irish Team Manager for the European Junior Boxing Championships in Sarajevo last year where Ireland won seven medals.<\/p>\n
He previously led Team Ireland at the AIBA Men\u2019s World Boxing Championships in Belgrade in 2021 and was previously team manager at the European Elite Championships in Bulgaria in 2015.<\/p>\n
He gave decades of service to boxing, as a founder member of the Raphoe Boxing Club, an elected official of Donegal County Board, where he was the serving president, and of Ulster Boxing Council.<\/p>\n
‘A Donegal, Ulster and Irish boxing legend’<\/p>\n
The Ulster Boxing Council said: “In every sense of the word Peter O Donnell was a Donegal, Ulster and Irish boxing legend”.<\/p>\n
They said Mr O’Donell was known for his infectious personality, quiet demeanour, invaluable boxing knowledge but most distinctly his famous voice.<\/p>\n
“There’s not a boxer in the country who doesn\u2019t know and love Peter….His voice was iconic throughout the country [and he] championed each boxer whether they won or lost.”<\/p>\n
In a statement, Raphoe Boxing Club said their founder and club president passed away peacefully at home in the early hours of yesterday morning surrounded by his loving family, after a short illness.<\/p>\n
Raphoe BC said Peter O\u2019Donnell who travelled the world for his love of boxing could be heard conducting master of ceremonies duties at local, Ulster and Dublin championships.<\/p>\n
The Irish Athletic Boxing Association [IABA] said the Irish boxing family was “mourning the passing of the voice of Irish boxing”.<\/p>\n
The IABA said his “dulcet and distinctive tones” called tens of thousands of boxers to the ring in the home of Irish boxing and unveiled many thousands as IABA champions.<\/p>\n
Peter O\u2019Donnell\u2019s many years in boxing spanned many horizons as a coach, official, officer and team manager.<\/p>\n
The Team Ireland\u2019s European U15 Championship team, currently contesting in Budva, Montenegro have also expressed their condolences.<\/p>\n
Team Manager Stephen Connolly said Peter O\u2019Donnell was a gentleman to all who knew him.<\/p>\n
“The Team, including boxers, coaches and my co-Team Manager Bridget Scott, extend our condolences to his family and friends. May he rest in peace.”<\/p>\n
Beijing Olympian and silver medalist Kenneth Egan said “Peter was a boxing man to the core”.<\/p>\n
“He loved the National Stadium and will be part of its history for many years.”<\/p>\n
Peter O\u2019Donnell\u2019s funeral mass will take place on Wednesday in Raphoe, Co Donegal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tributes have been paid to “the voice of Irish boxing” Peter O’Donnell from Raphoe, Co Donegal, who has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-227953","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}