{"id":499123,"date":"2026-02-23T16:03:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T16:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/499123\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T16:03:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T16:03:19","slug":"jp-hale-picks-up-harry-cunningham-cup-on-big-night-of-boxing-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/499123\/","title":{"rendered":"JP Hale picks up Harry Cunningham Cup on big night of boxing \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOXERS representing Antrim honoured the memory of Harry Cunningham when coming up trumps against a Cyprus\/Croatia select.<\/p>\n

On a hugely competitive night of action last Friday, the County Antrim team won 12-4 \u2013 with JP Hale picking up the Harry Cunningham Memorial Cup for Best Boxer.<\/p>\n

The Star man\u2019s fan-friendly style means he is rarely in a bad fight, and it was no surprise when he came out on top after a war with Croatian number one, Ivan Bozic, at Belfast\u2019s Balmoral Hotel.<\/p>\n

The award for Best Away Boxer went to Cypriot Kambourikas Nicolas, who got the better of Clonard lightweight Declan Reynolds.<\/p>\n

\"Pep<\/a>\"Impressive<\/a><\/p>\n

A fight night of such quality was a fitting tribute to a man who did so much to expose Irish boxers to the international scene.<\/p>\n

Harry Cunningham gave 60 years of his life to the sport before sadly passing away in October 2020, and was a highly-regarded figure after providing a guiding hand for generations of up-and-coming County Antrim boxers.<\/p>\n

\"EoinEoin Vaugh of Ormeau Road and Cypriot Rafael Pafios battle it out at the Balmoral Hotel on Friday night. PICTURE: MARK MARLOW <\/p>\n

Boxing out of St Matthew\u2019s as a youth, contesting at Ulster and national elite level, he coached at Short Strand before becoming Head Coach at Saints, where he quickly became known as \u2018Mr Saints\u2019.<\/p>\n

Sons Liam and Harry jr – decorated operators in their own punching pomp – are carrying on the family tradition at the west Belfast club, and were on hand to present awards at Friday\u2019s fight night.<\/p>\n

Results (Co Antrim names first) – 66kg: Z McFall (Antrim) 0-5 J Skuliba (Cyprus); 54kg: E Burke (Phoenix) 0-5 P Moisi (Cyprus); 56kg: C Smyth (Immaculata) 5-0 C Polyviou (Cyprus); 60kg: C Moore: (Star) 5-0 H Ambdullatif (Cyprus); 60kg: R McMenamin (Downpatrick) 60kg: C Mc Dermott (St George\u2019s) 5-0 R Dzomba (Croatia); 70kg: Z Nichol (Monkstown) 3-2 M Savvas (Cyprus); 71kg: F Ashton (BABA) 71kg: E Vaugh (Ormeau Road) 1-4 R Pafios (Cyprus); 75kg: R Cooley (St Agnes\u2019) RSC> C Vasiliou (Cyprus); 60kg: D Reynolds (Clonard) 0-5 K Nicolas (Cyprus); 60kg: J O\u2019Donnell (St George\u2019s) 5-0 L Licul (Croatia); 65kg: JP Hale (Star) 5-0 I Bozac (Croatia); 75kg: L Hanna (Townland) 5-0 J Buzik (Croatia); 90kg: J Walker (Corpus Christi) RSC> T Ramlijak (Croatia). U19 55k: Zak Cole (Immaculata) bt J Dowds (Saints) 5-0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the County Antrim 4-7s Championships get under way at Corpus Christi Boxing Club on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

The semi-final programme is as follows (7pm start) – B4 46kg: A Considine (Glengormley) v M McGarry (Holy Trinity); B4 46kg: M Longridge (Rathcoole) v J Brown (St Paul\u2019s); B4 52kg: C Masterson (Clonard) v T Doherty (Glengormley); B4 52kg: C McCusker (Holy Trinity) v F Mooney (Banbridge); B4 57kg: C Nolan (Clonard) v M Mc Connell (Ardoyne); B4 57kg: L Connolly (Immaculata) v P Creighton (Evolution); B4 66kg: L Itoya (Star) v M McLaughlin (St Canice\u2019s); B5 44kg: J McParland (St Monica\u2019s) v C Burke (St Canice\u2019s); B5 54kg: S O Neill (St Canice\u2019s) v K Hyndman (Carrick); B5 60kg: O Brown (Star) v S Higgins (Oliver Plunkett); B6 60kg: J Rubery (North Down) v D McGuinness (St Monica\u2019s); B6 63kg: A Scullion (Ardoyne) v N McCarthy (St George\u2019s); B6 66kg: PJ Markey (SHBA) v K Dynes (Immaculata); B6 66kg: C Gillen (Phoenix) v B Magill (Larne); B7 63.5k: C Blair (Evolution) v L Wood (Cairn Lodge)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOXERS representing Antrim honoured the memory of Harry Cunningham when coming up trumps against a Cyprus\/Croatia select. On…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[6770,64,63,802,85,178372],"class_list":["post-499123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-antrim","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-ulster"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499123","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=499123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}