{"id":60692,"date":"2025-08-11T19:09:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T19:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/60692\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T19:09:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T19:09:10","slug":"hall-of-fame-award-for-sporting-stalwart-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/60692\/","title":{"rendered":"Hall of Fame award for sporting stalwart \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

ONE of the most respected figures in Irish boxing has been recognised for a lifetime of dedicated service to the sport.<\/p>\n

Eugene Duffy was inducted into the Derry City and Strabane District Council hall of fame at last week\u2019s sports awards in the Guildhall \u2013 the place where so many of his best boxing memories were formed across the last 60 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was delighted to welcome Eugene Duffy to the Guildhall on Wednesday evening to celebrate his outstanding dedication to boxing across the Derry and Donegal district,\u201d said mayor Ruair\u00ed McHugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was joined on the night by his family, along with representatives from the Derry and Donegal county boards. Congratulations, Eugene, and thank you for your incredible commitment to our local sporting community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"‘If<\/a>\"Tough<\/a><\/p>\n

Duffy had been due to collect the award at a civic reception in early June but it was postponed after feeling unwell. Typically, though, he has bounced back off the canvas to resume his role as vice-president of the Irish Athletic Boxing Association (IABA).<\/p>\n

A familiar figure at the National Stadium and across the country, the proud Derry man is the longest-serving official in Ulster, and was previously a central council member in the mid-1990s.<\/p>\n

But his story began between the ropes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no boxing in the family or anything like that but my idol Billy \u2018Spider\u2019 Kelly, who won the British and Empire titles in the 1950s, lived a few streets away from me in the old Bogside. Billy and his son Jimmy are the only father and son to win the British featherweight title, a feat that has never been repeated,\u201d he said in a 2021 interview with The Irish News.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I joined the Kelly club in Lorne Street, and then around that time there was a film out called Somebody Up There Likes Me with Paul Newman – it was the story of Rocky Graziano and his rise to the world title.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father took me to see that picture and from then on I was completely hooked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, though, an eye injury curtailed Duffy\u2019s fledgling career in the ring.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe great Patsy Havern was the trainer at St Eugene\u2019s and he was the man who pushed me on then.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made it to the National Stadium in \u201962 and \u201963 with an Ulster boxing team, Harry Enright was manager those times. But my career was cut short at 17 due to an eye injury that I got playing hurling \u2013 in 1965 a doctor advised my parents to get me to stop boxing due to the injury, then after two years they gave me the all-clear but by then I had work commitments and I\u2019d lost a bit of interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cPatsy had become a good friend and he asked me to consider doing a bit of coaching and to start looking into the seminars for judging and refereeing, so I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EugeneEugene Duffy with family and friends outside the Guildhall, after receiving his hall of fame award. PICTURE: PETER MCKANE <\/p>\n

After qualifying as a referee and judge in 1978, he quickly progressed from the schoolboys up to the senior ranks before a career that took him across the globe until he eventually retired as an AIBA world official in 2008.<\/p>\n

During a stellar career outside the ring, he represented Ireland on more than 60 occasions at international and multi-nation events including major European championships, Commonwealth Games, the World Golden Gloves tournament in Minnesota in 2007 and the 2003 World Elite Championships in Thailand.<\/p>\n

Duffy \u2013 whose son Kevin is the current Ulster Council president – has also been a referee\/judge at Olympic qualifiers in Europe, America and Trinidad and Tobago, and was referee\/judge with the Irish team on three separate tours of the USA and Canada.<\/p>\n

Back in 2018 he was given a lifetime achievement award by the IABA, and remains an active part of the sport \u2013 serving as president of St Joseph\u2019s Boxing Club in his home city, chairman of the County Derry boxing board, Ulster Council member and registrar of the Ulster referee and judges\u2019 committee, as well as IABA vice-president.<\/p>\n

The final word goes to Peter O\u2019Donnell, another Irish boxing stalwart and Duffy\u2019s long-time sparring partner. The pair first crossed paths in 1962, and have been firm friends ever since – still travelling highways and byways across the country to serve the sport all these years on.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven after I moved across the border, I would\u2019ve always kept contact with Eugene at all the shows in Derry and Donegal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen when I started the club in Raphoe, he gave us a pull out to get a few things together; anything he could do to help us get going, he did. Ever since, he has given his life to boxing, and was an excellent official at all levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d never hear Eugene raise his voice, he\u2019ll never get too excited, he\u2019s that laid back. And if he has something to tell a boy, he\u2019ll not tell them when you\u2019re there. He\u2019ll give a wee quiet bit of advice and go from there. That\u2019s the way he works \u2013 he just has a great way about him. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll tell you, there\u2019s no other man as popular across Derry as Eugene, even among people from other sports; everybody knows and respects him. There wouldn\u2019t be a boxer or an official in Ireland that doesn\u2019t know him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m delighted to see him being recognised because anything Eugene Duffy gets back from boxing, he thoroughly deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ONE of the most respected figures in Irish boxing has been recognised for a lifetime of dedicated service…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,49204,26779,85],"class_list":["post-60692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-derry","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60692","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=60692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}