Eamonn Magee and the Olympics

sligobhoy67

Certain members of the Ulster Boxing Council didnt want Magee going to the 1992 Olympics but who was it that they wanted him to box off for his place on the team was it Corkman Billy Walsh or Waterford's Neil Gough.

walshb

sligobhoy67 wrote:

Certain members of the Ulster Boxing Council didnt want Magee going to the 1992 Olympics but who was it that they wanted him to box off for his place on the team was it Corkman Billy Walsh or Waterford's Neil Gough.

I'm not sure he was even eligible either way. I think the European qualifiers were just started then and you had to be top 8 or 9 in Europe to be eligible

Dodge

These are the 6 irish fighters who qualified for the 1992 Olympics. As above, you needed to reach the quarter finals of the Euro championship to qualify (Griffin won gold at the euros)

Flyweight - Richard Buttimer
Bantam - Wayne McCullough
Feather - Paul Griffin
Welter - Michael Carruth
Heavy - Paul Douglas
Super Heavy - Kevin McBride

In 1996 we had
Fly - Damaen Kelly
Light Wleter - Francie Barrett
Middle - Brian Magee
Heavy - Cathal O'Grady

walshb

Dodge wrote:

These are the 6 irish fighters who qualified for the 1992 Olympics. As above, you needed to reach the quarter finals of the Euro championship to qualify (Griffin won gold at the euros)

Flyweight - Richard Buttimer
Bantam - Wayne McCullough
Feather - Paul Griffin
Welter - Michael Carruth
Heavy - Paul Douglas
Super Heavy - Kevin McBride

In 1996 we had
Fly - Damaen Kelly
Light Wleter - Francie Barrett
Middle - Brian Magee
Heavy - Cathal O'Grady

Those names bring back memories alright.
The Fly in 92 was Paul Buttimer....

dlofnep

Ah Neil Gough.. All I ever heard about in boxing here when I was a kid was Neil Gough.

sligobhoy67

Well I wrote this article about Eamonn - I actually write plenty of articles about Irish boxers - Eamonn has said twice that it was members of the Ulster Council that stopped him from getting his chance at going to the olympics.

Details of what he said is here and here - both stories are contradictory - does anyone remember the exact lowdown?

Dodge

He may have been asked to box off for a place on the Irish team going to the Euros but I removed that piece from the wikipage yesterday as he was not stopped from fighting at the Olympics. Suggest your remove it or edit it. Seeing as you don't know what happened, removing the piece seems the best course

walshb

sligobhoy67 wrote:

Well I wrote this article about Eamonn - I actually write plenty of articles about Irish boxers - Eamonn has said twice that it was members of the Ulster Council that stopped him from getting his chance at going to the olympics.

Details of what he said is here and here - both stories are contradictory - does anyone remember the exact lowdown?

The interview certainly puts a new spin on this claim....did Eamon actually say those words and was the actual question asked?

I assumed that the Euro's was the place to earn your spot and if Eamon and Walsh or Gough were not in the top 8/9 in Europe, it seems futile for them to even consider a box off. Surely the IABA knew this?

sligobhoy67

Dodge wrote:

He may have been asked to box off for a place on the Irish team going to the Euros but I removed that piece from the wikipage yesterday as he was not stopped from fighting at the Olympics. Suggest your remove it or edit it. Seeing as you don't know what happened, removing the piece seems the best course

wiki works of verifibility not truth, I would need evidence for a reliable source to put something else in - do you know where Iwould get more info

MBC

Try emailing Tomás Rohan from irish-boxing.com he might know.

editor@irish-boxing.com

Dodge

sligobhoy67 wrote:

wiki works of verifibility not truth, I would need evidence for a reliable source to put something else in - do you know where Iwould get more info

WTF!? You can't verify he was denied a place by the Ulster council but you put that in!

:rolleyes:

Seems like you have an agenda to me

sligobhoy67

Dodge wrote:

WTF!? You can't verify he was denied a place by the Ulster council but you put that in!

:rolleyes:

Seems like you have an agenda to me

cop on ya gob****e, if I had an agenda I wouldnt come here looking for the truth would I? If I had an agenda I would be say nothing and leave the article as I wrote it!

The information about the Ulster Council is verifiable in terms of wiki policy through two sources the Briitish Boxing News source and the BBC source.

Now if you have information to the contrary please provided and I will weave it into the article, if not please dont stupidly accuse people of "having an agenda"

sligobhoy67

MBC wrote:

Try emailing Tomás Rohan from irish-boxing.com he might know.

editor@irish-boxing.com

cheers, will do

sligobhoy67

sligobhoy67 wrote:

cheers, will do

i've emailed him and had no response.

Any shed any light on this please

megadodge

Reading this thread I recalled a little story which might throw some small light on the situation.

A good friend of mine was a high ranking member of the IABA for most of the 1980's and early 1990's. At one stage he was Team Manager for a tour abroad to a strong boxing nation. I remember asking him a number of weeks after how the trip went and his reply was along the lines of "it was good and bad". "Why" I replied. "Well, all the lads were gentlemen with one exception - Eamon Magee". It seems he caused a lot of trouble and if any attempt at correction was made he wasn't slow to remind people where he came from (Ardoyne - IRA country etc.) and in general made life very awkward for almost everyone else. I know that this didn't go unnoticed in the upper echelons of the IABA.

Now, bearing in mind that he was a World Junior Silver medalist and a big hope for Irish boxing at the time it really put all sides in an awkward situation.

And you can draw your own conclusions from there.