Edwin McGreal
Ballina
BALLINA man PJ Melia was an extremely popular winner of the Mayo Boxing Board Hall of Fame Award at the Board’s Annual Awards night and Dinner Dance at the Ridgepool Hotel in Ballina on Saturday night last.
The affable Melia, who gave years of service to Ballina and, especially, Ardnaree Boxing Clubs, received a standing ovation as he made his way to accept the award from Joe Hennigan, President of the Mayo Boxing Board.
Melia was at the function completely oblivious of the honour that was about to be bestowed on him but his record of service to the sport, stretching over 40 years, is one that couldn’t but be rewarded.
He began boxing in the 1950’s at a very young age and over a lengthy career in the ring he clocked up 145 contests, winning an incredible 141 of them. He won National Youth titles in 1970 and 1971 and represented Connacht and Mayo on three bills in Chicago in the early 1980’s.
Once retired he took to an official role, being a very active referee and judge and in 1994 passed his coaching exam and, working in conjunction with Mayo FÁS and the Mayo Boxing Board in 1997, travelled to over 27 schools in the county promoting the sport, a move which led to a dramatic upsurge in interest in the sport.
The reception he received on Saturday night underlined how popular and respected he is.
The 2006/2007 season came to a conclusion at the Awards night and Boxing Board President Joe Hennigan reflected on a good year for Mayo boxing. Mayo’s nine National Champions from the season just gone were each presented with a trophy to mark their achievement while awards were also presented for Best Boxers at the Mayo championship for each age category and also Most Active Boxers for each category.
Officials and clubs were also honoured with awards.
Each of the National Champions were well received on the night, after a fine season for them. Mayo had two Boy 1 National Champions. St Anne’s Bernie McDonagh triumphed at Boy 1 36kg and showed his undoubted potential while Geesala’s Shane McIntyre triumphed at Boy 1 44kg, after he won one of the best national finals this year.
Mayo had three national titles at Boy 2. Gary Sweeney of the All Stars Boxing Club in Ballinrobe made amends for defeat in the Mayo championships to go on and win the Connacht and National Boy 2 46kg title, the second national title for the newly formed club.
Swinford’s Darragh Campbell won his second consecutive national title when he stormed to Boy 2 63kg success while, in just his first season, Geesala’s David Timlin stormed to national glory at Boy 2 66kg.
Eagle’s Niall Keogh saw all his hard work pay off this season when he won the Boy 4 44kg title. St Anne’s Maurice Lally is another for whom the hard work paid off when, after four Connacht titles, he finally achieved his aim this year of winning a National title when he took the Youth 1 39kg crown.
The last two boxers honoured were two who had very busy and productive seasons. Raymond Moylette of St Anne’s was extremely unlucky not to win the Youth 2 57kg final but his response was significant, storming to Cadet success and then producing arguably the finest achievement of excellent career in winning the National U-19 57kg title and also winning the Best Boxer of the Championship.
Claremorris’ Michael Mullaney has been boxing since 1993 and is one of only two Mayo boxers to ever have won five national titles. This season saw him capture the Intermediate 85kg division and unlucky not to enjoy senior success.
St Anne’s coach Gary Kennedy was honoured for his tireless work for the promotion of boxing, another award which, like PJ Melia’s Hall of Fame, was well received.
