Looking Back: A Kilcullen Boxing Club tournament
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| The poster, Billy last year, and as Juvenile Champion in the 1950s. |
A poster sent by William 'Billy' Schwer to the Diary recalls a tournament organised by Kilcullen Boxing Club back in 1961, writes Brian Byrne.
The tournament included participants from Kilcullen BC Billy himself, at that time with three Juvenile Irish champion belts, an English championship, and 1961 Boxer of the Year, along with Irish Senior Champion and Olympics 1960 representative Colm McCoy, and Seamus Aspell with Irish Youth Champion and Leinster Champion titles to his credit. The event held in Newbridge Town Hall also featured fighters from Consolata BC, Limerick BC, Corinthians BC and Arbour Hill BC, with many provincial, national and international titles between them.
There was a lot of boxing on the night, with five featured bouts and no less than nine supporting bouts on the card.
At that time Kilcullen BC trained in the loft behind The Hideout, but had no 'home' suitable for holding public tournaments in Kilcullen — though occasional fights had been held in Kilcullen Town Hall Cinema.
The ticket prices for the Newbridge event are interesting, and relatively expensive when compared to the average weekly wage of the time of £8.37.
Billy Schwer — he lives in Luton and goes by William today to differentiate himself from his son Billy, a world champion boxer himself — was home to Kilcullen this time last year, and the Diary had a great chat with him which can be heard in the podcast below. Other links are to articles, about Billy and about 'glory days' of Kilcullen Boxing Club.
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