Joe daly powerhouse behind castlebar boxing club without ever getting into the ring

JOE Daly was one of the men responsible over the years for the success of Castlebar Boxing Club - without ever getting in the ring. He also spent 30 years in the fire service as well as working with Mayo County Council as a roads overseer. But his greatest love was the promotion of the pugilistic sport of which he was judge and master of ceremonies, writes Tom Gillespie.

The Co. Limerick native moved to Castlebar when his father was appointed principal of Parke National School. His involvement with boxing come through his lifetime friend, John Hamrock.

Joe, from Newport Road, Castlebar, took up the story: “I was born in Limerick where my father was a teacher. He had met my mother who was American. She was sent to Ireland when her father had a ‘little blip’ in the Wall Street crash in 1929. He sent three of his children to Ireland, to relatives of his mother, to be educated.

“She went back to America in the late ‘30s where she studied music and came back just before the war and married my father. The thinking was that they would emigrate to America but the war intervened.

“My father was a teacher in Knocklong and he was also in the LDF. We moved to Burncourt in Tipperary where he got the job as school principal. Later my father got the principal’s job in Parke. Earlier I had come up to Castlebar to live with my grandparents. I played football and hurling when I went to school in St. Gerald’s.

“I was in England for a while and when I came back John Hamrock used to be training in the boxing club. I used to do a bit of training and running. I was into athletics but I had injured myself and I could not continue. Then in the early 1960s I got involved with the boxing club, where I was treasurer and secretary. I became a judge and acted as master of ceremonies.

“The boxing club was rented and it came up for sale by the Church of Ireland vestry body and we had to urgently get a deposit to stop it going to public auction. We were the favourite client to get it because we were in the building many, many years. The building was originally a school and it was used for rent collection for Lord Lucan.

“My grandfather had been involved in the club and had been president. My uncle Timmy was stationed in the Military Barracks in Castlebar and he was involved in the boxing club. Himself and Pat Lavelle put on an exhibition boxing match at one of the carnivals on the Mall. I got involved mainly due to John Hamrock. Mickey Basquill was there. The club was downstairs and it was a bit dingy, damp and wet. Liam Keane was there, Seanie Corley, Peadar Kilcourse, Tony Ruane and the Heneghan brothers from Balloor.

“When the building came up for sale there was a lot of begging and we got support from Tom McHugh and the Credit Union. We all put in a few bob, some more that others. We were able to stop it going to public auction. But then we had the problem of raising funds to complete the sale. We did house-to-house collections. We begged, borrowed and got the money. We did up the building, doing a lot of the work ourselves.

“We eventually got a contract for Larry McHale. Eventually it was finished and I can remember we got a European Architectural Heritage Award for restoring the building. Conor O’Connor was the architect. He worked for the county council at the time.

“We kept the building the same on the outside but it was substantially changed inside. It was a major operation without damaging the structure itself. If we hadn’t taken it up it was unlikely the building would be here today. The building is still owned by a trust body.

“When we were raising money for the building there was a man in Ballymena, Willie O’Keane, who gave some money to Sean Horkan as a contribution and he said don’t forget the lonely elderly people of the town. We approached the St. Vincent de Paul with the idea that they would become involved. They helped us out financially and for a number of years after it was opened the St. Vincent De Paul operated in the bottom storey of the club. They had what you could call a full-time caretaker in Tossie Kelly from Spencer Street.

“The elderly people of the town came in there and had tea and entertainment, parties and excursions. Eventually the whole operation got too big so they had to move somewhere else. A lot of people put an awful lot of work into the club - Sean Horkan, Paddy Kilgallon and Larry McHale.”

Joe’s sons and grandsons are all involved with Castlebar and Westport boxing clubs.

Joe continued: “Mick Quinn is now the main person in the Castlebar club, where Martin McLoughlin is the chairman. The place is going great and now they have girls going in there. The club was refurbished some years ago to cater for them. I don’t have much involvement now apart from the trusteeship of the building.”

Working for Mayo County Council, Joe was based in the machinery yard. He was roads overseer for the Castlebar area for a number of years and then moved to the local improvements schemes dealing with roads. He was a member of the fire service for 30 yeas, serving as fireman, sub officer and acting station officer.

Joe added: “The man that inveigled me to join was Captain Cathal Garvey. He was a man who did not suffer fools lightly. I joined shortly after the Breaffy House Hotel fire. You do not become immune to the tragedies but when you are at an incident you focus on what you are doing. Over the years you build up an amazing camaraderie with colleagues in the service throughout the county because at some stage or another you will be working with them.

“There is a lot of stress but you tend to ignore it because of your training. It is dangerous and a lot of people get injured. I was injured several times. I had a nail go straight through the steel sole of my boot. I broke a bone in my foot and a bone in my wrist. I got a belt across my head. I have seen other fellows having lucky escapes.”