MICHAEL Hawkins has described former Ireland coach Harry Enright, who passed away yesterday, as "Mr Boxing".
A boxing man through and through who "just knew the game", Enright (right) coached at St Malachy's ABC and Immaculata ABC in Belfast and also took the Irish team - including bronze medal-winner Jim McCourt - to the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Over a long and distinguished career in the sport he accumulated a wealth of knowledge and knowhow and Holy Trinity ABC coach Hawkins said he went to him for some advice soon after he opened the west Belfast club.
Enright, also a highly-respected former teacher at St Patrick's, Bearnageeha in Belfast where his former pupils included Hugh Russell, another Olympic Games medal winner, was only too happy to oblige.
"When we first started the club and whenever I first started coaching Harry was coaching St Matthew's," he said.
"It was 1972 and we had a few boxers down at the All-Irelands in Dublin and Harry had some of the Antrim boxers down. We had a good conversation because when I decided to be a coach I wanted to do it seriously and I thought 'whom could I ask for a bit of advice?'
"Harry was a mentor for me, he gave me great advice at the beginning, when I really needed it and we've been very close since.
"As a person and as a boxing person he would have given you great, great encouragement - he attended all our shows and would have commented on certain boxers and was always giving you solid, sound advice. He was definitely the master coach."
Hawkins - whose long list of achievements in boxing includes coaching Northern Ireland to three golds and two silver medals at the Delhi Commonwealth Games in 2010 - said Enright played a massive part in his, and Ireland's, success in the sport.
"Harry got some great awards over the years and he was held in great esteem," he said.
"He wasn't just an ordinary guy - in his time he was Mr Boxing. In his era he was Mr Boxing, there's no doubt about it.
"He was always there to give advice, he was always there to encourage you and he just knew the game."