CORPUS Christi Boxing Club is to hold a special get together in Caulfield’s Bar on Thursday night to celebrate 50 years since the club was formed.
West Belfast was a very different place in 1969 when John Lynas and Cecil Adams laid the foundations for a club that would cater for the Ballymurphy, Whiterock, New Barnsley and Springhill areas.
With the aim to take kids off the streets, Fr Des Wilson was fully behind the plans, eventually becoming secretary of the club committee and offering St Thomas’s school on the Whiterock Road as a base.
Thus, Corpus Christi was born.
“It was announced at Mass that we were starting a club, and on the first night of registration 95 kids turned out,” recalls Lynas, who called upon Charlie McAuley - his former coach at the St Gabriel’s club in Ardoyne – for help registering with the Ulster Boxing Council and Co Antrim Board.
“Ballymurphy didn’t have a great name at the time, and Fr Wilson was happy to help in any way he could. Cecil was in the Merchant Navy and he got us these big kit bags that we stuffed full of sand, sawdust and rags.
“Skipping ropes were made from window sash cord and brush handles. We had no pads, no mitts to hit the bag. We pulled the four beams out of the gymnasium and tied a rope around the four corners – that was our ring.”
Those basic facilities were to improve, however, when Fr Noel Fitzpatrick presented Corpus Christi with three gold Irish title belts, dating back to the 1920s, which had been donated by John Rice’s Bookmakers.
The club committee decided to sell the belts in order to raise much-needed funds for equipment, and that investment into the youth of the area paid dividends as a string of talented boxers emerged.
Already Seamus Hawkins had won the club’s first All-Ireland title in 1970, while many – including Dougie Adams, son of Cecil - would go on to box for Antrim, Ulster and Ireland.
“Around this time, the late Richard Bell and the late Davy Hawkins came to offer their help too.
“Along with Cecil Adams and myself, these men became the backbone of the club.”
With the Troubles raging, getting clubs to come to west Belfast for the sparring Lynas and co felt would give their fighters an extra edge was easier said that done.
So what did they do? They took the show on the road.
“We were fortunate to have the use of the school minibus because it meant we could go around clubs in Ulster and the south of Ireland.
“We’d have travelled to Ballymena, Enniskillen, Larne, Derry, Downpatrick, Enniskillen, Newry, Lurgan… one of our boys, Tony Fisher - Lord rest his soul - boxed Barry McGuigan down in Smithborough.
“We also used to hold boxing cabaret shows, which proved a great success. The first one we ever had was at the Old Burnt Cabin, now the PD [Andersonstown Social Club]. It was brilliant. We also run one at the Green Brier, the Hitching Post…
“And any money we got from that we put towards trying to buy a ring that we could put up and bring to venues.”
The club continued to go from strength to strength through the 1970s, with Harry Murray and the great Edward ‘Bunty’ Doran – who famously fought Rinty Monaghan at the King’s Hall in 1945 - coming on board to help with the coaching side of things.
Yet having helped build Corpus Christi up from the ground, and with success coming each year, Lynas stepped away after losing his daughter Michelle to leukemia in 1980.
When he went back to the club at the end of that year, he found an empty shell.
“There was no club; no boxers, no equipment. Everything was gone. I haven’t a clue what happened.”
Patsy Rooney and Jimmy Branniff got Corpus Christi going again the following year, while the current incarnation is bring spearheaded by men like Tony Leonard and Alex O’Neill.
For Lynas, though, it is those formative days that retain a special place in his heart half a century on.
“I look back on those early years with great fondness.
“It was a privilege to be part of the original Corpus Christi ABC – it was a world away from how boxing is now. All the funding and regimental training doesn’t make a boxer. To me, that’s taking away from the club atmosphere.
“In our day, we had nothing and we produced champions. I’m proud of that.”
And in Caulfield’s on Thursday night, all those stories will be relived and retold, glorious memories of a bygone era, and a club that played a unique part in Belfast’s illustrious boxing history.
INSET
AN Ireland youth and junior team edged past Wales in the deciding fight of a two-day tournament at the Cardiff Sports Centre over the weekend.
The nations drew 4-4 on Saturday and were tied, 3-3, going into the final bout on Sunday.
Dublin light-welter Matthew Tyndall, however, got the nod on a 3-2 split against Paddy Murphy after a treble countback to help Ireland to a 4-3 win, and an 8-7 aggregate victory over the two days.
“We saw some fantastic boxing from both sides over the last two days in a high-quality international between two talented sides,” said Irish team manager Eugene Duffy.
“This was great preparation for all the boxers heading to the European Championships next month.”
St Paul’s light-fly Dylan Eagleson picked up a slight hand injury in his victory over Scott Richards on Saturday, and didn’t box on Sunday.
Saturday results (Irish fighters first)
Junior - 46kg: M Collins lt H Williams 5-0
Youth - 49kg: D Eagleson bt S Richards 4-1; 51kg: R Lawless bt Z Andrews 3-2; 52kg: J Rapple lt R Costa 5-0; 56kg: M McCullagh bt B Scott 5-0; 60kg: J McConnell lt S Jones 5-0; 60kg: A Byrne bt J Down 4-1; 64kg: M Tyndall lt Paddy Murphy 3-2
Sunday results
Junior - 46kg: M Collins bt H Williams (Wales) 3-2
Youth - 51kg: C Gabriel bt Z Andrews 3-2; 52kg: J Rapple lt R Costa 5-0; 56kg: S Edris bt B Scott 5-0; 60kg: J McConnell lt S Jones 5-0; 60kg: A Byrne lt J Down (Wales) 4-1; 64kg: M Tyndall bt P Murphy 2-3
Team manager: E Duffy
Coaches: J Gallagher, L Cunningham, N Meli
R&J: P Mayse (Tyrone)
