“Because people think we are a poorer sport, which I suppose in some ways we are, we’re easier to pick on. We’ve had doctors, we’ve had barristers, we’ve had priests who came up through boxing. It’s brilliant to discipline kids.”
She is quick to cite some examples of where the sport, which offers an outlet for aggression and requires intense discipline, has helped young people.
“We had one case where a young fella was very aggressive, and his father brought him down. It took about six months but through the boxing, through hitting bags and all of these things, it took the aggression from him.
“We had another young fella, his mother was the principal of a school out the country, his Dad was very into the GAA. That guy was too quiet, he wouldn’t put his hand up in class, he wouldn’t fight for a ball on the pitch. They brought him in and he went about ten contests without winning one. And then all of a sudden he ended up winning Limerick and Munster. The father came in and thanked us, he said he would now put up his hand in class, he’d go for the ball. It builds confidence in kids and it takes aggression from kids as well.”
Anna is an Olympian who went on to great success as a professional and she now trains some of the world’s top fighters. While boxing thrives in poorer areas, she points out that it also benefits people from more comfortable backgrounds.
“It’s not just disadvantaged areas, you have kids in other areas who have parents in professions and all of that, and they do the same things that people are blamed for doing in certain housing estates. Aggression and the need to get confidence doesn’t all come from council estates.”
Integration
Boxing is possibly the only sport that has been successful in integrating Travellers, with many of the community reaching the Olympic Games since Francie Barrett led the charge in 1996, while Andy Lee became the first Traveller world champion in 2014. Lee’s protege Paddy Donovan, also a Traveller, will fight for a world title in September.
Anna says there is no divide between Travellers and settled people in the sport.
“If you come into our club you’re treated the same as everyone else, there’s no difference. You do your training, get on with everyone, and if you don’t want that, the door is there. I’ve never seen Travellers treated any different than anybody else in any club or in any tournaments.
“They all mix, there’s no such thing as we’re Travellers and you are settled. There’s nothing like that. They just all get on and that’s the way it should be. There’s no divide in boxing.”
She has had a long association with St Francis Boxing Club in inner city Limerick, where Lee was a member as an amateur. She speaks warmly of him:
“Andy was a very disciplined boxer and no matter what he won he always thought he could have done better. A gentleman in and outside of the ring, that’s all you could say about Andy, I never heard anyone to say anything about Andy other than that, because that’s the kind of person he is.”
Loss
Tragedy struck her club six years ago when talented 20 year old Kevin Sheehy was murdered.
It was a shattering blow to all who knew the boxer who was being tipped as a future Olympian.
“Limerick were playing in the Munster Final in the Gaelic Grounds. The week before he had won the Hull Cup and he came into the club on Wednesday and he said to my son Kenneth (his coach) that he had got a ticket for the match. Kenneth said to go and enjoy it, and his baby was to be born around the same time, and Kenneth said when the baby was born to come back to get ready for the Elites.
“He said, ‘I feel very strong now Ken’. That was on the Wednesday and he was murdered on the Monday morning. It was very hard to take.”
Some of the club members availed of counselling afterwards, while Anna feels that work on an extension of their facilities gave bereaved young men an important outlet.
“We were given another premises, a factory right next to us, when Andy Lee won his world title. During Covid it was all done up, they knocked walls, put in new floors, and it’s second to none now. I think doing all of that took a lot of the anger and the aggression out of the situation. Kevin will never be forgotten, but there are other kids out there that need this.”
Anna has been involved in the sport for decades, taking up numerous roles locally, nationally and internationally.
A Life in Boxing
It all started when her late husband got involved in coaching and she decided to give him a hand.
“I started just doing the door, making the tea, and it progressed from there on. I became a coach, a judge – national and international. Then female boxing started in 2001 and I was asked to go on the committee. I’ve seen the world through boxing – Katie Taylor, Kellie Harrington, kids down through the years, I’ve been going away with them. I was on the European Council for female boxing and the world council. I’ve done most things in boxing, there’s very little more I can do.”
On her designation as the Mammy of Irish boxing, she says she was very touched.
“The first Olympic gold medal Kellie won, she came out after her semi-final, they were interviewing her, she said ‘I want to say hello to Anna Moore, we call her one of the Mammies of Irish boxing because she’s always there for us’.
“I was taken aback, it was half six in the morning and I was sitting in my dining room crying. She could have said hello to her Mam or to her partner Mandy, but it was me she thought of. Joe Duffy was on straight away, then Virgin Media.
I said to her, ‘Kellie what are you after doing to me?’. She said ‘You were there to wipe my tears when I lost. You were there to put me over a sink when I was vomiting and you were there when I won. You’ve always been there and I’m just acknowledging that.’ I thought that was lovely, and since then that’s what I’m called! At this stage I think I should be called the nana of Irish boxing, at least seven of the girls I used to bring away as youth boxers have their own children now!”
