John McNally

Name: John McNally
Hometown: Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Died: 2022-04-04 (Age:89)
Pro Boxer: Record
Amateur Boxer: Record

John McNally represented Ireland as a bantamweight at the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games, winning the silver medal. A year later McNally won a bronze medal in the European Amateur Boxing Championships held in Warsaw.

Obituary

BELFAST'S John McNally, the first Irish boxer to win a medal from the Olympic Games, died in his native city on Monday April 4, 2022. He was aged 89. The Irish amateur bantamweight champion contested the Helsinki Olympics of 1952 - and came home with a silver medal..

He lost in a disputed final to the host nation's Pentii Hamalainen.

In 1953, he contested the European senior championships in Warsaw, but had to settle for a bronze medal.

McNally, born in the lower end of West Belfast's Falls Road, started boxing as juvenile with the nearby Immaculata Youth Cub on Devonshire Street - and then moved to Belfast's White City Cub.

He scored a sensational win in 1951 for Ireland against the USA's crack bantamweight Jack Corvino, in Dublin - and later, while on tour in the USA with a European team proved unbeatable.

The slick moving McNally decided to turn professional at featherweight, but didn't quite achieve the top end of the tough business,charting a modest 14-9-2 career.

He made a debut in April 1954 in Glasgow, beating John Kenny, and bowed out in Middlesboro with a win against Johnny Nolan in March 1961.

During his professional career he lost in Northern Ireland Area title bouts, against 'wee' Joe Quinn for the featherweight crown and later at lightweight, to Peter 'Al' Sharpe.

During that period he often helped out in fascinating sparring sessions with featherweight Billy 'Spider' Kelly. He was in the chief supporting contest at the notorious 1955 Donnybrook Bus Station Jack Solomon's show in Dublin.

Here British and Empire champion Kelly lost a hotly disputed 15-rounder to European featherweight champion Ray Famechon. The result sparked off ugly ringside riots.

McNally lost his bout with Londoner Teddy Peckham.

Other noted lightweights of that era he met included Guy Gracia, Dave Charnley and Arthur Donnachie..

After he retired, at 28 years of age, the affable McNally turned his attention to folk singing, formed a group -'The Freemen' - and enjoyed successful tours Europe and north America.

• Patrick Myler Remembrance: [1]