'About more than boxing' as Tipperary club appeals for donations to go to All-Ireland Finals

A passionate Tipperary boxing coach is appealing to local business owners for donations so that he can bring members of his club to the All-Ireland Boxing Championships in Dublin.

Chris Toomey, head coach of Tipperary Town Boxing Club made the appeal last week as five of his boxers are set to take part in the All-Irelands in the National Stadium in Dublin later this year.

Speaking to the Tipperary Star, Mr Toomey said that like all boxing clubs up and down the country, Tipperary Town Boxing Club don’t get any central funding, meaning any money they do get, comes in from club memberships.

“Why we try to raise funds is because the way it works is I have three different age groups, I’ve got 11-year-olds, I’ve got 12-year-olds and I’ve got 13-year-olds, so they could all be boxing on different days,” Chris explained.

“The All-Irelands are on for the whole second week of Easter, so if I don’t have funds to book hotels, then I have to drive up and down every day, now that’s fine for me, I’d get over that, but it’s not fair on the kids because you’re putting them at a severe disadvantage straight away.

“If I have to drive up with one of them, say for instance, next Monday, and we can’t stay there Sunday night, I have to get them up at half past five on Monday morning, because the weigh-ins are on in Dublin from 8 o’clock to 9 o’clock, so I have to be in Dublin between eight and nine o’clock on Monday morning for them to weigh-in for their fight,” Mr Toomey explained.

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“So they mightn’t go into the ring then until three or four o’clock in the afternoon, so by the time they get into the ring they’re wrecked tired,” Chris said.

“So you’re giving the advantage over to whoever they’re going to be boxing against because nine times out of 10, whoever they’re boxing against will have stayed in a hotel up there the night before.

“After the weigh-ins they’re able to go back to the hotel, have a bit of breakfast and go back to bed for a few hours and they’re coming in fresh into the ring then, so you’re destroying their chances before you ever go up there,” Mr Toomey said.

Mr Toomey says that he almost single handedly runs the boxing club, and also works full time, six days a week, so doesn’t have the time to organise fundraisers for the club.

“I’m kind of a one man show, and I work six days a week in the Creamery, so the boxing is only my hobby, and I don’t have time to organise a bag pack in the supermarket and things like that, that’s the advantage a lot of the clubs have, like GAA clubs and that, the parents are involved and when they want to do something like that, the parents would go off and do it,” he said.

“I don’t have that because a lot of the kids I train at the club are from one parent families or the parents are not on the scene for various different reasons and mammy’s on her own raising three or four kids, so they don’t have time to be doing that kind of thing either, or some of the kids I have in the club, mammy and daddy are off the scene and it’s grandparents or aunts and uncles, and that’s the thing about boxing, it draws all the disadvantaged kids.”

Chris says that a lot of the kids in the club come from disadvantaged estates where there is no, or very little money, and says that he even trains kids for free who come from families who can’t afford to pay for boxing lessons.

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“I won’t refuse any child coming in, I’ll take them all in whether they’ve got money or not,” he said.

Chris said that seeing kids from his club go and win medals is what the club is all about, and is a great source of pride.

“It’s fantastic like, that’s what you do it for, when you see one of them that you’re after spending a couple of years training go off and win an All-Ireland, that’s what it’s for,” he said.

“What people don’t realise as well is that it’s not just about boxing, we’re training those kids for their own futures.”
Chris said that the club will help kids who have trained with them to get jobs when they get old enough, with former club members now working in the Army, the guards, and even the Prison Service.

“We’ve secured so many different jobs for so many kids over the years, when they his 16, 17, 18, we’re securing jobs for them.

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“There’s about eight of the lads that I’ve trained are in the Army, another four or five of them are in the guards, and two of my best female boxers are now prison officers, I’ve set a couple of them up with apprenticeships as electricians, engineering, stuff like that,” Chris said.

Anyone who wants to donate to Tipperary Town Boxing Club can reach out to Chris on 083 3022287, or call into the boxing club.