‘He built the club himself’ – Peter O’Donnell’s legacy

BY MATTHEW WILSON

THERE has been deep sadness across the whole of Donegal this week following the passing of the county’s very own ‘Mr Boxing’, Peter O’Donnell.

Aged 75, he dedicated much of his life to the sport he loved and he passed away peacefully in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Raphoe Boxing Club’s Gary McCullagh worked alongside Peter at the club over the last 14 years and he paid tribute to the man that he labelled as an ‘absolute legend’.

“It’s a sad loss for the whole community never mind boxing, he’s the most well-known man. He was involved in every sport, when you go into our gym there’s pictures of every sport in the town,” said McCullagh.

“Peter’s just an absolute legend, he was a small man with a big heart, a big character and a big personality. He’s just so well-known and he’s going to be really badly missed.”

Peter’s life was very much centred around the sport he loved so dearly, boxing.

He was one of the founding members of the Raphoe Boxing Club back in 1989 and did much of the hard labour himself to get the show up-and-running.

“He’s a founding member of the Boxing Club but he actually built the gym, he built the club himself,” said McCullagh.

“That’s all his life, boxing, boxing, boxing. Even when he was sick, we were on the phone and we had a few wee things going on in the background.

“We were still going to push ahead. There’s big plans for the club, big extensions and big developments to be done. When he was sick that’s all that was in his head, was getting this and that done.”

Not only was Peter well-known locally but he was also recognised both nationally and internationally.

As well as helping the local boxers at the Raphoe Boxing Club, Peter also managed several Ireland teams including last year’s EUBC Junior Boys and Girls European Boxing Championships in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the Irish won seven medals.

He also acted as a ring announcer at various major boxing events and McCullagh told the Donegal News a great story about one of the times ‘Mr Boxing’ entered the ring for a show.

“Everybody knows him. As he’s known in the boxing circle, he’s ‘Mr Boxing’ in Donegal but in Ireland, he’s the voice of Irish boxing because he’s the MC in the stadium, he’s the MC for Internationals, he’s team manager, he’s been everything. He’s the most well-known man.

“I was telling a story, we were over at Villa Park with Paddy Brennan and Paddy Farrell. Peter had his wee green suit on him, he got into the ring and they announced him as, ‘we would like to introduce the President of Ireland’.

“Not the President of Irish Boxing but the President of Ireland, it was very funny.”

Peter had a great way with people and the Raphoe Boxing Club coach continued by discussing the great way of thinking that O’Donnell had.

McCullagh told the Donegal News another good story about the legendary figure regarding sponsored t-shirts he had organised for the Raphoe Boxing Club.

“He’d a great way of thinking, he’s a good man for getting sponsorship and getting grants. He went into Edward Coyle one day looking for sponsorship and Edward said, ‘I can get you t-shirts’ so he said that’s grand.”

“He went up to get t-shirts and he asked me what I wanted on the back of them. I told him to just get Raphoe Boxing Club.

“He landed with all of the t-shirts for the men with ‘Raphoe Boxing Club’ and he gave out the kids t-shirts and wrote on the back was ‘a child in sport is a child out of court’, he just did that himself.

“That’s his mentality, a child in sport is going to stay out of badness.”

A lot of boxers from the local area will have Peter’s commitment and dedication to thank for a lot of their success in the sport.

Since he rang McCullagh to come in and coach the club 14 years ago, the Raphoe Boxing Club has enjoyed major success and Gary said that a lot of that was down to the work of Peter.

“If he hadn’t started that club then there would be no boxing in Raphoe. He rang me 14 years ago and asked me to take over because the coach before me left.

“The club had only three Irish champions. Peter just being who he is and boxers coming, the two of us just developed what we have and we eventually got 12 Irish champions in the last 14 years, that’s a lot to do with Peter.”

The late Mr O’Donnell has undoubtedly left a huge legacy behind him and will be missed by all. McCullagh, who worked very closely alongside his mentor, expressed that there’s going to be a massive void there and big boots to be filled at the club.

“It’s going to be hard. It’s hard to put it into words, I don’t know what we’re going to do. Myself and him dealt with everything in the club.

“He left me a letter. The letter was sitting there for me and I went out and got it, it was hard reading now.

“He knew this was happening and he was planning ahead. That’s typical Pete, plan for the future.

“There’s just going to be a massive void there and there’s big boots to be filled. As Pete said, the show goes on unfortunately.”