Short history of Ballina Boxing Club's Gyms



The cutting from the "Western People" of November 2010 above records  a historical event in more ways than one as the Town Councils were abolished in Ireland in 2014.

Ballina Boxing Club was located in the town at several different venues since its humble beginnings in 1927, but it wasn't until 1978 that it found a home on the Sligo Road at the junction with Downhill Road. Msgr Paddy Gallagher (RIP) approached businessman Paddy Murphy (RIP) of Bunree House, Ballina, with a view to having the club located on the first floor of premises formerly used as a granary for Murphy's Mills. The club carried out the business of boxing at the location until 1990 when ownership of an old store at Pawn Office Lane was offered to the club subject to relinquishing all claim to the existing location on Sligo Road at that time. Applications for grant aid to undertake major repairs at the new location were unsuccessful and, in any case, since the building did not comply with new regulations for boxing-ring dimensions, it was decided to seek a new site from the local authority. The club trained in the local GAA clubs (Ardnaree Sarsfields and Ballina Stephenites) for a number of seasons during which a suitable site for a boxing club was sought from the Ballina Town Council, with proceeds from the sale of the Pawn Office Lane site to be used to enable its construction in part at least. The preferred location was one identified on a hillside to the west of the town beside the Grainne Uaile Sub Aqua Club base but "a boxing club on the site did not fit well with the new town plan." A number of small plots of land owned by the council were offered but none would prove suitable except one off the Killala Road to which there was only pedestrian access. In 2012, a ten-year lease on a vacant building at Mercy Road was secured, and a special grant of €25,000 in conjunction with the centenary of the founding of the IABA in 1911, together with some substantial club fund-raising saw it outfitted to a high standard. The search for a permanent home continued and in September 2014, the Chairman of Ballina Community Sports and Leisure Centre invited the club to a meeting to discus the leasing of property to the club on which to build a regional boxing arena. Planning permission to build was granted in 2015, a 50-year lease was signed, grant aid was sought and promised, but the club withdrew in frustration from the application process in November 2019 because of inexplicable delays in finalizing approval to initiate construction works before planning permission expired in June 2020 and with it the termination of the lease. The company made a decision to opt for a self-build, financed through loans and donations, and construction of the new building began in early June 2020. It is expected the sale of the site at Pawn Office Lane in the centre of the town will realize a decent sum to pay down some of the construction loans. Through fund-raising and grant aid from the Sports Capital Programme, the ground floor of this building had been made functional for training and competition by autumn of 2023.
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