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. ********* |