Vincent P Martin (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Last Sunday, an extraordinary general meeting, EGM, of the Irish Athletic Boxing Association, IABA, took place in Roscommon town where the delegates voted against allowing company EGMs and annual general meetings, AGMs, to take place in Northern Ireland. Furthermore, again concerning EGMs and AGMs, a motion to change the wording in the company's constitution from State to the island of Ireland was not passed. In advance of the recent EGM, the Ministers with responsibility in this area, namely, the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin, and her Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, made it very clear what that organisation had to do to reach the required, necessary and accepted standards of governance. It has been documented. I am enraged on a different level. I am enraged that a sport that has done so much to heal rifts in this country would decide to snub people in the North. I refer to people like Hugh Russell. Do people not remember Barry McGuigan in the King's Hall or in the stadium on Loftus Road with his late father singing "Danny Boy"? Do they not remember Wayne McCullough and Michael Carruth? Do they not remember Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlan? Do they not have an inkling that boxing is so much more than just a fight? Boxing in this country has transcended sport, and been a healing and unifying force.