Mayo Boxing Club 21 years searching for a venue

Ballyhaunis Boxing Club is worried about finding a permanent training base as it struggles to find funds to carry out repairs required on its current clubhouse.

Club official Sue Peake said the boxing club has been 21 years in consultation with Mayo County Council about helping to secure a permanent training venue in the town.

Mayo County Council recently informed Ballyhaunis Boxing Club that they are looking at a “brownfield site” in Ballyhaunis town centre for the club “but have only enquired about it at present so [there] is still no security as to where we will be next year,” said Ms Peake.

The club was disappointed that a boxing club wasn’t included as one of the options in a recent survey by the council on the future of the derelict Scouts' Den building in Ballyhaunis which some time ago housed the boxing club. There was much local support for the renovation of the building as a boxing club, said Ms Peake.

“We’ve done everything asked of us, including getting committees and governance in place and we’ve got an accountant,” said Ms Peake who points out the club’s boxers have been successful at national and international level.

Sue’s daughter Carlagh has just recently been accepted onto Boxing Ireland’s Olympic pathway programme.

“She travels to Dublin several times a month to train alongside the Olympian boxers like Kellie Harrington and the O’Rourke sisters but the majority of her training has to be in Ballyhaunis,” explained Sue.

The club is currently operating out of the Bekan Community Centre, but its roof was badly damaged during Storm Éowyn in January 2025, which also left the boxing club without power for two weeks.

“We are in a commercial lease and so we don’t have the funds to fix it," Ms Peake explained.