Larry Flood

Like many Irish boxers in the 1920s and 30s, Larry Flood, widely known as John Flood, served in both the Irish Garda (the national police and security service of the Republic of Ireland) and the Irish Army, which he joined at the age of 16 in 1928. At the same time Flood joined the Island Bridge Boxing Club and in 1929 won the Leinster Junior lightweight title.

Flood was beaten in the 1932 Tailteann Games welterweight final on points by J. Edmunds of Wales and then got a surprise call-up for the Olympics. Flood was at the time a reserve to the Irish team for the forthcoming Los Angeles Games and got invited to join the four-man team when Ulsterman Jimmy Magill of the Royal Ulster Constabulary was not allowed to compete by the Ulster Council of the Irish Amateur Boxing Association because they inferred they did not want him fighting under the Tricolour flag of the new Irish Free State (now the Republic of Ireland). At the Olympics, Flood lost a controversial points decision against South Africa’s Dick Barton. At the time of the Los Angeles Games, Flood was the Irish welterweight champion, and the following year was beaten in the final on points by Jack Kennedy.

Appointed trainer to the Ordnance Corps boxing team in 1933, Flood was out of competitive boxing through injury for nearly 18 months in 1935/36. He made a comeback and won the Irish middleweight title in 1937 but retired later that year on medical advice. After ending his competitive career, established international Flood became trainer at the Island Bridge boxing team. Flood died at his home in the Dublin suburb Drimnagh at the age of 86 in 1999.