Gerry Ó Colmáin

Gearóid Ó Colmáin, whose name was sometimes Anglicized as Gerry Coleman, worked as a blacksmith during his boxing career and claimed that the hard work forging horseshoes at the anvil helped him build up his strength better than the usual forms of weight training. His finest moment came in 1947 when, in front of a capacity crowd at Dublin’s National Stadium, he defeated the more favoured Englishman Gerry Scriven to become Ireland’s first European Champion in the heavyweight class.

He was nine times champion of Ireland, twice in the light-heavyweight division, and then a record seven titles followed after moving up to heavyweight. He took part in approximately 200 fights and won 180 of them but lost his opening bout at the 1948 Olympics and had retired by the Helsinki Games.

Gearóid Ó Colmáin was considering a comeback in 1954 when he lost his right eye after a piece of metal flew up from the anvil and struck him. He later worked as a welder for the Dublin City Corporation.