Darren O’Neill appalled at prospect of Billy Walsh departure

Darren O'Neill, who captained the Irish boxing team at the London 2012 Olympic Games, has described the possible departure of Irish boxing head coach Billy Walsh to the US Women's Boxing Programme as "absolutely disgraceful".

O’Neill, a respected heavyweight, has boxed under Walsh for a number of years, including at this year’s European Games in Baku.

“I can’t understand it at all how they might have let him go. It’s like Brian Cody leaving Kilkenny a few weeks before the All-Ireland,” said O’Neill.

“It’s only a few weeks to the World Championships, then the Olympic Games are next year. It’s madness. How do you lose a head coach? Who’s going to come in. It takes time to develop a trust and to build a relationship between boxers and any coach. My God, a year to go to the Olympics...”

Walsh has been central to the golden period of Irish boxing since the Beijing Olympics, after Gary Keegan came up with the concept of a high performance unit.

Absolutely terrible

“Billy Walsh was the man who put it (high performance) in place,” added O’Neill. “It’s absolutely terrible. He should have been kept at all costs and at least kept until after Rio next year.

“The thing is crazy. . . Look he’s only back from the Europeans with the Irish team with three medals and before that the European Games in Baku. More medals. Now it looks like he’s going.”

The Irish Sports Council (ISC) fund boxing in Ireland and although they are important and influential stake holders do not become involved in the running or governance of sports organisations.

"Billy Walsh remains an employee of the Irish Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) and it would be unhelpful and inappropriate if we made a full statement on the matter at this moment," said an ISC official.

It is believed that the ISC have made their views known to the IABA, but Walsh is an IABA, not an ISC employee.

The ISC have had no communication from Irish boxing in recent days.

It is understood that remuneration is not at the heart of the differences between Walsh and the IABA but issues of trust, support and decision making, all of them regular themes that have caused friction in the past.

According to reports on Thursday an agreed package between Walsh and the IABA, which was to be ratified on Tuesday at an IABA board meeting, was unpicked.

But nor is salary entirely outside of the dispute. The 52-year-old Walsh is head coach of the Irish boxing team, not the high performance director, although he effectively performs the role of a high performance director.

A high performance director’s salary is more than that of head coach, which is less than €80,000 per year. Walsh’s salary therefore is much lighter than other high performance directors involved in Irish sport.

At the recent Women's World Championships in Jeju, South Korea, the USA was openly selling the coaching position in their women's boxing programme. The US delegate to a world boxing convention taking place on the island, Mike Martino, had brought colour brochures with him outlining the spec and responsibilities for the job.