Kildare Garda visits boxing club for youth engagement initiative

Last week the Irish Athletic Boxing Association (IABA) announced that its initiative Hi Garda has come to a successful conclusion, following its launch in September 2021.

The programme saw community gardaí visiting their local boxing clubs to engage and interact with members, with clubs nationwide taking part. The Hi Garda programme represents another strengthening of the ties between the IABA and An Garda Síochána, a relationship that is 100 years old.

Sean O’Mahony, who has been a community garda in Athy garda station, for the last 13 years has been engaging with his local boxing club as part of the initiative: “Most boxing clubs are in socially deprived areas. I have been in Athy a long time and I know in the last six or seven years unemployment levels have been double the national average down here,” he said.
“But the boxing club is going from strength to strength, it is a place young people can go and they get their training but also gives them some structure and discipline.”

Hi Garda builds on a 2018 initiative in which 17 gardaí underwent IABA training and qualified as Level One boxing coaches. That programme was designed to enable meaningful engagement between gardaí and boxers, in light of the fact many boxing clubs are based in areas of historic social, economic and educational disadvantage.

This community-based and pro-active collaborative work between both organisations is extremely important to these clubs, their communities and to the Association, and the new Hi Garda programme was introduced with the aim of building on this work even more into the future.
Garda O’Mahony explained: “The idea of Hi Garda is to go in and meet the young people. The last thing you want is to get a call about 10 young people sitting in the square. They might only be on their phone or having fun but being loud.
“They might not be doing anything wrong but for older generations it might be intimidating and for that to be the first meeting of a garda and a young person is not ideal. That says to them that we are only here to ruin their fun.

“But if their first meeting with me can be me in a tracksuit in the local club and doing a bit of boxing with them and having fun, it gives them a different view. It’s great to be able to walk down the street in Athy and have young people say ‘well, Sean’ and greet you, whereas they would not have interacted with me before. And if I do have to move them out of that town square, there hopefully won’t be that same animosity and will likely be no issue.”

The IABA and An Garda Síochána enjoy a rich and proud history, dating all the way back to the inception of the association in 1911.

In the 1920s, General Eoin O’Duffy placed a great importance on the sport of boxing within An Garda Síochána, seeing it as a means of introducing gardaí into their local communities as they assisted in the establishment of boxing clubs throughout the country.
It was this work that laid the foundations for the enduring relationship which continues to flourish to this very day.
Garda Sean O’Mahony said: “People have a certain view of the uniform, it is not hard to understand either. We are dealing with people who a lot of the time are in stressful situations, be it that they are victims of a crime or being arrested for one or some tragedy has happened.

“The idea of the community garda is that people have a face they know or a number to call if they need a form signed or they have a problem with a neighbour they don’t want it dealt with officially and just want to chat about it."

The IABA has stated that it is extremely proud of the work currently being conducted through the Garda Boxing Club and by the large number of gardaí actively involved within boxing clubs throughout the country.

The IABA also proudly boasts Garda Christina Desmond as an active boxer within its High-Performance Unit and Garda Adam Nolan was also a member of the 2012 Olympic boxing team.

Speaking about the success of the initiative, IABA CEO Fergal Carruth said: “An Garda Síochána has played a huge part in the formation and development of the IABA and it is fantastic to have been able to highlight the very close bond that has always been shared between both organisations, past and present, through this initiative.

“We have been thrilled with the success of the Hi Garda initiative and it has been great to see clubs across the country getting involved. It is our hope that the Hi Garda initiative is but the first of many further collaborative programs between the IABA and An Garda Síochána.”