Olympic Boxing Coach Comes To Tell ‘A Storey’

by R. George Linton

Four-time Irish Olympic Boxing Coach Gerry Storey, MBE, has spent a lifetime uniting kids on different sides of Belfast’s pernicious religious divide, ironically -- through fighting.

Storey is head coach of Belfast’s Holy Family Boxing Club and has worked to help bridge the sectarian divide in Belfast, as he trains both Catholics and Protestants.

Storey will bring his boxing club to Wildwood, N. J. to compete against Philadelphia’s famed Harrowgate Boxing Club on Thursday, Sep. 18. The international boxing club show will kick off Wildwood’s annual Irish Weekend festivities. The Irish team will spend the week prior to the fights in Philadelphia putting the finishing touches on their fight preparations and will receive an official welcoming in South Philadelphia.

As well as the bout in Wildwood, Storey’s team will also be hosted South Philly style!

LEGENDARY IRISH boxing trainer Gerry Storey, left, is pictured here with Penna. Veterans Boxing Board member Fred Druding, Jr., and his son Sammy Storey. The Storey’s will bring their Belfast Boxing Club to US for an international boxing club at summer’s end.

The Joe Howlett, Jr. Saints New Year’s Brigade will host an welcome ceremony for the Irish boxers, complete with Mummers, Irish bagpipers, and City dignitaries.

Even amid the worst sectarian violence, a small boxing club in Belfast, Northern Ireland has been an oasis of peace. The boxing gym has stood as a lone heaven from the bombs and the bullets that dominated the streets outside.

In a troubled 2nd treacherous area, where you once couldn’t walk down certain streets if you had the wrong religion, Storey created a little sanctuary. Ireland’s most famous boxer, former Featherweight Champion Barry McGuigan, says Storey not only teaches his kids boxing, but gives them an education in life. Many kids who came to Gerry could have been potential terrorists. But Gerry has been able to channel their aggression in a very positive way, by using their fists in the ring rather than firearms out of it.