Portlaoise Boxing Club improves roll of honour with three more national titles

JUST over three months into the year, and Portlaoise Boxing Club has already enhanced its roll of honour with no less than an additional nine Leinster and three national titles.

Paul Casey, Thomas O’Reilly and Lorcan Holohan completed their march to their respective All-Ireland honours with impressive semi-final and final performances.

The former, competing at Boy Four 46kg, has enjoyed a real breakout season to land his first ever national crown, beating Sean O’Sullivan of Elite Boxing Club on a 3-2 split in his penultimate round bout before surmounting Johnny Sweeney of Olympic Galway BC by the same margin in the decider.

Portlaoise head coach, Pat Ryan was hugely proud of Casey’s performance and is hopeful that this will be the start of a successful run for the 14-year-old Portarlington lad.

“It's the first time he’s ever won anything, Leinster or All-Ireland” Ryan told the Laois Nationalist.

“What has really got him over the line this year is that he has attended to every good habit you could possibly have.

“He’s been training in the mornings at 7 o'clock and he would be going then to the club most nights. You could see that he just wanted this more than anything.

“I suppose the difference is the want. He set out his stall in how he's going to box and the manner in which he should be boxing as a southpaw.

“He just went for it, was attacking more and he won most of the exchanges. His attitude and his application have been superb,” he said.

While Casey picked up his first National Championship title, his clubmate Thomas O’Reilly landed his fifth following a dominant Boy Four 75kg campaign that saw him serve up a first-round stoppage to Jake Hayes of Fr. Horgans in the semi-finals before bringing an early end to his decider in the second round against Patrick McDaid of St. Bridget’s, Clonmany.

The Portlaoise competitor, who landed gold at last October’s European Under 15 Championships following victories over opposition from England, Turkey and Azerbaijan, again demonstrated great power in all of his contests en route to this latest honour.

Indeed, while McDaid did his best to unhinge O’Reilly, he was undone by a heavy right to the head, forcing the referee to step in and call a halt to proceedings.

“McDaid was very good, but, at the same time, Thomas is an extraordinary chap,” remarked Ryan. “You'd always expect Thomas to win the fight. He's like a young man and he just had too much power.

“He’s another lad with great application. He's training Tuesdays and Thursdays in the strength and conditioning programme, and then he's boxing Monday, Wednesday, Fridays, so he’s putting in all the hard work,” he said.

Completing the latest line-up of national champions for Portlaoise was Lorcan Holohan, who set up another much-anticipated title fight with the highly-rated Padraig Walsh of Immaculata Boxing Club in the Junior Two 66kg class.

Certainly Holohan had the bit between his teeth for this challenge, having lost out on a split to Walsh in last September’s National Under 17 Championships, and it showed in the determination he brought to the ring.

Indeed, the 2025 National Senior Cadet Championship winner quickly grew into the title bout, producing a very impressive third-round display that copper-fastened his victory over a very talented Walsh, whom Ryan also rates very highly.

“We had a plan for Lorcan, and he went on the front foot” said Ryan. “It was just one of those amazing performances that he had to have to get the hand up.

“Young Walsh is an exceptional lad in every regard. He's very well prepared, he's very well trained and he understands the business of boxing.

“It was the performance of the year for me anyway. You couldn’t have gotten Lorcan to do any more than what he did in both the semi-final and the final.

“He knew what was in front of him and he just said to me ahead of the final, “Pat, I just can't wait for this fight’. It [last year’s loss to Walsh] gave him great incentive.

“But after the fight, they both came out into the foyer and they embraced each other, which was lovely to see. It was great to see that respect that they have for each other,” he said.

While both Casey and O’Reilly will now be turning their attention to the upcoming Four Nations qualifiers later this month, Holohan will be targeting the National Under 19 Championships, taking place in the National Stadium from 8-16 May.

Victory there would pave the way for a trip to the European Under 19 Championships later in the year as well as the Four Nations Finals in Scotland this coming June.

It is just part of another very busy schedule for Portlaoise Boxing Club, which only recently played host to a team from Wales and is, this week, doing the same for a Swedish selection.

On top of that, plans are afoot to upgrade the facilities in Portlaoise BC, Ryan explaining: “We'll have four international rings upstairs, along with 20 something bags, we’ll have the mirrors extended and we’ll have showers there as well.

“This will give us an opportunity to extend the classroom downstairs because my idea is to make sure that our lads are getting the tuition and grinds they need to improve their education,” he said.