FRANCIS BARRETT from Galway, now fighting out of the Trojan Club in London, took another step on his road to an international double when he totally outboxed Stephen Spence, from the Holy Family club in Belfast, in the opening session of the Irish National Championships at the National Stadium last night.

Barrett, who has already reached the final of the English championships, now has two fights to go to take the Irish welterweight title. Last night's effort didn't cause him very many problems but he admitted afterwards that his heavy schedule in the two championships was taking its toll, and that he would be taking a rest before the next session of these championships on the February 28th.

It was a very onesided event, with Barrett leading by seven points to one after the first of the five two minute rounds. In the second round he forced Spence to take a standing count and the round ended with Barrett leading by 15 points to one on the computer system.

Round three was very little different. The bout ended at 27-2 in favour of Barrett.

The evening had started with a win for Declan Barrett, from Rylane in Cork, who managed to recover from a compulsory count in round three to take the lightweight contest from Paul Whelan of Neilstown on a score of 11-7.

Thomas Sheahan from St Michael's beat Francis Webb from the Holy Trinity Club in Belfast, by seven points to five in the lightweight division, and Eddie Fisher from Holy Trinity beat Brian Geraghty from Crumlin on a score of 13-9.

An interesting feature of this bout was that both boxers had been out of action for three years but on his return to the ring, Fisher, the former international, looked much sharper and was worthy of his victory.

In the featherweight division, Aodh Carlyle from the Sacred Heart Club in Dublin stopped Jim Conlon from Holy Trinity in Belfast in the fifth round, when the ringside doctor ordered an end to the fight because Conlon's left eye was closed while in another featherweight bout Mark Prunty from Portmarnock beat David Lowry from The Albert Foundry Club in Belfast in a splendid contest which ended with the Dubliner winning by 15 points to 13. It was no surprise that both boxers were given an ovation by the National Stadium crowd.