SCHOOL REPORT COLÁISTE DHÚLAIGH, COOLOCK:Coláiste Dhúlaigh's stranglehold on the Crowley Cup is something the Coolock outfit is very proud of. Richard Fitzpatrickreports

IN THE realm of sporting records, it’s unlikely any other school in Ireland could match Coláiste Dhúlaigh’s stranglehold on the Dublin City Vocational School Boxing Championships. None of their 10 or so rivals – schools such as Larkin College, Plunkett College or Kylemore in Ballyfermot – have managed to unseat the northside school in over a generation. In fact, the Coolock outfit have won the Crowley Cup for the last 29 years in a row.

Ireland’s only inter-schools boxing competition has been in operation since 1946. It was once a catch-all boxing tournament, graced by greats like Fred Tiedt, but these days it’s a “novice” competition in which club boxers are unable to partake.

Also, as an individual, once you’ve won a title, you’re unable to enter again the following year.

“It’s for complete beginners,” says Joe Vaughan, the schools’ boxing coach since becoming a staff member in September 1977. Vaughan is your typical cornerman – squat frame, enthusiastic about his sport, hugely likeable, and, in the words of ratemyteacher.com, “the legend of Coláiste Dhúlaigh”.

He’s proud of the sport’s working class base and unapologetic about the place boxing has in society, rightly making the distinction between professional and amateur boxing; the former is a “business”, he says, the later a “sport”, which, incidentally, studies have shown, incurs less injuries than most other contact sports and have never found evidence of brain damage.

“Joe would always say that it’s a sport of self-defence,” says Mary Ward, the school’s principal. “People would regard it as being rather pugilistic or aggressive, but the skill is actually the manner in which students can defend themselves and in their discipline.”

It also reduces the likelihood of the boys either bullying or being bullied. “Boxing and bullies don’t get on well together,” says Vaughan. “They don’t, generally; it’s amazing. It so happens these are two good lads,” he says, gesturing towards Patrick Gurr and Gavin Higgins.

“They’re two good kids. You never see either of these two in a row out in a yard. I can nearly guarantee you that the few people who would be involved in a row we’d say, so-called hard men, they won’t come [boxing training] because they’d be shown up. They don’t have the discipline and the commitment, what it takes, really,” adds Ward.

“Their big thing,” says Vaughan, “is a rush of blood to the head . . . dive in, and they generally pick on someone smaller. No – the bullying and the boxing are not in the same league. I remember one year, we’d a chap called Gavin O’Connor. I thought maybe it was dangerous to put him in, to be honest with you. The Lord save us, the night of the final, you were wondering is this the same Gavin O’Connor that you’d meet in the corridor. He’d nearly go around you to get out of your way. That’s what we would have found out over the years. I didn’t expect it to be that way. That’s one thing I would have learned.”

The weigh-ins for the Crowley Cup are on the last Wednesday in February. The following Wednesday, the team box in the semi-finals, and, all going well, contest the finals two weeks later at the National Stadium, which always draw a big crowd. “I’ve seen more at the Vocational Schools’ finals than at Intermediate National finals,” says Vaughan.

At the moment, there are some 40-odd boys on the team’s boxing squad vying for places on the final team. No girls take part, although Katie Taylor has been a regular visitor, along with Bernard Dunne, Kenny Egan and Michael Carruth, to the school for their annual charity-fundraising Skipathon.

“Not as yet, but maybe one day,” says Ward about female participation in the sport at the school, “and I know that Joe also runs classes in self-defence for girls.”

In the Crowley Cup, contestants are kitted out with gum shield, helmet and wraps under their gloves. A fight lasts for three 90-second rounds. The bouts, although seemingly short, are exhausting, they testify. “You don’t realise it because if you’re playing football, you have your rests, but when you’re in the ring after the first round, you’re puffing,” says Gurr, aged 17, and the school team’s boxing captain.

The team train around the corner from Coláiste Dhúlaigh at St Luke’s boxing gym on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.

Balance is crucial in the ring. “Get the feet right first,” is Vaughan’s mantra; then the guard, and always, as they say in boxing, finish up with the same hand, either throwing one, or, if you’re getting a flurry of punches in, one-two-three or one-two-three-four-five combinations.

“You have to be mentally strong and you have to have awareness,” says Higgins.

“When you get into the ring, you try and blank everything else out. Just concentrate on your man and don’t take your eye off him for a second because if you do, and he hits you, you could be a goner,” adds Higgins.

Colaiste Dhulaigh

School: Coláiste Dhúlaigh, Coolock, Barryscourt Rd, Dublin 17

Founded: 1969. Number of pupils: 450 (co-educational)

Sports played: Athletics, badminton, Gaelic football, golf, women’s soccer, soccer, swimming, table tennis

Senior boxing titles: Crowley Cup winners, 1980-2008

Notable boxing past pupils: Conor Ahern, current Irish flyweight international

Inside Track

Name: Gavin Higgins, vice-captain of school's boxing team

Age: 15

Boxing heroes: Kenny Egan, "because," he says, "of the spirit he shows"

Most memorable fight: "I've only had one, and I lost it!" he blurts. "That was last year. He outboxed me; he was taller and stronger."

Other sporting hero: Roy Keane Play any other sports? Soccer is his first love