Inspirational Deirdre Gogarthy Rejoices in State of Female Irish Boxing after Statue Unvieling

If there were tears at the bus stop they were tears of joy this time.

Just over a week ago Deirdre Gogarty watched as a statue of her was unveiled in her hometown.

The people of Drogheda celebrated her trailblazing and legendary career, marking it in bronze a stone’s throw from a bus stop where she cried as the sport turned her away yet again. 

“I remember standing at the bus stop thinking “this is the worst day of my life,” she recounted. 

However, who allowed Katie Taylor to dream, didn’t give up. 

She soldiered on and was involved in what is deemed the first-ever boxing bout between two women in 1991, albeit an ‘illegal’ and unsanctioned fight at The Shannon Arms in Limerick.

Unable to get a boxing license in Ireland she made the difficult choice to move to the USA and turn professional to chase a World title. This move made the Louth native the first-ever female professional boxer in Ireland and led her to competing in one of the most historic female fights of all time.

Gogarty versus Christy Martin is now a fight of folklore and is deemed the spark that ignited much-needed change for women’s boxing. Chief support to Mike Tyson versus Frank Bruno at the MGM Grand, the entertaining war was the first all-female bout to take place on a PPV boxing card.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Irish-Boxing.com (@irishboxingcom)

Just a year later Gogarty, a hero to Katie Taylor, realized her dream of becoming a world champion by beating Bonnie Canino in Florida on 2nd of March 1997 for the Featherweight world professional title.

That victory cemented Gogarthy’s legacy in the sport as Ireland’s First female professional boxing world champion as well as Drogheda’s first and only professional boxing world champion.

Since retiring in 1998, the trailblazer has been recognised for her achievements by being inducted into the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame in 2015.

Saturday last it was all honoured possibly where it mattered most.“Back then people saw what I was doing but there was a certain reluctance about it,” she muses before pointing out just how far the sport has come.

“Someone once told me even if they ever allow women to box in Ireland, which they probably won’t, no one will watch it!

“Well I’d like to argue with that! I’m thinking of Katie Taylor filling up stadiums, I’m thinking of Kellie Harrington  winning two Olympic gold medals, I’m thinking of  the last four Olympics with Irish women  bringing home three gold medals. All of that that is pretty good huh?”

Even though boxing wasn’t always kind to Gogarthy she couldn’t help but love it and was continually drawn to it and felt propelled to change perceptions on female fighting.

“People often ask me why I picked boxing, but I didn’t really pick boxing, it picked me. I felt I had to do something to make it easier for other women to fight because I knew I couldn’t possibly be the only woman in the world who wanted to box!

“Boxing is too hard of a sport to choose, it’s a calling to get in the ring and fight and that was my calling and I often thought about giving up because it was just so hard.

“So it’s wonderful that all these other women have taken it forward and I have no doubt there will be more world championships, there will be more gold medals.”

Thanking the men that did encourage her in the early days she said: “Joe Leonard could have easily told me, ‘go away, we don’t want you, get out of here.’ Tommy Murphy could definitely have put a stop to me coming into the gym, but he came in one day and saw me working hard and he let it happen.

“I get a little bit emotional when I look at Pat McCormack because he took me in and got terrible stick for it and they’d say ‘why are you wasting your time on that girl? and he’d tell them – ‘if you had a daughter that was fighting wouldn’t you want someone to teach her how to defend herself?’

Ciaran McIvor,who worked endlessly to get the statue funded and inspired the statue drive said: “…. it represents something very special, it says if you are from this town and you achieve greatness, whether it is in Drogheda or on the other side of the globe we will celebrate you no matter what sex, race, or religion you are.”

“We all come from women and we have sisters, niece’s daughters or granddaughters and they all have their own choices of what path they want to take. Some will like sports, some won’t, but that’s a privilege that exists for them because Deirdre walked through the doors of Drogheda Boxing Club in April 1987.”