Olympian Willie Duggan passes away

Former Irish amateur international boxer and 1952 Olympian Willie Duggan has died following a heart attack. He was 88.

As a member of Crumlin ABC, Dublin, he won three Irish senior titles, as a light-heavyweight in 1950 and 1951 and as a middleweight in 1952.

That year Willie travelled to Helsinki, Finland, for the Olympic Games as Ireland’s middleweight representative but was beaten in his first contest by Rumania’s Vasile Tita, who progressed to the final where he lost to American Floyd Patterson, the future world heavyweight champion.

Many familiar names appear on Duggan’s record, none more so than Eamonn Andrews, an Irish junior champion before he hung up his gloves to concentrate on a career in broadcasting. Andrews outpointed Duggan on a St Vincent’s club tournament at the National Stadium on 5 January 1945.

Willie, who worked for Brennan’s bakery, was a peace commissioner and long-time secretary of the sadly defunct Irish Ex-Boxers Association.

He leaves his wife Nuala, six children and 15 grandchildren. After his death on April 4 he was buried in Newland’s Cross cemetery.