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Paddy Doherty, known across Donegal as Paddy the Boxer, was a light-middleweight and middleweight who won Irish Elite titles, took Commonwealth Games bronze for Northern Ireland, and fought on a Muhammad Ali undercard at Croke Park. He died on 4 November 2026 in Galway University Hospital, surrounded by his family.…
Paddy Doherty, known across Donegal as Paddy the Boxer, was a light-middleweight and middleweight who won Irish Elite titles, took Commonwealth Games bronze for Northern Ireland, and fought on a Muhammad Ali undercard at Croke Park. He died on 4 November 2026 in Galway University Hospital, surrounded by his family. He was about 78 and late of Ballymagrorty, Ballintra.
Born in Dunkineely, County Donegal, in 1948, one of fifteen children, he moved with his family to St Benildus Avenue in Ballyshannon when he was nine. Boxing ran in the family through his father Barney, an amateur with Ballyshannon Boxing Club who had Irvinestown roots in County Fermanagh. Paddy first laced gloves at eleven under baker Michael Burke, with Pearse McMahon and Paddy Meehan among his early coaches. He won the Irish juvenile nine-stone title in 1964, youth and junior light-middleweight crowns later in the decade, then the Irish Elite light-middleweight titles in 1970 and 1971, stopping Sean Harty and Eddie Hayden in the finals. He was Ulster champion in those same Elite years and finished with five Irish titles across age groups.
In 1970 he represented Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, qualifying through his father's Fermanagh heritage. He beat Ghanaian Olympian Prince Amartey on points to secure bronze, then lost in the semi-final to Scotland's Tom Imrie. Ballyshannon met him with a motorcade and a bonfire on St Benildus Avenue. He remains Donegal's only senior Commonwealth boxing medallist. In 1971 he boxed for the Republic at the European Championships in Madrid, beating Stan van der Driessche before a cut eye ended his bout with the USSR's Valeriy Tregubov. He also boxed for both Irish associations in internationals, a rare dual path in the amateur era.
Turning professional in 1971, he fought out of London and Dublin and stopped Welshman Bobby Ruffe in the second round on the undercard of Muhammad Ali versus Al Blue Lewis at Croke Park in 1972. He later recalled Ali shaking his hand at the Gresham Hotel weigh-in and patting his head as they crossed on the pitch. A broken hand suffered while working for the ESB cut short a possible British middleweight title shot. He retired from the ring in 1977 and spent nearly fifty years coaching in Ballyshannon, Donegal Town and Ballintra. In his final months he hosted Katie Taylor at his Donegal home and watched her farewell fight from a VIP seat at Croke Park, the first Irish boxing card there since his own night after Ali.
He is survived by his wife Lelia, children Dara, Bernard, Beth and Rebecca, and his grandchildren. Remains rested at McGee's funeral home in Ballyshannon before cremation at Lily Hill, Letterkenny. The County Donegal Boxing Board remembered a proud Donegal man whose friendship and example would outlast the medals.
Biography adapted from Donegal Daily (Chris McNulty, including Boxing In Donegal: A History), Ocean FM, rip.ie, The Impartial Reporter.
In their own words
“The crowd was just phenomenal. Once the referee stepped in between Ali and Lewis, the crowd went mental. I was on just after Ali. I met him at the Gresham Hotel at the weigh-in and when I was on the way out to the ring he shook my hand and patted me on the head going by.”
Recalling the 1972 Croke Park undercard, quoted by Donegal Daily
“Beyond the titles, medals and achievements, Paddy was a proud Donegal man, a great character and a passionate supporter of boxing.”
County Donegal Boxing Board tribute, November 2026
Photos
1by People Forever
