Call made to honour Tipperary boxing champion Johnny Healy

A campaign to erect a suitable memorial in his home town to the late Johnny Healy, an Irish boxing champion from Clonmel who represented Ireland, has been launched.

District Mayor Richie Molloy has proposed that the memorial would be located on the Suir Blueway between the Convent Bridge and Green Lane, Old Bridge, where the late Mr Healy walked his dog.

He told a meeting of Clonmel Borough District that the family of Johnny Healy, who died almost 30 years ago, had approached him about this.

He was an international boxer in the 1930s and early 1940s and during his career had defeated two Olympic flyweight champions.

Cllr Molloy agreed that it would be nice to recognise famous people from the town and this would be of interest to tourists.
A memorial plaque had already been provided at the former home in Kickham Street of the late broadcaster Vincent Hanley, he added.

Cllr Molloy hoped it wouldn’t be forgotten about and there would only be a small amount of money involved.

Cllr Pat English said that Johnny Healy was a tremendous boxer in his day and he agreed with the District Mayor’s proposal.
He said that former Olympic weightlifter Frank Rothwell, from Clonmel, should also be recognised in this way. These people were part of the town’s history and memorials in their honour would be good for tourism.

Cllr Siobhán Ambrose agreed that Johnny Healy had represented the town and county well. She said there should also be a memorial to the late dual Olympic champion Dr Pat O’Callaghan.

Cllr John FitzGerald said that these plaques should be uniform in shape, perhaps circular, so that they would look smart and form part of the fabric of the town.

In her report to the Borough District meeting, District Administrator Carol Creighton said that the request for a memorial to Johnny Healy would be investigated.

A policy of requests for memorials on the Blueway might need to be developed, as there had been a few such requests recently, she stated.

Johnny Healy dominated the flyweight and bantamweight divisions of Irish boxing throughout the 1930s. He reached the quarter-final of the European championship in Milan in 1936 and represented Ireland in the Golden Gloves tournament in Chicago in 1938.