Billy Walsh is back in Ireland this weekend. Along with Joe Schmidt and Jim Gavin, he gave an address at a High Performance conference organised by Sport Ireland, and then popped up on last night's Ray D'Arcy Show on RTE television.
Walsh departed Irish boxing two years ago, and he has made an instant impact with the U.S., and was named the AIBA World Coach of the Year in 2016.
Walsh's departure from the IABA was acrimonious, and he eventually took the job offer from the United States after a contentious wrangle with the Irish association. Having been performing the role of High-Performance Director for years without formal recognition - in both titular and monetary terms - Walsh wished that redressed, along with his being given more control, including the ability to actually pick an Irish team for a major tournament.
It never arrived, and ultimately Irish boxing lost one of their best-ever coaches less than a year out from an Olympic games. Speaking to D'Arcy, Walsh recalled the moment he realised the IABA were not going to deal with him, and had a steely response to D'Arcy's raising supposed IABA regrets that it did not work out.
'I cried for many nights:' Billy Walsh on fallout with Irish boxing pic.twitter.com/wMkJCJwnzg
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) October 7, 2017
