Billy Walsh: I threw down my hurl and said, 'f*** this, I'm going to the Olympics'

09:42, 05 Sep 2026Updated 09:42, 05 Sep 2026

Croke Park has always been sacred to Billy Walsh. But this will be extra special.

“I’ll be there to see Katie’s swan song,” says Walsh. “It’s phenomenal what she’s achieved, she’s one of the best athletes Ireland has ever produced. She deserves this great send-off.”

It’s Wednesday morning and Walsh is home in Wexford on short visit from his base in Colorado, where he is head coach for USA boxing.

Los Angeles 2028 is firmly on the horizon, and Walsh has been recently reunited with Zaur Antia on the US coaching staff.

“We’ve got the band back together,” he says, laughing. First, a night to celebrate Taylor on the hallowed Croke Park turf.

Walsh was in the stadium for some great days for Wexford. Some not-so-great days too. He even played there a few times in the purple and gold.

But before Katie Taylor and before Billy Walsh and before Muhammad Ali, boxing and the GAA were connected through the great Jem Roche.

“A fellow Wexford man,” says Walsh. “There’s a plaque on the wall down in the bullring in Wexford about him. Billy Roche, the playwright, he would be a relation of Jem Roche.

“Growing up I would’ve heard about him fighting for the world heavyweight title and then training the Wexford footballers to win the All-Ireland. Stories passed down the generations.

“He was a unique man. He was a blacksmith as well. I suppose he was always there in the shadows in Wexford.”

Walsh has been involved in boxing since he was seven years old, but he describes GAA as the backbone to his family.

He played hurling for Faythe Harriers and football for Sarsfields in Wexford and minor for the county in both codes too.

As a five-year-old he was brought by his grandparents to Croke Park to see Wexford winning the 1968 All-Ireland hurling title.

His aunt Theresa Shiel won a senior camogie title in goals that year too and Walsh was on Hill 16 in a sea of purple and gold when Wexford last won Liam MacCarthy in 1996.

“Is it only 30 years ago? It seems like 40!” he says. “It was amazing for Wexford people. Unfortunately, it’s been that long since we sampled it.”

But it was the 1981 Leinster minor hurling final that maybe left the biggest mark, sending him on the long road to the Olympic Games.

“You’re not from Kilkenny, are you?” he says, laughing, when the game is mentioned.

“Well, I played in Croke Park when I was Under-14 in 1977 and we beat Kilkenny. Four years later, more or less the same teams played in the minor final.”

Walsh was positioned at wing-back on the day at Croke Park.

“It was a close game, and we were we were winning by five points with six minutes to go,” says Walsh. “I was clearing a ball, and my Kilkenny opponent got his hurl to it. It should have been a line ball for us. But the line ball was given for Kilkenny.

“He cut the ball into the square, and the guy stuck it in the back of the net. They ended up beating us by a point.

“I threw down my hurl that day, and I said, ‘F*** this, I’m not going to rely on 14 other fellas or a referee. F*** this, I’m going to go to Olympics.’

“Little did I know what I was getting into with refereeing and judging in boxing!”

Then, as now, his focus was on the Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

“It’s funny how things happen, to end up going back to LA 40-odd years later, and with a different country. I suppose it’s sort of coming full circle,” he says.

Walsh was reigning Irish champion at light-welterweight in 1984 and had parked GAA to follow his Olympic dream. But there was pain before he would get there.

“The thing about it for me was how I found out I wasn’t going to LA,” he says. “I was in the gym, on the treadmill, and I heard it on the news on the radio. They called out the team and I wasn’t on it.

“So, the devastation of being left off the team for ‘84 was a struggle. I went back playing hurling and football after that.”

But boxing remained his focus and Walsh made it to the 1988 Olympics, captaining the team in Seoul.

He won seven senior national titles during his boxing career and became one of the most respected coaches in the game after retiring, appointed head coach of the IABA high performance unit in 2003.

He knew Pete Taylor from his boxing days and remembers the early days when Katie came onto the scene.

“The first thing about her was her hand speed. Her hand speed is phenomenal,” says Walsh.

“Also, there was never any giving up. She was determined to win every time she got in the ring. And very difficult to beat with the intensity and pace she’d bring to it.”

High performance director Gary Keegan brought Katie Taylor into the unit in 2005 and Pete Taylor was in her corner as she started to break down barriers in the sport.

But Walsh recalls the difficulty of finding sparring partners for her in the early days.

“So she sparred with Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlan and they were some of the best sparring sessions I’ve ever seen. Like world title fights,” says Walsh.

“The boys started off like they were going to take it easy on Katie and all that. My God, did she let them know that she was in the fight.

“It was phenomenal, and that’s what made them. All of them. Because when they went out to fight internationally, they had already faced tougher opposition in in their own gym.”

Walsh was in Chicago in 2007 with the Irish men’s team for the World Championships when Taylor fought Canada’s Katie Dunn in a showcase for women’s boxing.

“The IOC were there and the talk was about bringing women’s boxing into the 2016 Games,” says Walsh. “But because of the quality of what Katie showed that day, they put it into the 2012 Games in London. They figured women’s boxing was ready for it.

“She single-handedly got it into the Games. She made it happen.”

August 9, 2012 is a day Walsh will never forget. The day Taylor faced Russia’s Sofya Ochigava in the gold medal match in London.

“I have to say that I was probably more nervous than what Katie was,” he says.

Walsh remembers bringing Taylor to get her hands signed off by the officials after being wrapped. On the way back to the dressingroom, she was spotted by the Irish contingent and a huge roar went up.

“The hairs were standing up on the back of my neck, but Katie was walking and just nodding her head, calm as anything,” says Walsh.

“There was probably 10,000 people in the in the arena and 9,999 seemed to be Irish. The noise… How she dealt with that was phenomenal.”

Taylor took gold on an unforgettable day, sparking wild celebrations across the country.

Four years later, Walsh was in the Team USA colours when Taylor suffered a shock defeat in Rio. But they stayed in touch over the years and he has watched her career in the paid ranks every step of the way.

“We’re both Cancerians,” says the 63-year-old. “Her birthday is on the second of July. Mine is on the third. So we always remember each other’s birthday and keep in contact that way.”

Walsh played club hurling until he was 40 and helped out Darragh Egan during his time as Wexford hurling manager.

He has a couple of hurleys and sliotars in Colorado and the county is always in his mind, but all roads lead to LA and he flies back to the States on Sunday morning.

First, there’s the small matter of the biggest boxing event to hit Dublin since Muhammad Ali fought at Croke Park in 1972.

Even bigger than the night Jem Roche fought for the world heavyweight title at the Theatre Royal in Dublin.

Walsh has no doubt Taylor’s bout with Flora Pili will last longer than the 88 seconds of Roche’s failed title bid against Tommy Burns in 1908, and instead prove a fitting farewell for the undisputed super lightweight champion.

“She put Ireland on the map all over the world in the sport of boxing. (Croke Park) should’ve happened before now,” he says.

“Katie Taylor, she’s an icon. She deserves every bit of this.”