Start Box Initiative

The Start Box Initiative, a partnership between the Irish Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) and Dublin City Council (DCC), represents an ideal way to first engage with amateur boxing through the communities of Dublin. St. Canice’s B.N.S. is fortunate to be one of the schools that engages with the IABA on this programme. Oisín Fagan, the local Community Development Officer, comes to our school each year and undertakes this programme for thirteen weeks with our 6th classes. The first eight weeks of training and preparation are held at St. Canice’s B.N.S. at the end of which the boys achieve the Bronze and Silver Certificates. The Gold Phase of the programme takes place at the High-Performance Unit training facility at the National Stadium. The vast majority of participants have little or no previous experience of amateur boxing, yet many of them have gone to represent their schools in the first week of each December in one of five separate showcase exhibitions in the National Stadium. This year the exhibition was held at Trinity Comprehensive School in Ballymun due to the unavailability of the National Stadium. It is a wonderful programme that is expertly tutored by Oisín Fagan and it is one of the highlights for the 6th class boys each school year.