James Maurice Herlihy
James Maurice Herlihy was an Irish amateur boxer winning the Leinster 1938-39 Championships as a Middleweight. He went on to have a professional boxing career in England.
Biography
He was born in Kilkenny, Ireland on 29 January 1914 and died in San Francisco California on 23 October 1962. Jim was the second child of Maurice O'Herlihy and Ellen O'Herlihy (née O'Regan). His siblings were Lil, Patrick, Kathleen and Sheila. The family home was at 28 Wolfe Tone Street, Kilkenny. He went on to have a professional career in England and mostly in Liverpool. He boxed for Ireland in a tournament in Nottingham. Jim kept a record of his career made up of programmes and newspaper clippings. The programmes are very rare. He was a sparring partner of Bruce Woodcock, a British champion. Pete Best, the first drummer of The Beatles, was the grandson of Johnny Best who was a Director of Liverpool Stadium. Johnny Best arranged a fight for Jim at the Tower Blackpool in February 1943. The letter to the promoter in Blackpool is signed by Johnny Best and it is in Jim's scrapbook. Jim's fee for this fight was £20.