Limerick boxer's dreams quenched but legacy is kept burning bright

THERE’s a famous line in Muhammad Ali’s scripture of sage quotes, that champions are not made in the gym, but made by a determination, a dream, a vision from within. 

At just 13, a young bright-eyed teenager bobbed his head through the ropes, and placed his feet on the canvas for the very first time. 

And it was here, inside this ring, a southside dreamer was born. 

Through damp winters where athletes’ steam would plume across the room, through sweat-dripping summers, through all elements, the gym was the sanctuary for champions. 

A sanctuary where you learned to be inspired and to inspire others, and to learn the crucial art of defence. 

But for a young Kevin Sheehy, the ringside was also a sanctuary, shielding him from the outside—an outside world beset by poverty, addiction, crime and all that is warped by social deprivation. 

And Kevin was exposed to this deprivation, through friends and loved ones dying from overdoses and suicide, with some being involved in crime, according to St Francis’ boxing club coach Ken Moore. 

“But he went on the right road,” he says, sitting on the canvas where Kevin’s hand had been victoriously raised numerous times. 

And whether it was through boxing, rugby at Richmond RFC or soccer at Granville Rangers, his mother Tracey and father Kevin—“two brilliant people”—made sure he was on that right path. 

“They were guiding him brilliantly,” says Ken, who guided the baby heavyweight to four All-Ireland titles at youth and elite level. 

In the space of those short seven years, this dreamer had transformed to become one of the most lauded boxers in the history of the game in Ireland, grabbing headlines in December 2017 when he was declared All-Ireland senior champion at just 19. 

Even the High Performance in Dublin recognised Kevin as a safe candidate for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. And that was his dream, to see the Olympic torch’s embers in person. 

But a week before his murder, after the defending U22 heavyweight champ had brought home the prestigious Hull Box Cup, he wanted to fast-track that vision. Tokyo 2020. 

“I am good enough, I am strong enough, why the hell not?” 

It was that unique determination that set him apart from the rest of the boxers of his generation, Ken says.

Even though the prospect of entering the Olympic ring was high on his mind, he was driven by the promise of becoming a father, as he was expecting his first child—a baby daughter—with his partner Emma in five weeks’ time. 

“He would have been a fantastic father,” Ken says. “He really would. But, here we are, he’s never going to get that chance.”

His chances to become Ireland’s next Olympic hopeful and to become a father for the first time were taken from him when he was murdered after being struck by an SUV in the early hours of Monday morning after socialising with friends at a house party on Hyde Road. 

And the harrowing reality of this loss is etched in a heartfelt letter penned by Emma, at a floral arrangement on Hyde Road. 

“My boy, my best friend, I am numb. I can’t believe I am writing this on paper. Words can’t describe how I feel right now, there is no one in the world I adore more than you, my boy, you made me the happiest girl in the world, you were so excited to meet your princess. I promise you she will know everything about you, and how much you love her and couldn’t wait to have our own little family. 

“Please give me the strength to get through this Kevin, I am so lost without you already. All I want is a big hug and kiss from you. I’ll love you forever and always.”

And also attached to a tuft of flowers was a note from his unborn child, saying: “To Daddy, I couldn’t wait to meet you and for us to be a family. Please mind me and Mammy. Love your baby girl xxx”.

Family friend John McMahon says the rising star of Irish boxing could not wait for his daughter to be born.

“Every time we met, he always had a smile on his face asking how it felt to see your child born. It’s numbing to actually think he’s gone.”

‘Numb’ was the word used by many, particularly those high up in the boxing realms, to describe how they felt when they discovered Kevin had been killed in the hit-and-run. 

Global stars, such as Kell Brook and Ray Moylette, were among many to acknowledge the grave loss. 

Former world middleweight champion and Limerick star Andy Lee said on Newstalk’s Off The Ball that it was “shocking news to wake up to” and that this is a “huge loss to Limerick and Ireland in the boxing community”. 

Patrick Donovan, who recently turned professional, trained with Kevin when they were both members of Our Lady of Lourdes boxing club. The ringside brothers would later travel the world together. 

“From training as kids together, travelling the world together, from staying in a room for six weeks together, with the snow five-feet deep in Russia and a storm outside with no signal in all our cellphones, our beds side-by-side, just finding games and ways to make each other laugh, and slagging our coaches just for the fun of it, to take our minds of missing home, memories I’ll never forget Kevin,” the multi-national champion tells the Leader. 

Up-and-coming pro-boxer Lee Reeves, who trained with Kevin for years, described him as an “honest, strong, successful kid and is too young to be gone from this world. He would light up any room he came to and I am heartbroken for him and his family”. 

And unbeaten pro Graham McCormack said that “Limerick lost a star and a great young man, the brightest and happiest young man I had the pleasure of knowing”. 

Like Graham, Kevin often frequented at the Functional Fitness gym on Catherine Street, where one day Dooradoyle photographer Jamin Keogh approached the happy-go-lucky boxer to capture the portrait of a rising star. 

Handsome and chiselled with a broad physique, Kevin was a natural, photogenic person. Jamin says, on this sunny day in Limerick city, it would have been very difficult to capture a bad photo of him. But, he adds, it was more than that. 

“I knew Kevin, not as well as I would have liked but I knew him well enough to know he was a sincere and decent human that had an exceptional drive and dedication. I know it sounds clichéd, but I wanted to show this in the portrait of him. You can see the strength of character and the sincerity in his eyes,” Jamin tells the Leader. 

Kevin had charisma, Ken Moore says. Whether it was someone’s first day or if it was a seasoned senior elite in the club, he welcomed everyone. 

He showcased this strength through charitable work when he this year raised funds for Pieta House as part of the Great Limerick Run, in memory of his late uncle Denis Sheehy. 

And on May 28, the champ visited his old primary school, CBS Sexton Street, to inspire future leaders, and even showcased a bit of padwork with his coach and friend Ken. 

“I don’t think, at times, he understood the effect he had on the others he had around him,” his heartbroken coach says. 

But as a dark cloud cast over Limerick, leaving many bereft at one of the most tragic murders in the city’s living memory, thousands quickly responded with support and solidarity for the family.  A quick scroll through Facebook and you will find someone sharing a blue heart, either a flurry of them in a post, or one emblazoned across a profile. Launched by friends and family, this was Limerick’s poignant social media response to commemorate and celebrate Kevin’s life.

And this colour theme continued into Tuesday evening when hundreds gathered at the end of John Carew Park, where he resided, to let off blue balloons, trophy balloons to mark his sporting success, and silver ‘K’ balloons (for Kevin) that reached for the stars. 

In the early hours of Monday morning, Kevin’s vision to enter the ring with the backdrop of the Olympic flame was brutally quenched. 

But it is clear that this southside dreamer’s legacy will always be kept alive, burning and bright.