O'Neill isn't ready to step away from the sport just yet. Ryan Byrne/INPHO
Interview
'I won't go out because people say I have to go, I'll retire when I'm ready'
As he heads towards the end of his career, Darren O’Neill’s focus has shifted slightly but there’s a new-found determination to go out on his own terms.
WHEN DARREN O’NEILL’S Olympic dream was shattered, many people had written his boxing obituary but the devastation of missing out on Rio has fuelled his desire to give it one final shot.
Having captained the Irish boxers at the 2012 Games in London, watching his team-mates this summer was particularly difficult for the 31-year-old as he questioned whether the time had come to hang up his gloves.
With a degree in teaching and now a Masters in Business Administration, O’Neill was slowly coming to the realisation that he couldn’t put a career outside boxing on hold forever.
So a short-term role with Sport Ireland opened his eyes to life after boxing but it also re-energised his own ambitions to get back in the ring and sign off on his terms.
“It’s hard to leave that competitive edge behind,” he tells The42, as we sit in the hub of the impressive National Institute of Sport facility in Abbotstown.
“I’d love to stay on for another four years but that’s the harsh reality of life; as you get older you have to get a career. I still think I’ll be physically capable but as I said you need to have a career. If the National Championships go well I’d like to go on, there will be then Europeans and Worlds which I’d love to have another crack at.
“I probably put a bit too much pressure on myself before and didn’t enjoy it as much as I should have but in the last two or three years I’ve just tried to cherish it and I’ve enjoyed it.”
O'Neill is back in training and stepping up his preparation ahead of the National Championships. Gary Carr / INPHO
Gary Carr / INPHO / INPHO
O’Neill speaks with great intelligence and his background lends itself to a prudent approach. For the last number of weeks, he’s been working closely with athletes as part of Sport Ireland’s advisory services.
His role largely revolved around contacting colleges and universities around the country and relaying the information on career paths and platforms back to the athletes. It was something that combined his teaching and sporting interests.
“I would love to maybe stay on here and do something,” he continues. “I have the Nationals in February and please God that will go well but then they’d say I wouldn’t be allowed work here because of a conflict of interest or whatever which I can understand to degree.
“I’ll have to size things up in a sporting sense but either way I need to start looking ahead and deciding what the next chapter will entail. You can’t survive on nothing.”
While O’Neill is very much clued in and is making the steps now to ensure the transition into full-time employment is as seamless as possible, he is still fully committed to his boxing career and has been working his way back over the last number of weeks.
Getting back on track has been a difficult process, particularly after the heartbreak of defeat to Nigeria’s Wesley Aochi in a final push to qualify for a second Games.
O’Neill admits there was an element of soul-searching in the weeks after and even a role with RTE’s commentary team in Rio offered him a chance to be involved in some capacity, it almost accentuated the disappointment. So close, yet so far.
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“It was gutting,” he admits. “I had to reconcile myself in the sense that I had been to an Olympics. I had been an integral part of the team for so long, it was devastating not to go. It is what it is, you have to get on with it.
“In hindsight I was probably better off because it may have been harder going over there and having it taken away from you like that.
“I was devastated for our guys. One or two were robbed, Michael Conlan was robbed blatantly. Barnes, Katie, Joe Ward were all hard done by. Unfortunately in boxing first doesn’t always finish first.”
O'Neill has been working with Sport Ireland in recent weeks. Morgan Treacy / INPHO
Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
All things considered, it has been a pretty forgettable year for Irish boxing — and that’s putting it mildly. A disastrous Olympic campaign was preceded by the doping scandal involving Michael O’Reilly and the extent of the fallout and damage that has been done is yet to be fully determined.
The Irish Amateur Boxing Association last week released its Strategic Plan for the next Olympic cycle and its finding from the previous one, which yielded no medals, but this is a defining juncture for the governing body.
The acrimonious departure of Billy Walsh this time last year was ultimately a sign of things to come and a team once the pride of the nation had its name tarnished over a damaging couple of months.
“Was I surprised? Kind of in a sense we’re always very well educated and well informed,” O’Neill says of the O’Neill doping scandal.
“We’re always told to be very careful with any supplements and any we require are given to the guys so there was no need for anyone to consider anything else. In that sense I was surprised, it was just badly handled. The coaches were blind sighted but I don’t know the ins and outs of what happened.
“It was devastating for the team. They’ll get up and on with it as much as they can but public perception lasts and I just hope it hasn’t taken from what we’ve achieved over the last decade. If one person goes down it drags the whole team down so hopefully that hasn’t been the case.
“Hopefully the public and boxing world won’t view us as drug takers now as we have seen that in the Russian sense but I’d hope that’s now not the considered view of Irish boxing.
“The coaches will have the hardest job because everything they’ve done, their beliefs and methods over the last four years have been questioned. Zaur Antia stay has been the first good news but there has been no notification of change to us anyway.
“Clearly change needs to be implemented as the last few months haven’t been great for us so I’m looking forward to see what the proposals will be.
O'Neill with Walsh and Antia in London. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
“Of course there were highlights but the lows outweigh that by a long way. The last year and a bit has been a write off for us and it has been turmoil after turmoil after turmoil ever since Billy left.”
With the likes of Conlan and Taylor switching to the pro ranks after Rio, a lot of change is expected both inside and outside the ring ahead of Tokyo. A new generation of boxers will be tasked with stepping up and picking up the mantle as the association looks to right the wrongs of what transpired in 2016.
O’Neill wants to be part of that and while he knows he can lend his considerable experience to the cause, there is also a sense that he’s embarking on this final journey in a quest for individual salvation.
As a European silver medallist and an Olympian, the Kilkenny native’s CV is certainly well furnished but O’Neill wants to go out on his own terms and not let his career end on the disappointment of that qualifying tournament in Baku.
“I’ve been unfortunate on a number of times over the last few years not to get a major medal, at the European Games, European Championships or qualify for Rio,” he explains.
“Looking back there would naturally be a lot of cases where I would say ‘what if’. But again quite like the Rio thing there were a few things outside of my control, a few medals left behind.
“Coming from where I came from, a tiny little village in Paulstown in County Kilkenny, to being a European silver medallist and captaining your country for so many years and be an Olympian. I can’t say I regret it.
“People always say ‘oh you should have stuck with hurling’ but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It has given me so much in life and I’ll be eternally grateful for it.”
O'Neill in action against England's Chevron Clarke earlier this month. Tommy Dickson / INPHO
Tommy Dickson / INPHO / INPHO
O’Neill has previously admitted that he seriously contemplated walking away from boxing in 2015 before reviving his career as a heavyweight, making the step up from the middleweight division.
“I always said if I made the Olympics, I’d retire and I got to London and I thought you know what I’m enjoying this still,” he adds. “I was still young, 26 at the time, and once you retire that’s it then there’s no turning back the clock.
“2013 went poorly and 2014 went poorly and 15 wasn’t great but that’s when I took the chance and moved up to heavyweight. I’ve just been enjoying it, as I said I had put a lot of pressure on myself when I was younger.
“If I’m enjoying it over the next few months then brilliant, if I’m not then I’ll size things up again. As I say you have to get on with life and have a career. I love being part of the team, being with the people and those on the outside will always ask ‘what the hell are you still doing?’ but I like the challenge and silencing the critics.”
The challenge over the last number of weeks has been working himself back up to peak fitness. His last competitive fight was the heartbreaking defeat in Baku back in June but outings at his local club and then in the international against England have dusted off the cobwebs.
The focus now is now solely on the National Championships in the New Year and O’Neill knows it will be make-or-break for him as he steps-up his comeback. Perform well and suddenly the European and World Championships come into the agenda. If it doesn’t go well, the prospect of retirement becomes a greater reality.
“I’m trying to look ahead, maybe boxing is the last thing I can hold on to that I can control,” O’Neill says. “A career at the top-level is short-lived, I’ve probably overstayed my welcome as it is at 31 but I’m hungry to get back in the ring and put on the vest again.
“Our sport is largely based on a four-year cycle and when I didn’t qualify people were saying ‘oh yeah you’re going to retire now and you’re going to be too old for the next Olympics’. But I was thinking, hold on there’s a Europeans and Worlds next year.
“There’s nothing in my mind that devalues any of those, of course the Olympics is the pinnacle, but there is huge competitions in between that. I won’t go out because people say I have to, I’ll go out when I want to. There is an aspect of that with me, I never liked to do what I was told.”
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'I won't go out because people say I have to go, I'll retire when I'm ready'
WHEN DARREN O’NEILL’S Olympic dream was shattered, many people had written his boxing obituary but the devastation of missing out on Rio has fuelled his desire to give it one final shot.
Having captained the Irish boxers at the 2012 Games in London, watching his team-mates this summer was particularly difficult for the 31-year-old as he questioned whether the time had come to hang up his gloves.
With a degree in teaching and now a Masters in Business Administration, O’Neill was slowly coming to the realisation that he couldn’t put a career outside boxing on hold forever.
So a short-term role with Sport Ireland opened his eyes to life after boxing but it also re-energised his own ambitions to get back in the ring and sign off on his terms.
“It’s hard to leave that competitive edge behind,” he tells The42, as we sit in the hub of the impressive National Institute of Sport facility in Abbotstown.
“I’d love to stay on for another four years but that’s the harsh reality of life; as you get older you have to get a career. I still think I’ll be physically capable but as I said you need to have a career. If the National Championships go well I’d like to go on, there will be then Europeans and Worlds which I’d love to have another crack at.
“I probably put a bit too much pressure on myself before and didn’t enjoy it as much as I should have but in the last two or three years I’ve just tried to cherish it and I’ve enjoyed it.”
O’Neill speaks with great intelligence and his background lends itself to a prudent approach. For the last number of weeks, he’s been working closely with athletes as part of Sport Ireland’s advisory services.
His role largely revolved around contacting colleges and universities around the country and relaying the information on career paths and platforms back to the athletes. It was something that combined his teaching and sporting interests.
“I would love to maybe stay on here and do something,” he continues. “I have the Nationals in February and please God that will go well but then they’d say I wouldn’t be allowed work here because of a conflict of interest or whatever which I can understand to degree.
While O’Neill is very much clued in and is making the steps now to ensure the transition into full-time employment is as seamless as possible, he is still fully committed to his boxing career and has been working his way back over the last number of weeks.
Getting back on track has been a difficult process, particularly after the heartbreak of defeat to Nigeria’s Wesley Aochi in a final push to qualify for a second Games.
O’Neill admits there was an element of soul-searching in the weeks after and even a role with RTE’s commentary team in Rio offered him a chance to be involved in some capacity, it almost accentuated the disappointment. So close, yet so far.
“It was gutting,” he admits. “I had to reconcile myself in the sense that I had been to an Olympics. I had been an integral part of the team for so long, it was devastating not to go. It is what it is, you have to get on with it.
“In hindsight I was probably better off because it may have been harder going over there and having it taken away from you like that.
“I was devastated for our guys. One or two were robbed, Michael Conlan was robbed blatantly. Barnes, Katie, Joe Ward were all hard done by. Unfortunately in boxing first doesn’t always finish first.”
All things considered, it has been a pretty forgettable year for Irish boxing — and that’s putting it mildly. A disastrous Olympic campaign was preceded by the doping scandal involving Michael O’Reilly and the extent of the fallout and damage that has been done is yet to be fully determined.
The Irish Amateur Boxing Association last week released its Strategic Plan for the next Olympic cycle and its finding from the previous one, which yielded no medals, but this is a defining juncture for the governing body.
The acrimonious departure of Billy Walsh this time last year was ultimately a sign of things to come and a team once the pride of the nation had its name tarnished over a damaging couple of months.
“Was I surprised? Kind of in a sense we’re always very well educated and well informed,” O’Neill says of the O’Neill doping scandal.
“It was devastating for the team. They’ll get up and on with it as much as they can but public perception lasts and I just hope it hasn’t taken from what we’ve achieved over the last decade. If one person goes down it drags the whole team down so hopefully that hasn’t been the case.
“The coaches will have the hardest job because everything they’ve done, their beliefs and methods over the last four years have been questioned. Zaur Antia stay has been the first good news but there has been no notification of change to us anyway.
“Clearly change needs to be implemented as the last few months haven’t been great for us so I’m looking forward to see what the proposals will be.
“Of course there were highlights but the lows outweigh that by a long way. The last year and a bit has been a write off for us and it has been turmoil after turmoil after turmoil ever since Billy left.”
With the likes of Conlan and Taylor switching to the pro ranks after Rio, a lot of change is expected both inside and outside the ring ahead of Tokyo. A new generation of boxers will be tasked with stepping up and picking up the mantle as the association looks to right the wrongs of what transpired in 2016.
O’Neill wants to be part of that and while he knows he can lend his considerable experience to the cause, there is also a sense that he’s embarking on this final journey in a quest for individual salvation.
As a European silver medallist and an Olympian, the Kilkenny native’s CV is certainly well furnished but O’Neill wants to go out on his own terms and not let his career end on the disappointment of that qualifying tournament in Baku.
“I’ve been unfortunate on a number of times over the last few years not to get a major medal, at the European Games, European Championships or qualify for Rio,” he explains.
“Coming from where I came from, a tiny little village in Paulstown in County Kilkenny, to being a European silver medallist and captaining your country for so many years and be an Olympian. I can’t say I regret it.
“People always say ‘oh you should have stuck with hurling’ but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It has given me so much in life and I’ll be eternally grateful for it.”
O’Neill has previously admitted that he seriously contemplated walking away from boxing in 2015 before reviving his career as a heavyweight, making the step up from the middleweight division.
“I always said if I made the Olympics, I’d retire and I got to London and I thought you know what I’m enjoying this still,” he adds. “I was still young, 26 at the time, and once you retire that’s it then there’s no turning back the clock.
“If I’m enjoying it over the next few months then brilliant, if I’m not then I’ll size things up again. As I say you have to get on with life and have a career. I love being part of the team, being with the people and those on the outside will always ask ‘what the hell are you still doing?’ but I like the challenge and silencing the critics.”
The challenge over the last number of weeks has been working himself back up to peak fitness. His last competitive fight was the heartbreaking defeat in Baku back in June but outings at his local club and then in the international against England have dusted off the cobwebs.
The focus now is now solely on the National Championships in the New Year and O’Neill knows it will be make-or-break for him as he steps-up his comeback. Perform well and suddenly the European and World Championships come into the agenda. If it doesn’t go well, the prospect of retirement becomes a greater reality.
“I’m trying to look ahead, maybe boxing is the last thing I can hold on to that I can control,” O’Neill says. “A career at the top-level is short-lived, I’ve probably overstayed my welcome as it is at 31 but I’m hungry to get back in the ring and put on the vest again.
“There’s nothing in my mind that devalues any of those, of course the Olympics is the pinnacle, but there is huge competitions in between that. I won’t go out because people say I have to, I’ll go out when I want to. There is an aspect of that with me, I never liked to do what I was told.”
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Boxing Darren O'Neill Interview