YOU could see the fire in Aidan Walsh’s eyes at 18.
He was part of a precociously gifted squad then, one being put through its final paces inside the clubhouse - the first floor sweat-shop at Ulster University’s Jordanstown campus where the skills of some of Ireland’s top boxers were sharpened.
In the weeks ahead, they would set off together on the adventure of a lifetime. Samoa, the 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games, a brave new world and a brilliant opportunity to show they could mix it in international class.
Giddiness seeped beneath the doorway and flowed down the halls as the five young men – Walsh, James McGivern, Tiernan Bradley, Stephen McKenna and Brett McGinty – attempted to pin down a tennis ball attached to a string, attached to their heads.
As the morning’s session unfolds, you soon get a sense of the characters at play. All wisecracks and one-liners, McGivern’s personality sees him stand out almost as much as the ability that brought him here.
When conversation turns to who might captain the team, the Belfast boy is soon in head coach John Conlan’s ear.
“Come on John,” he pleads, hands clasped together, “you know it has to be me…”
Bradley is a cool customer. Quiet, but warm in his own way, the Omagh teenager appears utterly unfazed by all that is going on. Little wonder then, just two years later, he would jump on the first flight to Los Angeles when asked to join Conor McGregor’s sparring camp ahead of a bizarre boxing match with Bradley’s idol, Floyd Mayweather jr.
McGinty had to overcome a selection storm to secure his spot. Controversially given the nod ahead of highly-rated Lewis Crocker, the Donegal man’s determination to show he belongs becomes clear when the words begin to flow.
McKenna is the baby of the bunch at 17, that cheeky grin forewarning of what was to come.
The Monaghan man travelled to Samoa as the team’s light-fly – barely touching the 49 kilo limit, he could easily have passed for 13 instead of 17 until a growth spurt started and didn’t stop.
Nowadays he stands over six foot, his frame filled out, McKenna the pro bludgeoning all but one of his 13 opponents into submission before going all ‘Clubber’ Lang as he calls out who he wants next.
And then there’s Walsh. Tall and skinny with go-go Gadget arms, he is a picture of pure focus throughout, every task completely diligently, an intense nod of the head greeting each of Conlan’s commands.
When he speaks, it is different too. The others talk about the task at hand, and what winning in Samoa might mean. Walsh veers off and up and round, confidently outlining the influence of big sister Michaela in his boxing career and the dreams they share for what might be accomplished together.
The Olympic Games is a recurring theme. Dad Damian first took him to St Agnes’s Boxing Club in west Belfast when he was seven, but it was when Walsh joined Holy Family that the flame became an inferno.
In one corner of the gym was Gerry Storey, the man who had seen it all. In another, Paddy Barnes, bound for Beijing and the first of Olympic bronze medals collected in 2008 and 2012.
High to the right as you walk into Holy Family is ‘Paradise Row’ - a line of shamrocks the length of the wall that bear the name and picture of the club’s most famous sons who have reached the top of the game.
Walsh imagined one day nudging up against them.
For school projects, his topic of choice was the Olympics. He drew pictures and wrote stories that related to the Olympics. In his bedroom, there were posters and Olympics paraphernalia. On this 2015 day in Jordanstown, the wallpaper on his phone is of the Olympic rings.
Aidan Walsh won gold at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa. He landed silver at the Commonwealths in Australia three years later. So did Michaela. He boxed for Ireland all over the world, overcoming setbacks along the way, all in pursuit of a dream.
When Michaela clinched qualification for the delayed Tokyo 2020, Aidan followed suit less than an hour later on an unforgettable afternoon for the Walsh family.
And, on July 30, 2021 - inside Ryōgoku Kokugikan – he almost leapt into space when his hand was raised against Mauritian Mervyn Clair. An Olympic medal secure, a lifetime’s ambition complete, he now stood alongside Michael Carruth, Katie Taylor, Wayne McCullough, Paddy Barnes, Michael Conlan, Hugh Russell and all the rest.
But when you have always had eyes on the top, what do you do when you get there?
Watching Walsh at close quarters during last summer’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, he looked a man at the peak of his powers – that counter-punching style bamboozling opponents like never before on the way to gold.
Outside the ropes, though, across the rail behind the curtain at the NEC Arena, it felt almost as though he was trying to distance himself from boxing.
Instead of discussing the finer points of performance, or potential opponents, Walsh would talk about things away from the sport that had given him perspective – kayaking and spending time at the caravan in Carnlough, simple pleasures like a Chinese meal with his girlfriend, the importance of family.
He even joked that he could be competing in another sport by the time Paris 2024 came around.
Tokyo 2020, standing on that podium, staring at the flag, it was then that everything changed.
“It was like an obsession, and it was great, and it got me there,” he told me earlier this year.
“But you take a step back and see there are other things apart from the Olympics. The small things in life bring me a lot of joy.
“You can’t be motivated every day, all the time. That’s where burnout comes, when you’re obsessed – there is a price to be paid for that, and I’ve paid that price because I did it.”
Facing an identity crisis is something many top level sportspeople experience at some point in their careers, in their lives.
Chrissy McKaigue conversed for an hour on the GAA Social podcast a few months back, but only one question left him struggling for an answer.
“What do you do for fun?”
“Aye,” he replied with a hint of awkwardness, knowing the question was coming, “I do need to work harder on having something outside of sport to actually focus in on – that’s maybe something I do struggle a bit with.
“But at the same time, I really enjoy sport, it’s a passion of my life, whether it’s playing, coaching, going to watch games. I just wouldn’t have that great a life if sport wasn’t in it, to be honest… it’s a question I can’t actually answer, what do I do for fun? Because it’s all consuming.”
Going up to the pitch in Slaughtneil and working with different underage teams, that is Chrissy McKaigue’s release. It is there, a million miles from the madness of the biggest Ulster Championship days, when it hits home that life is not limited to the next challenge. To winning or losing.
And the same goes for Aidan Walsh. Once a week he takes a young boxer for an outdoor training session, including a discussion about positive mental health. In other areas of life he wants to reach out, wants to listen.
Not in the frame for Olympic qualification at the moment, though that could yet change, Walsh knows better than most the importance of finding balance when obsession takes over.
A remarkable athlete - the epitome of High Performance - he has developed into a remarkable man since those early days inside the clubhouse. That is always what should matter most.
