THE final bell has tolled on 105 years of sporting tradition and ethos in Ireland.
The Irish Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) has changed its name to the Irish Athletic Boxing Association. The revision sees the IABA retain the historic acronym of Ireland's most successful Olympic sport.
The name change was instigated after the International Boxing Association (AIBA) instructed all National Federations that the concept of amateur boxing no longer exists and to drop the word amateur from their titles.
AIBA governs three variants of the sport: World Series of Boxing (WSB), AIBA Pro Boxing (APB) and AIBA Open Boxing (AOB), which is now the official term for 'amateur' boxing
The IABA was founded in 1911 and is the governing body of the sport on the island of Ireland. Their first major all-Ireland tournament was at Dalymount Park in 1920 and the first Irish Championship at the Abbey Theatre in 1922.
In 1939, the National Stadium, the first purpose built boxing venue in the world which is still the headquarters of the IABA, was built in Dublin.
Amateur boxing was introduced in England, which has changed its name to England Boxing, in the mid 19th century because of moral and ethical objections to prize fighting, or professional boxing.
An IABA statement released yesterday read: "The IABA wishes to announce that we will be officially changing our company name from Irish Amateur Boxing Association to Irish Athletic Boxing Association (IABA).
"This follows on from a directive issued by AIBA, the international governing body to all National Boxing Federations to remove the word "Amateur" from the name of each individual Federation.
"The association will continue to operate in its current structure and your current contacts will remain unchanged including email contacts. At the same time, we will be changing all our official business correspondence and marketing collateral to reflect our new name.
"We are exceptionally proud of our 105 year history and we continue to strive to be Ireland's leading Olympic Sport and one of the world's best boxing nations in competition, development and governance. This new name change will take immediate effect as of 29th January 2016."
