“Let us get people together, let the government bring people together, including people like myself and the sports people and players and fans, and lets make these things safer, because they aren’t as safe as they could be, and that’s just a simple fact,” he told RTÉ.
John Cooney, the young Irish boxer who has died after a title fight in Belfast, has been described by the former world champion Barry McGuigan as a “lovely sweet kid” whose life was “snapped away”.
Colin Doherty, a consultant neurologist and head of the school of medicine at Trinity College, Dublin expressed concern about all sports – including rugby – in which players suffer “head injuries, subconcussive and concussive blows”.
Fellow Galway boxer Kieran Molloy described Cooney as “a fantastic boxer, a young man just chasing his dreams”.
The former double WBO European champion Conrad Cummings wrote on X: “John Cooney the warrior gave up his fight & passed away this evening.
