Paddy Fitzsimons competed in the men’s boxing at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, part of an Irish team that benefited from the most structured collective training programme in Irish Olympic boxing history to that point.

The Belfast-based boxers trained under coach Harry Enright at the Albert Foundry Club in Paisley Park and at the De La Salle Boys’ Home, with stamina runs to the summit of the Black Mountain.

An offer by two Belfast bookmakers, Barney Eastwood and Joe McKee, and abattoir proprietor Billy Frame to pay the wages of Fitzsimons and three teammates for three weeks of full-time training was declined in favour of a special Ulster Council-funded two-week camp.