Paddy Hughes competed in the men’s bantamweight boxing at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games, arriving as the holder of two Irish flyweight titles (1929-30) and two Irish bantamweight titles (1931-32), and losing an extremely close and contested bout to Carlos Pereyra of Argentina – a result that Chef de Mission Harry Cannon, a respected boxing judge, believed Hughes had won.

Hughes learned his boxing at the North City Club in Dublin, whose members trained in the basement kitchen of a house in Gardiner Street – the walls of the kitchen defined the ring, and the boxers shared a set of gloves.

His philosophy in the ring was refreshingly direct: ‘get in there and get dug into it as quick as possible.’

In Los Angeles he delivered a ferocious display against Pereyra, opening cuts above both of the Argentinean’s eyebrows and, by his own vivid account, delivering punches that ‘against anybody else I would have won by a knockout.’ Pereyra was removed to hospital after the bout and took no further part in the competition.

Hughes also competed as a Tailteann Games bantamweight champion prior to departure. He travelled to Los Angeles aboard the White Star liner Baltic with his boxing teammates, entertaining fellow passengers with a rendition of Biddy Mulligan, The Pride of the Coombe during one of the ship’s concerts.