Francis Barrett (known as Francie Barrett) carried the Irish flag at the Opening Ceremony of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, becoming the first member of the Irish Travelling community to represent Ireland at the Olympics - a moment of profound cultural and social significance in a ceremony that also celebrated Mohammed Ali and Martin Luther King as heroes of the civil rights movement.
His selection as flag bearer was described by those present as an inspired decision. He went on to record the highest number of scoring punches of any boxer at the Atlanta Games, landing 32 punches as he overwhelmed Brazil's Zely dos Santos 32-7 in his first contest - leading 11-0 after the first round and 24-4 after the second.
He lost his second-round bout 6-18 to Tunisia's Fethi Missaoui, the eventual bronze medallist.
Raised in Hillside on the edge of Galway city, Barrett was the third eldest of a family of twelve. His family was one of seventeen Travelling families on the Hillside halting site, sharing three caravans on land owned by Galway Corporation in conditions that did not include electricity or running water for individual families.
He became obsessed with boxing and the coaching of Chick Gillen at the Olympic Boxing Club, which Gillen revived in 1988 specifically for Travellers from the Hillside area. Barrett's personal training facility was a £300 freight container he purchased with his brothers, housing a few weights and a punch bag, and he conducted much of his sparring in the open space between the caravans. He was a surprise winner of the Irish light-welterweight title in 1996 and qualified for Atlanta by winning a box-off at the European Championships.
Barrett later recalled: 'I reminded myself I came from nothing, an old trailer on the side of the road and to get to the last 16 of the Olympics is a big achievement. I didn't leave anyone down.' He was the subject of the acclaimed 1998 documentary Southpaw: The Francis Barrett Story. He subsequently won the British welterweight title as a professional.
Boxing
