Francis Barrett (born 7 February 1977), commonly known as Francie Barrett, is a retired Irish professional boxer, who represented Ireland at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.

Contents

• 1 Background
• 2 Amateur career
• 3 Professional career
• 4 Outside the ring
• 5 References
• 6 External links

Background

He was introduced to boxing by trainer, mentor and former boxer Chick Gillen.

Amateur career

Barrett had in excess of 250 bouts as an amateur fighter and represented Ireland internationally. He won Irish *les at both junior and senior level and also won the British welterweight *le in 1997, beating Tony Sesay and Michael Jennings on his way to winning the *le.

The highlight of Barrett's career came when he was the youngest member of the Irish team at the 1996 Olympic Games and carried the Irish flag during the opening ceremony. During the Olympics, Barrett competed in the light welterweight division.

For this, he gained global media attention and became a national hero.

His results were:

• Defeated Zely Fereria Dos Santos (Brazil) 32–7
• Lost to Fethi Missaoui (Tunisia) 6–18

Professional career

Barrett turned professional in August 2000 and fought at light welterweight, out of Wembley, London. Barrett won the British Southern Area *le and in June 2004 won the European (EU) *le.

Outside the ring

In March 1999, Barrett was ejected from a Galway nightclub due to his Irish Traveller heritage.

At an earlier date, Barrett and his wife, Kathleen, were denied entry to a Salthill nightclub called Liquid. Barrett filed a lawsuit for the ejection.

The do*entary, Southpaw: The Francis Barrett Story, won the Audience Prize at the 1999 New York Irish Film Festival. It followed Barrett for three years and showed him overcoming discrimination as he progressed up the amateur boxing ranks to eventually carry the Irish flag and box for Ireland at the age of 19 during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

References

External links

• Boxing record for Francie Barrett from BoxRec (registration required)
• Barrett family of Galway
• Article from BritishBoxing.net
• Barrett on Hennessy Sports (archive.org copy)
• Southpaw at British Film Ins*ute
• Southpaw: The Francis Barrett Story at IMDb