The Galway Black Dragon Kickboxing Club celebrated its 25 years Anniversary last Saturday.
It’s been a quarter of a century since Pete Foley introduced the dynamic sport of Kickboxing to Galway and the West Of Ireland when he first started the Black Dragon Club in St Patrick’s School Hall in Lombard Street in the city on March 27, 1996.
37 Adults showed up for the very first class that evening and the club has gone from strength to strength since then and are now based in an impressive full time gym on Sean Mulvoy Road.
The club has brought fighters from all over the World to Galway promoting exciting fight nights in various hotels in the city as well as lots of exciting events in Leisureland and the Black Box Theatre and they have helped raise almost €300,000 for several charities such as the Irish Heart Foundation, The Galway Hospice, Blood Bike West, Abalta Special School, Galway Rape Crisis Centre, Madra Dog Rescue etc with their many White Collar Boxing Programmes.
They also regularly travel around the Globe competing in high level competition and many members have become Irish, European and even World Champions.
Secondary schools across the county also Benefit as chief coach Pete Foley is highly involved in training transition year students in basic boxing, kickboxing, self-defence & street awareness programmes as part of their PE classes.
Tragedy struck for the club on March 12, 2011 when their gym in Riverside was completely destroyed by fire but like the Phoenix, they rose from the ashes and are thankfully well back on track.
The club looks forward to the day when they can once again turn the key in their gym and welcome back their members after a long disruption due to the Covid 19 pandemic.
Pete Foley would like to thank everybody involved such as the club members past & present, parents, sponsors, media, schools, fight fans, venues etc for their support over the last 25 years.
