INTERNATIONAL POLICE BOXING. Mansion House, Dublin. Monday, 9th April, 1934, at 7.30 p.m.

[Dublin]: [Ardill, T.U., Printer, Kilmainham], 1934. Single sheet folded to form 4 pp. programme. Folded as issued. Light creasing and handling wear, with some edge wear and small tears. A few marks and minor staining. Manuscript annotations to programme page. Overall a good, complete example of a fragile survival.

A scarce printed programme for an International Police Boxing tournament held at the Mansion House, Dublin, in April 1934—an evocative survival from the interwar period, reflecting both the popularity of boxing and the ceremonial culture surrounding policing and civic institutions in the Irish Free State.

The programme lists referees and judges including W. O’Carroll, Sean Mooney, and Captain J. Devine, alongside participation from the London Metropolitan Police, indicating a cross-channel sporting exchange. The bout card includes juvenile and senior contests across weight divisions, featuring Irish champions and representatives of An Garda Síochána, the R.U.C., and British police forces—illustrating the sporting links that persisted despite political partition.

The surrounding advertisements are of particular Dublin interest, including Meredith’s of Grafton Street (sports trophies and presentation cups) and J. P. O’Duffy (betting offices), offering a vivid commercial context to the event and enhancing its appeal as a piece of social history.

Ephemeral sporting programmes of this nature rarely survive, particularly those tied to specific one-night events, and even less so in Irish institutional settings such as the Mansion House.

Programmes relating to Irish boxing—particularly those intersecting with civic bodies such as the police—are uncommon and increasingly sought after, sitting at the intersection of sporting history, social history, and Irish institutional life in the early decades of the Free State.

[WR GAA folfer]