Aidan was one of 13 children born to John and Lena Heffernan who lived in 143 Bohermore. John was originally from Lower Salthill and worked in the ESB. Aiden went to school in St Patrick’s and later to Moneenageesha.
His older brother Michael John became a champion boxer, so it was only natural for Aidan to follow in his footsteps. When he was 11 years old, he joined St Patrick’s Boxing Club and he trained with them in the Community Centre which was close to the terraces in Bohermore. It was a very lively and active club overseen by people like Fr Seán Foy, Mickey Fitzgerald and Pa Curran. The boxing coach was Seán Harty, himself a former champion, and he excelled at training and encouraging the young hopefuls.
Under Seán’s guidance, Aidan showed great potential, he was very skilful, determined, committed and courageous. He was soon proving himself in the ring. People still talk about an appearance he made at a tournament in the Talk of the Town ballroom on the Headford Road in 1970, aged 13. His brother, Michael John, also gave a memorable display on that evening to the great delight of their uncle ‘Inky’ Flaherty, a former Connacht boxing champion and an outstanding hurler for Galway.
Aidan was a natural and exciting boxer to watch and the boxing fraternity were beginning to notice. He won two Connacht juvenile titles, our first photograph shows him with his trophy having won the junior title in 1972. He became junior champion of Ireland, and later Irish Youths champion. He had quite a punch and knocked out several opponents during his career.
He was among 16 Galway boxers to travel to Coventry to compete against English fighters, and took on and beat the British ABA Youth champion in the process. In 1975, he became Connacht light-weight champion. He was being watched by the Irish selectors, and in December of that year, he made ‘a sensational international debut’ when he knocked out his English opponent in the first round. He was the unanimous choice as the boxing star for the County Galway Sports Star of the Year award for 1975.
In 1977, the welterweight division was one of the toughest in the Irish championships but he was once again victorious, demonstrating the strength of the sport in Galway at the time. Later that year, he was awarded Sports Star of the Year again and one report remarked, “Looking at the handsome and unmarked features of Aidan Heffernan, one would never suspect that he, only three days earlier, had been involved in the scrap of the night helping Ireland to win the Triple Crown against Scotland, in the process giving the Irish boxing team selectors a ‘straight left-right on the button’”. He had already defeated the Welsh champion and was voted “Best Boxer of the Tournament”.
In 1979, he won his third Sports Star Award and later in the year he became Light Middleweight senior champion of Ireland. A feature of his victories was his solid left hook and immediate right–cross follow up which left opponents knocked out or reeling from the combination. He took part in the Irish-Scottish Championships in a fight that was described thus: “It will long be remembered and Heffernan’s finest hour for Ireland.”
In January 1985 he, together with his brother Michael John and Paddy Farrell (all Irish internationals ), made their refereeing debuts at a tournament organised by the Olympic Boxing Club in the Mervue Community Centre. He continued to box for several more years. By the time he hung up his gloves, he had represented Ireland at five different weights, light welterweight, welterweight, middleweight, light middleweight and light heavyweight.
Despite his great achievements in the ring, he was a modest and unassuming man described as being like a good bar of chocolate, hard on the outside, but soft inside. He worked as a carpenter for Galway Corporation. He met and married a Dublin girl, Joan Keogh, and moved there where he became a foreman in Dublin City Council. They had two children, Orla and Eilish, but sadly, Joan passed away leaving him with two young children. He looked after them and continued working until his untimely death on April 19, 2022.
He is remembered with great affection in his home town and in Irish boxing circles, a great ambassador for his sport and for Galway.
Our photographs show him winning a Connacht Championship in 1972, representing a Galway boxing team in Birmingham in 1975, being presented with a Galway Sports Star Award by Murt McGrath and, finally, proudly kitted out to represent Ireland.
