Kellie Harrington is back where she belongs – on a major championship team sheet, with medals in play and another Olympic cycle suddenly feeling very real.
The double Olympic champion has been named in Ireland’s squad for the 2026 European Elite Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, running from 17-25 September. It will be her first major benchmark event since that historic gold in Paris, and the clearest sign yet that her brief retirement is firmly in the past.
Harrington stepped away after the 2024 Games, only to reappear in December under the lights of Dublin’s Mansion House in an exhibition bout that hinted at unfinished business. Since then she has moved with familiar purpose. A 12th national title arrived in January. Gold at the four nations tournament in Glasgow followed in June. The engine is running again.
She has already admitted that Los Angeles is on her radar. Sofia now becomes the first serious staging post on that road.
Star-studded women’s line-up
Harrington is far from alone at the top end of this Irish squad. Aoife O’Rourke, a double Olympian, reigning world champion and four-time continental champion, anchors a formidable middleweight presence. Her younger sister Lisa, the 2022 world champion and 2025 world silver medallist, joins her, underlining just how deep Ireland’s talent runs in the higher weights.
They front a women’s team stacked with recent Olympians. Daina Moorehouse goes at 51kg, Jenny Lehane at 54kg, with Jude Gallagher listed at 60kg. At 57kg, Michaela Walsh – a Commonwealth Games silver medallist at the weight – brings vast experience and a long history of delivering on big stages.
Shannon Sweeney, the 2024 European champion, adds further pedigree, while world youth champion and European U23 bronze medallist Cliona D’Arcy strengthens Ireland’s presence among the emerging elite. Evelyn Igharo, named at 70kg, completes a women’s group that blends decorated champions with rising contenders.
Olympic core drives men’s challenge
On the men’s side, Paris Olympians form the spine of the squad. Dean Clancy goes at 65kg, Jack Marley at 90kg, with both carrying the kind of big-tournament experience that can tilt tight contests when the stakes rise.
Gavin Rafferty, selected at 75kg, joins them as part of a unit that has been built not just for Sofia, but for ranking points and positioning in the wider World Boxing landscape. Jon McConnell, also down at 70kg, adds further depth in a division that often produces some of the most bruising, tactical battles at European level.
The European Elite Championships itself is a World Boxing ranking event, with 33 federations eligible to compete. The draw on 16 September will shape Ireland’s path, but the intent is already clear: this is a squad designed to collect medals and bank ranking points in equal measure.
Camped, sharpened, and heading for Sofia
Ireland’s boxers have been in camp since July, putting in the long weeks of sparring, conditioning and game-planning that never make the headlines but usually decide who stands on the podium. As a final sharpening phase, Boxing Ireland will host a multi-nations sparring camp at the High Performance Unit at the Institute of Sport from 2-9 September, bringing in international opposition to test and refine every style.
For Harrington, it marks a return to the familiar grind of tournament preparation, only now with the unusual twist of coming back as a double Olympic champion who briefly walked away. For the O’Rourke sisters, Walsh, Sweeney and the rest, Sofia offers something different: a chance to turn accumulated experience and recent titles into another statement on the European stage.
The medals will be handed out in Bulgaria. The rankings will shift. And by the time the lights go down in Sofia, the outline of Ireland’s next Olympic charge may look a lot sharper than it does today.
