People Australia

Seamus McGettigan (1932-1997) professional boxer, optical grinder, teacher and Irish community leader

Birth: 15 April 1932 at Golan, near Milford, county Donegal, Ireland, son of Edward Daniel McGettigan (1891-1947) and Margery, née Gallagher (1895-1963). Marriage: 11 February 1956 in the Catholic Church at Sandringham, Victoria, to native-born Mary Nell Hewitt (b. 1945), typist. They had seven children. Death: 12 May 1997 at Melbourne, Victoria. 

• In his youth he became an amateur boxing champion, heavyweight division, in Ireland. Moved to England about 1947 to join touring boxing troupe. Boxed professionally in England, New Zealand and Australia until about 1956.
• Arrived in Melbourne in 1954 from New Zealand, where he had worked on a hydro-electric construction site. Gained work in boxing from 1954 to about 1956. Trained as an optical mechanic and became an optical grinder.
• At night school he gained a Mechanical and Production Engineering Technician’s Certificate, Advanced Diploma of Education and Trained Technical Teachers’ Certificate. Admitted as a Senior Member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.
• Teacher for twenty years.
• Set-up a small business selling Irish products, books and videos. Coordinated an Irish program on Radio 3CR. Prominent in organising annual commemorations of the Easter Rising, annual St Patrick’s Day festival program, Irish contingent in May Day and Eureka stockade anniversaries.
• Prominent in the Connolly Association. Was not involved in the Democratic Labour Party as he stated many Irish people were.

Sources
Val Noone, People Not Money: Some Irish in Post-War Australia, Paper for Ninth Irish-Australian Conference, University College Galway (April 1997), pp 10-18.