IT’S now official: Oran Brady holds the bragging rights at home in the Brady brothers’ roll of honour.
If there was any debate beforehand, it’s over now, after Oran soared to top spot after his sensational success that saw him crowned the 2024 West Cork Sports Star Paudie Palmer Youth Award winner.
The talented Bantry kickboxer won TWO world titles at the WAKO Youth World Kickboxing Championships in Budapest in August.
While his older brothers Sean and Oisin had previously won similar world gold medals in the past, in 2016 and 2022 respectively, Oran brought two back home to their ION Kickboxing Club that is run by their father, Bernard.
Both Sean and Oisin, like Oran, were also honoured with West Cork Sports Star quarterly youth awards in the past, but Oran is the first of the Brady brothers to be crowned the overall West Cork Sports Star Paudie Palmer Youth Award winner.
‘I do now,’ Oran laughed after he was asked if he takes top billing over his older brothers.
‘It’s gone to the stage where they can’t even debate it! I was here when they both won their quarterly awards, but they never won the overall one so it’s something I have over them!’
He added, ‘It’s surreal to win this. Even to have Paudie Palmer’s name on the award … you think of GAA, you think of Paudie Palmer. Everyone involved in Cork GAA knows about him, so it’s amazing to win an award like this.’
The Coláiste Pobail Bheanntraí Leaving Cert student proved to be a class apart in his memorable 2024 season as he fought his way to two world championship titles, but the hard work started long before that Friday morning in Budapest when he won both the -84kg junior light contact and kick light categories.
While kickboxing is the sport of choice in the Brady household, it’s only once Oran dedicated himself to it, with his father Bernard as his coach, did this really take off.
‘Go back two or three years ago and I would have picked football over kickboxing,’ he admits.
‘I was on a football development squad at the time and training, but I wasn’t thinking about it all the time; I wasn’t fully committed. I would go to kickboxing competitions and miss matches.
‘When I decided to concentrate on kickboxing, dad fully committed to coaching me and to get the world title. We trained hard, but we trained smart, even the psychological side of it. He told me when I wake up in the morning, to tell myself I am a champion, and it worked – every time I went on the map this year, I felt like I was going to win, and if I don’t win I knew I was going to perform. It’s amazing what he has done.’
Paudie Palmer West Cork Sports Star Youth Award winner Oran Brady pictured with, from left, John Paul McNamara, C103; Ann Downey, general manager, Celtic Ross Hotel; Helen Wycherley, Celtic Ross Hotel; and Kieran McCarthy, sports editor, The Southern Star.All those early mornings and hard training sessions created the opportunity for Oran to compete in the title fights at the WAKO Youth World Kickboxing Championship. He wasn’t fazed by the thought of a world double in the space of 90 minutes; it’s what he wanted.
‘I remember waking up the morning of the finals and there were no nerves. We got the tram through the city in Budapest into the arena and once we got there I just put on my headphones, and I was in the zone. It’s there I felt the nerves, but they were good nerves,’ he recalled.
‘After I won the first final, the nerves were gone and I said to myself that I am going to win the double.
‘After a few congratulations, it was back into the warm-up area ahead of the second final; I put on the headphones and I listened to some classic Irish music like the Cranberries and U2 to get back into the zone.
‘I remember leaving the mat after the first fight and telling my dad that I had done nothing yet because I had gone there for the double. It was a great feeling to get the job done. It was lovely to have my family there and all my friends from kickboxing as well.’
Oran won’t rest on his laurels and is eager to build on his success in 2024 that included winning a sixth national championship title, and also bringing home gold and bronze medals from the Italian World Cup, silver and bronze medals from the Bristol Open, and a junior title triumph at Skill Striker VI in Bristol in December.
‘The Tallaght Open on Sunday will help me see where I am this year in terms of competition and I can finetune things after that,’ he explained.
‘I have the nationals at the end of March to qualify for the Irish team, the Europeans are in August, and there is also the Italian World Cup and Hungarian Italian Cup as well.’
It looks like more medals could be added to Oran’s collection this year, but he will always cherish winning the 2024 West Cork Sports Star Paudie Palmer Youth Award that marks this Bantry teen out as one of the top young sports stars in this sports-mad region.
