Michael Darragh MacCauley joined Tuesday's OTB AM and offered a rare insight into the benefits that sport can have for underprivileged children.
The Dublin star is currently involved with a social and economic regeneration project in Dublin, telling Ger: "I didn't know about it before I was asked to get involved with it but there's a North-East Inner-City initiative and it's a social and economic regeneration of the area - there's a huge amount of work going into the area.
"It's from the back of the IFSC from North Wall over to Five Lamps, Ballybough, Sean MacDermott Street/Sherrif Street so it's a section that they've really looked at to target which has had a bad reputation over the years.
"It all stemmed from the Mulvey Report in 2016 - it was a really extensive look at the area - why is it problematic? What's going on here? And, on the back of that, there was 54 recommendations of how we can make this better.
"Then there was a big task force set up to target the area and I've come in under the sports engagement area and trying to head up a bit of that - there's a huge amount of work getting done in the area - a huge amount of people volunteering their time and money and resources getting pumped into the area...when they approached me on this - it made sense.
"They've given me an open slate with it and basically anyway that I can increase activity in the area so working with the kids - I've met all the principals there last week or whether it's working with migrants in the area or addicts or anyone. So, I've a pretty open brief on it and they've been willing to back me on whatever I see fit then.
"You just want to give people that branch to cling onto. It is easy to go down a bad path down there. There's a lot of people coming from backgrounds - sometimes some of the kids I'm talking to seem so happy and someone tells me their background and it's crazy stuff going on: Their parents aren't around, prison, all different bits and pieces - so you just want to give them something to cling on to.
"I use Kellie Harrington as a simple solution for someone who was going down a bad path when she was 15/16 and someone just said 'Here, will you have a go at this boxing thing?' and she's gone on to be a world champion in the last few weeks.
"Not everyone has to be a world champion - it's just about giving someone a vehicle, a reason to say 'No, I actually don't want to hang around with you today - I want to do that. I have this sport.'"
Listen back to Tuesday's OTB AM Podcast here:
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