Katie Taylor believes Ireland's record-breaking EU Women's Boxing Championships squad, who returned home last night to a rapturous welcome, have even brighter days ahead of them.

Olympic champion Katie Taylor won her 15th major title at the EU Women’s Championships in Keszthely, Hungary on Saturday and had an ominous warning for her rivals, warning them she was a also targeting gold at the 2014 world and European championships.

The Irish Elite team got their heads together following a backs-to-the-wall team talk at the European Championships in Minsk, Belarus, according to head coach Billy Walsh.

London 2012 silver and bronze medallists, John Joe Nevin, Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlan, together with Jason Quigley, are guaranteed at least bronze medals at the European Elite Championships in Minsk, Belarus.

Katie Taylor says she wants 2013 to be “a huge year” in the ring.

Olympic champion Katie Taylor marked her return to action for the first time since her gold medal triumph last August with a 28-5 win over Poland’s Karolina Graczyk at the National Stadium in Dublin last night.

Olympic champion Katie Taylor marked her return to action for the first time since her gold medal triumph last August with a 28-5 win over Poland’s Karolina Graczyk at the National Stadium in Dublin tonight.

John Joe Nevin set up the fight of the Olympic boxing finals when he out-fought world champion Lazaro Alvarez in a thrilling semi-final bout at the ExCeL yesterday.

Beijing bronze medallist Paddy Barnes and fellow Belfast man Michael Conlan are just two wins away from a medal at the Olympic Games following yesterday’s draw which threw up some interesting pairings.

JOHN JOE NEVIN bowed out of the World Boxing Championships in Baku yesterday after losing his bantamweight semi-final against Luke Campbell on a countback after the judges’ scoring tied the pair at 12 points apiece at end of three thrilling rounds.

WELTERWEIGHT Roy Sheahan steps into the ring against Carl Hield (Bahamas) in Baku today admitting he is more “excited about these world championships than I have been about any other tournament in my life”.

IRELAND’S two newly crowned European champions, Ray Moylette and Joe Ward, are still not guaranteed a shot at Olympic qualification.

KATIE TAYLOR puts the finishing touches to her preparations for the EU championships at the Night of Champions promoted by St John’s Boxing Club, Fermoy, at the Walter Raleigh Hotel, Youghal on Friday, May 6.

IRELAND'S boxers have maintained their high flying positions in the first AIBA Official World rankings published for 2010 yesterday.

THE Irish Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) host their annual awards night at the Louis Fitzgerald Hotel, Dublin on Friday evening.

ROY SHEAHAN (St Michael’s, Athy) will have the ideal opportunity to get his international career back on track when he guests for the Garda/Rylane selection against the New York Police Department in a sell-out dinner show at the Rochestown Park Hotel, Cork on Saturday night.

WITH his bronze medal already secure, John Joe Nevin will go into this afternoon’s (3.30pm) clash with Eduard Abzalimov of Russia bidding for a place in tomorrow’s bantamweight final.

JOHN JOE NEVIN laid claim to a bronze medal and put himself in line for even greater things when he outpointed Chinese bantamweight Yu Gu, 7-5, to qualify for tomorrow semi-finals at the World boxing championships in Milan.

THERE will be three Irish boxers in action in the quarter-finals of the world championships in Milan this afternoon after Darren O’Neill and Declan Geraghty exited the tournament last night.

JOHN JOE NEVIN, Darren O’Neill and Eric Donovan all won their contests on what was an brilliant day for Irish boxers at the world championships in Milan yesterday.

DARREN O’NEILL will miss the Open Tournament which will be held at the National Stadium over the coming two weekends to help select the Irish boxing team for the world championships in Milan in September.

Ken Egan is out of the 2009 European Union Championships after slipping to a surprise 7-6 defeat to Hungarian light heavyweight Imre Szello in Denmark today.

THERE is no big secret to the success of Irish boxing — just hard work, commitment, dedication and good coaching to develop the talent coming through the system — according to the President of the IABA, Dominic O’Rourke, who promised that there was more to come.

Belfast bantamweight Ryan Lindberg has been edged out by just one point at the quarter-final stage of the European Senior Championships in Liverpool.

DAVID OLIVER JOYCE, his cousin John Joe Joyce, Belfast middleweight, Eamonn O’Kane and 20-year-old Clonmel heavyweight Con Sheehan will all be battling for medals and semi-final places at the European Boxing Championships in Liverpool today.

DARREN O’NEILL can’t wait to don the gloves and get his European boxing championships campaign underway in Liverpool.

DAVID OLIVER JOYCE claimed the featherweight berth on the Irish team for next month’s European Boxing Championships when outpointing Carl Frampton in a box-off at the Central Council Tournament in the National Stadium at the weekend.

KENNETH EGAN will climb into the ring next Tuesday just one fight away from an Olympic medal and, like it or not, he will be favourite to take the bronze medal — at least — away from Beijing, following a very impressive 10-2 victory over the Turkish light heavyweight, Bahram Muzaffer, for a place in the quarter finals.

NOT so long ago John Joe Nevin was being groomed as a London 2012 prospect, but today he will climb into the Olympic boxing ring at the Workers Gymnasium as a big medal prospect for Beijing.

IRELAND’S five Olympic boxers have arrived in Bugeat, France, for the penultimate training camp in advance of the Olympic Games.

IRISH boxers will be targeting half a dozen gold medals at the European Union Championships in Poland today.

IRISH captain Ken Egan believes this week’s European Union Boxing Championships in Poland will provide Ireland with the perfect preparation for the Olympic Games.

THREE Irish boxers bid to secure Olympic qualification in Athens later today.

KENNETH EGAN, John Joe Nevin and John Joe Joyce can qualify for the Olympics with just one more victory at the European qualifiers in Pescara this afternoon.

Irish middleweight Darren Sutherland will meet England's James Degale in the quarter-finals of the Olympic qualifiers tonight after beating Ramis Baylarov from Azerbaijan in Italy last night.

The Irish squad will train with their Italian hosts, France, Greece and Lithuania today at their Santa Maria training base in Perugia, Italy.

IRISH sponsorship spend is expected to hit a record high of €135 million this year as a number of high-profile sports tie-in opportunities and venue naming contracts come up for consideration.

PADDY BARNES became the first Irish boxer to qualify for next year’s Olympic Games with an emphatic 33-12 points victory over the highly-rated Japanese champion, Kenju Ohkubo, in an action-packed contest at the world championships in Chicago yesterday.

There was double disappointment for Irish boxers in the early hours of this morning after Darren Sutherland and John Sweeney bowed out of the 2007 AIBA World Championships and Olympic qualifiers at the last 16 stage at the University of Chicago in Illinois.

KENNETH EGAN and surprise packets Paddy Barnes and Eric Donovan provide an interesting blend of youth and experience in what will be all-out war for places in the top eight at the World Boxing Championships in Chicago.

A RECENT haircut helps accentuate the gaunt features and steely eyes of a man who might have been to hell and back — and is prepared to go the route again.

IRELAND could have as many as five boxers in action, including two of the big hopes — welterweight Roy Sheahan and middleweight Darren Sutherland — when the first session of the world championships gets under way at the UIC in Chicago this evening (8pm Irish time).

DARREN SUTHERLAND will be on the flight when the Irish boxing team leave Dublin on October 16 for the world championships in Chicago.

IRELAND’S medal winners at last months European Union Boxing Championships at the National Stadium in Dublin have all moved up places in the world rankings just released for June.