THE ongoing success of Irish boxers calls to mind those cartoons where a character runs off a cliff and, as long as they don’t look down, they keep moving.

Once they realise what’s going on, they plummet to the ground.

The glut of medals earned at this week’s European Women’s Championships comes despite the deep dysfunction that continues to beset the sport in this country, and which has had an ongoing, significant impact on the high performance system.

These terrific fighters are defying impossible conditions. They refuse to look down.