“My Da gets a little bit carried away.” Kellie Harrington on sparring in the kitchen with her father

“The craic used to be 90 in the house with all that kind of stuff, it would be brilliant.”

World Champion boxer Kellie Harrington says that playful sparring sessions with her father at home came to an end when she started to become stronger as she grew older. Speaking to Dion Fanning on this week’s episode of Ireland Unfiltered, Harrington recalled happy memories of sparring with her father in the kitchen, which occasionally ended in tears and with a stern rebuke for husband and daughter from Kellie’s mother. “My da gets a little bit carried away now,” Harrington said.

“Honestly, I’m not joking. I’d be saying, ‘Come on Da’ - years ago I would be in the kitchen, saying ‘Come on, put them up and let’s see’. We’d be messing. We wouldn’t hit each other in the face or anything. "We’d be messing, but then he’d catch me with a really hard one in the shoulder or something. And then I’d start crying and my Ma would be like, ‘Now, you just can’t relax and take it easy and you know this always happens when you start this’.

“So then that got nipped in the bud. As I was older, I was getting a bit stronger.” “The craic used to be ninety in the house with all that kind of stuff, it would be brilliant,” Harrington added. “We don’t do it anymore, thankfully. Because if he caught me now… if someone hits you a good shot, you have to be really patient and not respond. But when you’re not in the ring, if someone catches you with a good shot, you’re like... I don’t want to be going around hitting my da back!” During the course of the conversation, Harrington also spoke about living in Katie Taylor’s shadow and just how much her job in St. Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin means to her. You can watch the full interview with Kellie right here: You can listen to the latest episode of Ireland Unfiltered in its entirety by simply clicking here and you can use #IrelandUnfiltered to join the conversation on social. Ireland Unfiltered, brought to you in partnership with Carlsberg Unfiltered, will be available everywhere you get your podcasts and on YouTube every Tuesday.