Katie Taylor’s First Ever Portrait To Be Auctioned In Wicklow

Titled ‘The Ambassadors’, the double portrait captures the dawn of women’s boxing in Ireland. It depicts a young Katie Taylor alongside her Belfast opponent Alanna Audley, painted after their 2001 bout at Dublin’s National Stadium — the first time female boxers fought under the auspices of the Irish Amateur Boxing Association (IABA), a moment now woven into Irish sporting history. Taylor won.

Artist Paul MacCormaic was driving to work when he heard the pair interviewed by the late broadcaster Marian Finucane on RTÉ Radio, as the Irish Mirror reported. Struck by their fighting spirit and what they had overcome to compete, he tracked Taylor down at her local Bray club and asked her to pose.

The Katie Taylor portrait styled on Holbein

The timing is pointed. As Taylor prepares for her Croke Park swansong, the painting that caught her at the very beginning returns to Bray — bringing a remarkable career full circle, from an unknown teenager in a local club to an Irish icon bowing out before a packed stadium.