BOXING: Boxing gyms are similar the world over, the slapping noise of a skipping rope reverberating across a room against the thud of the heavy bags. It is the people who maintain them and make them unique. In the Holy Family boxing club in North Belfast, seasoned pros share a tiny room with young children who are throwing their first punches. In the club the priority for the fighters is not how they throw a left jab, but how they carry themselves in their daily lives.

Barry McGuigan was an amateur here and he feels passionately about the Holy Family's importance in his upbringing. "They brought me in and looked after me," he says. "It taught me a lot of things. The Holy Family mantra was something I brought with me into the pro game. Driving around the area it was hostile, but in that club was a sanctuary, hallowed turf, it was all very moralistic and decent, and Gerry was the one behind it all."

Gerry Storey is head coach and has helped develop Olympians, Commonwealth Games champions and countless Irish internationals. The club's roll of honour is legendary: Ulster amateur titles at every weight and professional titles at Irish, British and world level.

However, Storey was never in coaching for the silverware. "It's never been about the titles; it is a way of paying your debt to society and keeping these kids off the streets."

You can tell he was a boxer; the marks on his knuckles tell their story. When a serious eye injury put his professional aspirations to bed it helped him move into coaching. "They (the club) had seen me as a coach because they had seen me working with the kids," he says. "They told me it was a gift I had in looking after the kids and I wanted to use it right. When the kids come in I tell them their greatest ambition should be to get their photograph up on the wall on what we call 'Paradise Row' when they box for Ireland; the Olympic dream should always be their target."

The gym is situated in one of Belfast's toughest Catholic areas, but Protestants have been welcomed here since 1942. Storey's son Sam, a British Lonsdale belt-winner, is adamant about the role religion has to play in the club.

"In the Holy Family religion means nothing, we were around all religions as kids, and it's been working for many years."

Holy Family are led out to the ring, not by the Irish Tricolour or the Union Jack, but by McGuigan's old peace flag with doves.

The Holy Family boxers were so esteemed in the area they were invited to fight in the notorious Protestant area of the Shankill in Belfast to packed audiences. Unfortunately, in bringing both sides together, ironically, through fighting, Storey has had bomb attempts on his life: "I've not just had threats, I've also had bomb attempts," he says. "It's clear that somebody somewhere didn't want both sides working in harmony together; the last one nearly got my son."

He went far beyond his civic duty in bringing both sides together in the cages at Long Kesh, where the paramilitaries of both sides said they wanted him as their coach.

"I had a strange request," he recalls. "They (the paramilitaries) had got together, and they insisted I coached them boxing in the cages, and in those days I was the go between with the governor and the prisoners."

Storey, who has coached Ireland in the Olympics three times and is the longest serving member of Irish Amateur Boxing Association, won the Laureus Sport for Good award in Estoril, Portugal, on May 16th, in the company of movie stars and sporting icons. This award reflected a lifetime of work benefiting young peoples' lives across Belfast, by giving them discipline and self-confidence through boxing.

"To be the first Irish man ever to be nominated was a big bonus, but to go over to Portugal and to become the outright winner I couldn't believe it." It also was fitting that McGuigan presented him with his Laureus award.

Storey doesn't like talking about himself; his pride in the Holy Family club always transcends personal accolades. Although he has a scrapbook full of newspaper cuttings and photographs of himself with countless boxing icons, from Ali to Frazier, his proudest piece of memorabilia is far removed from the bright lights of Madison Square Garden.

"Never mind the Laureus award, one of my very proudest possessions is this photo I have and there's a crowd of kids with me on a bus going to Dublin, and looking back now in that bunch, there's three Olympians, two professional British Lonsdale belt winners and eight Irish internationals - this is a bunch of kids then who could barely blow their own noses."

The future for Holy Family boxing club remains uncertain; the gym has become too small and they have had to turn away children who want to join. A new premises is at the top of the list of priorities for the club.

It's another daunting prospect for Storey and the Holy Family, but don't expect to see any towels flying into the ring.