'The fighting is just in us' - Paddy Barnes the first Irish athlete to win two Olympic medals

It's one thing to qualify for the Olympics but what about medalling at two separate games.

The first Irish athlete to do so was Belfast boxer Paddy Barnes, who claimed back-to-back bronze medals at Beijing 2008 and London 2012, going on to carry the Irish flag at the opening ceremony in Rio 2016.

Barnes also claimed a gold medal at the 2010 European Championships and silver in 2013 along with Commonwealth gold in 2010 and 2014.

But it was not always smooth sailing for the Co Antrim boxer, who struggled in the early stages of his amateur career.

"People make a big thing about it and I see why," Barnes tells Adrian Eames on Chapters of Magnificence, a new RTÉ Radio 1 series profiling 11 of Ireland's living Olympic medallists.

"I lost my first 12 fights and people say would you not retire? To be honest, most of them were pretty close and could have went either way and some of them I probably should have won."

Despite the early setbacks, Barnes remained positive and continued his push for success.

The 37-year-old says: "It shows that you will have many setbacks in life, whether it be in sport or business but if it's for you it will come, and it was obviously for me.

"After losing so much, then when I won, I became addicted to that feeling."

Off the back of defeat at the European Union Amateur Championships final in June 2008, Barnes was eager to make amends in Beijing just two months later.

With a bronze medal on the line, the 21-year-old light-flyweight was level with his Polish opponent after the first round of the quarter finals but pulled clear in the remaining three rounds to earn an 11-5 victory.

He says: "I never think of it, it’s crazy! I remember watching a video quite recently of me beating Łukasz Maszczyk from Poland for the