CHANNEL 4 cameras will be following Ludlow and Tenbury boxing coach Martin Brennan when he takes a posse of pugilists into battle against Ireland’s finest next month.

Brennan, nicknamed Paddy, is taking a team of 14 boxers to Donegal for the latest in a series of international clashes between the countries on November 16.

They will be accompanied by a crew from Channel 4 who are planning a documentary on Brennan’s rehabilitation centre Bluestone and his Tenbury-based boxing academy.

As well as being a boxing and fitness centre, Bluestone, on Bleathwood Lane in Ludlow, helps reform young offenders and also offers physical rehabilitation for the disabled.

Brennan said: “We teach them plastering, carpentry and try to do a full wrap-around and get them a job – I’ve not had a failure yet.

“Channel 4 approached us and said they wanted to shadow me. They told me ‘you’re not just a boxing coach – you’re a probation officer, a mum, a dad, a cook, a cleaner!’

“A lot of coaches will watch it and think the same about themselves.

“And when they follow us in Ireland, they will see the boxing underbelly, about what you say to the kids in the corner to get them back out there, all the drama.”

Eight members of Paddy Brennan’s Boxing Academy will make the trip, along with six others from the Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire areas.

Those eight are Liz Williams, Jack Bannister, Anton Esson, Amali Davis, Patch Farrell, Farren Farrell, Leyton Butler and Ollie Jones.

Brennan’s England squad won the most recent instalment of the series by ten bouts to four at Villa Park in Birmingham in February.

They will be travelling even further in December with a trip across the pond. Brennan added: “We’re taking a big team to the States and hopefully we can conquer America too.”