Edinburgh Bradley Welsh's death five years on: his legacy to events that followed
| Published date | 14 April 2024 |
| Author | Kris Gourlay |
| Publication title | EdinburghLive (Scotland) |
Welsh often spoke openly about his troubled past after serving time behind bars for firearms offences and extortion. He was also a Hibs casual and even described himself as a "football hooligan."
Charity Work
However, the work Welsh carried out within the community helped tackle poverty on a huge scale as he helped set up a large volunteer organisation - Helping Hands - alongside Jim Slaven in 2014.
The aim of the organisation was to help the working class communities in Edinburgh, providing free, structured football and boxing sessions for thousands of young people.
The charity also collected tonnes of food for local families, distributing 1000 new kids bikes to families and over 100,000 cooked meals at the outbreak of the Covid pandemic.
Unfortunately, co-founder Jim Slaven made the sad announcement in December 2021 that the charity had ceased operating. Jim made a video clip of the announcement, which remains on the site, saying: "When Brad Welsh and I founded Helping Hands over six years ago we intended it to be a short, sharp burst out activity.
"We wanted to show what was possible through collective action when you reinsert the idea of solidarity into communities." Jim went on to confirm that he and Welsh had planned on bringing the foundation to an end in 2019 but after the 48-year-old was killed, the winding up of the charity could have "created a dangerous vacuum within many of the communities we worked in," Jim added.
Holyrood Boxing Gym
In December 2023, Holyrood Boxing Gym, which Bradley Welsh opened in 2005, announced its sad closure after 18 years. Taking to Facebook to make the announcement, they said the gym surpassed many people's expectations and the "longevity of the gym without Brad over the last four and a half years has surpassed our own."
The team said that "Brad lives on in us all" and that the decision was made after much thought and consideration. Holyrood was so much more than a boxing gym, with those behind the business often supporting a causes such as toy drives, food bank collections and free lessons for those from underprivileged backgrounds.
Trainspotting 2
Welsh also appeared in Irvine Welsh' Trainspotting 2, released in 2017, as he played a sauna-owning crime boss named Doyle. He previously told the Scottish Sun he...
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