McCourt was rated the number one amateur boxer in the world for four years and was regarded a master of defence and counter punching.

He was controversially denied the opportunity of an Olympic gold medal at Tokyo 1964 when, competing in the lightweight division, he lost on the narrowest of split decisions in the semi-final against the Soviet Union’s Velikton Barannikov having accounted for South Korea's Bun Nam Seo, Pakistan's Ghulam Sarwar and Spain's Domingo Barrera along the way.

It was later revealed that McCourt had been fighting with sore hands.

He would go onto defeat eventual champion, Józef Grudzień from Poland, shortly after the Games and then followed-up with bronze in the following year's European Championships that were held in East Germany to underline his credentials as one of the world's best.

McCourt’s daughter revealed that Barannikov, who died in a road accident in 2007, later contacted him to apologise for the decision.

"The Russian fighter sent him a letter about 20 years ago saying that he knew Daddy had won the fight," said Cathy.

"He said that he wanted to make peace with him, so he sent him a gold spoon which is something apparently that Russians do when they want to make peace with someone.

"Barannikov said that he had it on his conscience all those years and that Daddy had won the fight and should have gone on to win the gold.

"He said Daddy was the greatest fighter he had ever fought and there were many who said that he was Ireland's greatest ever amateur."

Famous BBC commentator Harry Carpenter wrote about the Olympic tournament, "As someone who watched the Olympic boxing in Tokyo in 1964, the memory of Jim McCourt’s gallant efforts, which ended with his bringing home a coveted bronze medal, will remain with me for a long, long time.

"The fact that he boxed in the highest class of competition with both hands painfully injury and still contrived to win a medal, the only member of the Irish or British teams to do so, is a tribute to his fighting heart.

"At no time did he publicly complain about the handicap under which he was boxing and yet his difficulties were sufficient to have justified his withdrawal from the Games had he felt inclined to do so.

"Jim McCourt continued to box and, right up to the semi-finals, he continued to win.

"When defeat came, against the talented Russian star, Barannikov, it could only have come by the narrowest of margin. 

"In fact, I felt the decision could quite well have been him.

"Ireland can be proud of Jim McCourt, who upheld the highest traditions of Olympic courage and sportsmanship in Tokyo and gave this commentator an abiding memory of his journey to Japan."

The Belfast-born boxer then represented Northern Ireland at the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Kingston in Jamaica where he won the gold medal in the light-welterweight division by beating Ghana’s Aaron Popoola in the final, after defeating Uganda's Alex Odhiambo, Guyana’s Ivelaw Glen and Belize’s David Dakers in earlier rounds.

McCourt claimed that representing Ireland on the world stage was the greatest privilege of his life.

"Nothing else came close to giving me so much pride," he said.

"To feel that I gave people so much pleasure in the boxing ring has made me think that it was all worthwhile."

After being Ireland's only Olympic medallist in 1964, he was the country's flag bearer in the Opening Ceremony at Mexico City four-years later, but he failed to challenge for another medal after being beaten in the first round by West Germany’s Gerd Puzicha at light-welterweight.

McCourt continued boxing as an amateur for several years after that, never turning professional, and finished his career having won seven Irish national titles.

He was inducted into the Irish Amateur Boxing Hall of Fame in 2011.

Among those to pay tribute to McCourt, who died on Monday (June 19), was Hugh Russell, another boxer from Belfast, who won an Olympic bronze medal representing Ireland at Moscow 1980.

"Jim was known worldwide for his achievements in the ring, and he put Ireland on the boxing map," he told Irish News.

"He was an inspiration to so many people here involved with the sport, and we will all feel his loss."