NEW YORK - Unbeaten rising star Callum Walsh sent his Irish fans home happy on St. Patrick Day’s eve, knocking out Scotland’s Dean Sutherland in emphatic and impressive fashion in the first round at the Theater at Madison Square Garden.

The end came at 2:45 of an opening frame dominated by Cork’s Walsh, who improves to 13-0 with 11 knockouts in defense of his WBC Continental Americas title. Sutherland falls to 19-2 with 7 knockouts.

Swinging hard from the start, the 24-year-old Walsh was unbothered by the southpaw style of his foe, and while Sutherland took some heavy shots early, he appeared to take them well. But one right hand just before the end of the round changed everything in a hurry, with Sutherland going down hard, twisting his leg in the process. Referee Ricky Gonzales didn’t need to count, halting the bout and sending the Hollywood-based Walsh into March 17 celebrations early.

In his first fight since a stoppage loss to Lamont Roach last summer, Feargal McCrory rose from a fourth-round knockdown to halt Keenan Carbajal in the eighth round of a scheduled 10-round junior lightweight bout.

It was a wild and foul-filled contest throughout, with referee Arthur Mercante Jr. docking Arizona’s Carbajal a point for holding while giving stern warnings to Ireland’s McCrory for throwing his opponent to the canvas twice.

When it came to boxing, McCrory was in control until getting dropped by a hard right hand in the fourth. McCrory rose and made it out of the round, and after a slow fifth frame, he stepped on the gas from the sixth on, knocking Carbajal down in the seventh and the eighth. After the eighth-round knockdown, Mercante Jr. halted the fight at the 23-second mark.

McCrory moves to 17-1 with 9 KOs. Carbajal falls to 25-5-1 with 17 KOs.