The Little Book of Irish Boxing (eBook)

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THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES

PETER CORCORAN – HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION OF ENGLAND

Born in Athy, County Kildare, in 1749, Peter Corcoran held the distinction of becoming the first Irishman to claim the heavyweight title of England. Rumoured to have fled Ireland after killing a man in a dispute over a woman, Corcoran found work as a coal-heaver in London where his feats of strength enthralled great crowds. When he came to the attention of Captain Dennis O’Kelly in the 1760s, Corcoran’s career as a bare-knuckle fighter took off. O’Kelly was a dubious rogue and a gambler of note who oversaw the rise of Corcoran and his eventual challenge for the English title against Bill Darts at the Epsom Downs racecourse on 18 May 1771. That fight was for £200 and tens of thousands craned their necks to witness the battle. However, O’Reilly had paid Darts a small fortune to throw the fight, or to ‘fight booty’ as it was then known. Accordingly, within a minute, Darts, on shipping a punch to the nose, surrendered and Corcoran was declared the champion.

Corcoran was to defend that crown on five occasions and he purchased the Black Horse Inn in London’s East End with the proceeds from his career. His title, however, was lost in suspicious circumstances to Henry Sellars in 1776 in the eighteenth round of their bloody battle. This time it was thought that Corcoran had ‘fought booty’ as part of a betting coup. Such was the ‘upset’ that Pierce Egan, in his 1820 book Boxiana, noted, ‘The poor Paddies were literally ruined as many of them had backed their darling boy with every last farthing they possessed.’ In defeat, Corcoran became yesterday’s man and his fortune dwindled away to nothing. He died in poverty in London in 1781, aged 32.

THE SWEET SCIENCE IN THE EMERALD ISLE

Daniel Mendoza was considered the father of modern boxing and had a profound influence on the development of the sport as a science. Born in Spain in 1764, Mendoza published his book The Art of Boxing in 1789, which expounded the theory that speed, footwork and technique could prevail over sheer brute strength. Standing at merely 5ft 7in, Mendoza used his boxing theory to great effect and won the English middleweight title in 1789, when he defeated the then champion Richard Humphries. On becoming champion, Mendoza toured the British Isles, showing off his skills as part of Astery’s Travelling Circus. On arriving in Dublin in 1791, Mendoza established a boxing school for budding pugilists in Dame Street. It was here that Mendoza was to be confronted by ‘a swell of great weight and little prudence’, named Squire Fitzgerald, the so-called ‘Pride of Ireland’. With the backing of, amongst others, the Duke of Leinster, the Earl of Ormonde and Lord Westmeath, who put up a £50 purse for a fight between the two men, Fitzgerald insulted Mendoza’s Jewish background and challenged him for his title. The two met in Dublin on 2 August and the fight lasted twenty rounds before Fitzgerald surrendered in exhausted disarray, apologising afterwards to his opponent for his offensive pre-fight insults.

THE LEGEND OF DAN DONNELLY

Come all ye true-bred Irishmen, I hope you will draw near

And likewise pay attention, to the lines that I have here.

It is as true a story, as ever you did hear

Of how Donnelly fought Cooper, at the Curragh of Kildare.

Ireland’s most famous bare-knuckle fighter was the celebrated Dan Donnelly. Donnelly was born in Townsend Street in Dublin in 1788, the seventh of nine children. He began his prize-fighting career when, as a mere 15-year-old, he gained a reputation with his fists after humbling an English sailor who had insulted his father in a Dublin bar. His career flourished under joint-promoters Captain Kelly and Captain Barclay and he became renowned worldwide. On 13 December 1815, heavy rain fell on the Curragh, County Kildare, but that did not stop thousands making their way there to watch Donnelly fight the English champion George Cooper. Despite the long odds, Donnelly prevailed after eleven rounds with a final punch that broke his opponent’s jaw. When the victory was declared, it was greeted with the ‘loudest and longest cheer ever heard on the Curragh of Kildare’. The natural amphitheatre where the fight took place was renamed ‘Donnelly’s Hollow’ in honour of his victory.

Donnelly’s career flourished in England where, in 1819, he defeated the highly rated Tom Oliver in the thirty-fourth round of their battle. Afterwards, Donnelly was knighted for his efforts by the then Prince Regent, the future George IV. Unfortunately, Donnelly’s private life did not match his fighting skills. Through heavy drinking, he squandered ownership of four pubs and was to die in poverty of alcoholism. When he passed away in 1820, tens of thousands of mourners filled the streets of Dublin to attend his funeral. He was buried in Bully’s Acre in Kilmainham but his body was stolen by grave robbers. When the corpse was eventually re-discovered, it was missing its right arm, which was found to be in the possession of a Dublin anatomist named Hall. The limb was then preserved with lead paint and exhibited around Britain and Ireland. In 1904, the arm was bought by Hugh McAlevey and put on display in his public house, the Duncairn Arms in Belfast. Later it was bought by Kildare boxing fan Jim Byrne and displayed in his restaurant, The Hideout, in Kilcullen, before becoming the chief attraction of ‘The Fighting Irishmen’ exhibition in New York in 2006.

A BRUTAL EXHIBITION IN COUNTY MEATH

The normally quiet hamlet of Greenogue, County Meath, had its peace disturbed on the morning of Tuesday 27 March 1860, when Paddy Murphy and Andrew Moore met for a £100 purse. The two ‘celebrated Dublin bullies’ attracted 3,000 spectators to a local field well away from the eyes and ears of the constabulary and betting was said to be brisk as the men appeared stripped to the waist. After some preliminary sparring, the fight began in earnest and lasted a full half hour before Moore, ‘The Black Diamond’, was declared the winner. In a final desperate attack, Murphy tripped and dislocated his shoulder and was led away sporting a badly disfigured jaw. The Freeman’s Journal reported that, ‘It is to be regretted that the police were not able to ascertain the time the place selected for this fight, so as to prevent the brutal display,’ adding that such fights were ‘fortunately extremely rare in this country’.

PUGILISM ON THE SABBATH DAY – THE IRISH TIMES 1864

‘A printed handbill has been placed in our possession, announcing that a pugilistic encounter will take place on Sunday next, 9 October, at Foxrock. The combatants are named as JOHN WALSH, alias WAPS, and SAM BARTLETT, sail-maker, and the wager is fixed at twenty pounds. The challenge, it is stated, was given and accepted at a public house in George’s Street, Kingstown, on Tuesday last. Hitherto, this country has not been disgraced by such brutalising exhibitions. It is evident, however, that some persons do intend to desecrate the Sabbath Day and to disgrace the pleasant and peaceful neighbourhood of Foxrock by a low imitation of an exhibition that is at best savage and brutal. We now call on the police authorities to prevent so great a scandal. If this “fight” is permitted to take place, the suburbs of Dublin will, on every Sabbath Day, be infested with crowds of dissipated and daring men, assembled to witness the most savage and degrading exhibition that can be conceived, and the worst characters of Dublin will sally forth, nominally to see a fight, but in reality to plunder.’

PRIZE FIGHTING AND
DOG FIGHTING

A crowd of 600 spectators gathered at the Seventh Lock beside the Royal Canal in Dublin’s north side on Sunday 28 November 1876 in anticipation of a fight between two local pugilists. At stake was the princely sum of £25 for the rematch of the two protagonists, who worked in the Cattle Market and who had fought two months previously. With the crowd assembled, news came through that one of the pugilists had had an attack of cold feet and had wisely forgone the rematch. Despite the cancellation, a fight involving two dogs was arranged to entertain the crowds. A ring was formed and two men came forward, one a butcher from Bray and the other a man from Thomas Street in Dublin, with their straining dogs. The dog fight lasted for forty-five minutes, by which time the butcher’s dog lay mutilated and almost lifeless on the ground. His master, however, enraged by his dog’s poor performance, dragged his animal by its throat to the water and held its head beneath the surface until it was dead. Despite the protests of some in the crowd, the butcher remained oblivious to pleas to save the poor dog. The crowd dispersed at pace as news of a police raid was circulated.

AMERICAN PRIZE FIGHT – LIMERICK MAN DEFEATED

Two hundred ‘gentlemen of leisure’ witnessed the secret and illegal clash between Limerick’s Jim Frawley and Charles Norton, the lightweight champion of New York, at a warehouse in Coney Island in May 1882. Known as the ‘Veteran Irish Pugilist’, Frawley lasted merely three rounds, much to the disappointment of the vociferous Irish supporters in attendance. Frawley, who had been accompanied into the ring by his seconds, Mike Noonan and Tim Hussey, sported gleaming white britches with green trimmings. However, Norton drew first blood in the contest with a right uppercut to Frawley’s lip. As the first round concluded, Norton...