Smith 96. Yeah it was tainted but at that moment in time
Taylor in 1985
I don’t know why he represented NI, he fought for Ireland in Moscow.
But he was popular across the divide, there’s very few who achieved that I’d say, he wasn’t political, he also married a Protestant girl. We’re quick to put labels on lads, he was a brilliant fighter, maybe a few years before your time but the hype was out by of this world
Surprised you don’t know this. He’s from Clones / Smithborough Co. Monaghan a few miles from the border. His official fight name was the Clones Cyclone. His unofficial fight name was Barry the Brit. He went north to Belfast to train, well in with a load of loyalists and married one of them. Sort of changed sides. That was his perogative. The whole family are slightly odd, his father sang for Ireland in the Eurovision. He was never popular in Monaghan, or at least once people twigged what he was like.
The dermot Morgan song thank you Mr Eastwood was huge too iirc.
It’s very odd that he’d box for NI. What was his connection, did he box/ train over the border?
Begrudgery is a terrible Irish trait.
Music was so different then too. Most people and definitely most kids only heard whatever was in the charts and on the radio. It was 2fm and later Atlantic 252 only so was all another completely shared communal experience.
Fr stone and Frank from bosco in the video above
Smithsboro isn’t McBride from there too
Yeah a very famous boxing club but then a few years ago it turned out one of their trainers was a paedophile and it was very sad.
Not really a boxing fan …
I hear that.I bate a fella from Smithsboro in my second fight ever.
Would boxing for any Ulster club make you eligible to go to the Commonwealth games? Do nationalist boxers in the O6 turn it down?
I thought it was only for lads in the 06
Probably an Aga Khan win in there as well
Kilkenny ‘82
Boomerang and Eddie Macken
It’s really strange … I don’t know enough about him … Obviously he wanted to box at any high level competition he could but still, while he tried to bridge all sides later, a southerner boxing for NI at the height of the troubles is odd as fuck. Was he a visionary, 50 years ahead of his time?
Capt Gerry Mullins was a reliable team member
McBride, the man who beat Tyson