Film review: One Night in Millstreet is a ringside ticket to boxing history

One Night In Millstreet

• One Night in Millstreet
• ★★★★☆
• Cinema release

On March 18, 1995, all eyes turned to Green Glens, Millstreet, Co Cork, where boxing legend Chris Eubank defended his WBO super middleweight title against Irish underdog, Steve Collins. Incredibly, Collins won.

As unexpected as the win was, the venue for the fight was equally surprising.

Green Glens, which had successfully hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 1993, is, as the documentary points out, 25 miles from the nearest traffic light. Yet 8,000 fans made their way to the fight.

Andrew Gallimore’s documentary, One Night In Millstreet (12), charts how the Green Glens owner, Noel C Duggan, convinced the boxing promoter Barry Hearn to stage the fight in Millstreet. 

Duggan and Hearn are interviewed alongside sports reporters, including Paul Howard.

Full of humour and reflection, Collins and Eubank take us back to the 1990s, giving us the buildup to the fight and discussing the ups and downs of their careers. 

Collins had been trying to make a name for himself for quite some time. He had some small wins, but couldn’t break into the big leagues. 

By 1995, Eubank was riding high on a £10m fight deal. Earlier that year, Gerald McClellan sustained a traumatic brain injury fighting Nigel Benn, and Eubank is rattled, remembering Michael Watson, who suffered a similar injury in the ring against him a few years earlier.

The documentary, which also features interviews with Collins’s coach, the controversial guru Tony Quinn, is a funny, heartwarming chronicle of two of boxing’s most interesting characters. 

Filmed to cater to fans and non-fans alike, One Night in Millstreet is a gem that will have a special appeal for Cork audiences.