Bare-knuckle hero Donnelly joins Boxing Hall of Fame
The induction ceremony will take place next June.
“This is a fitting tribute to a man who was hero-worshipped by the Irish after he conquered top-rated English pugilists almost 200 years ago. I am delighted that his place in sporting history has received international recognition at last,” said Patrick Myler, whose biography of Donnelly was published over 30 years ago.
He hopes to have the book republished and is contributing to a TV documentary on Donnelly’s life being made by D4 Films.
Donnelly, born in Townsend Street, Dublin in 1788, hit his peak of fame by beating the highly-regarded Englishman George Cooper at the Curragh on December 13, 1815. A powerful right-hander, he smashed his opponent’s jaw to end the fight in the 11th round. As he strode up the hill towards his carriage, Donnelly’s ecstatic fans marked out his footprints and they have been preserved to this day at the spot known as Donnelly’s Hollow, where a monument commemorates the ring battle.
So impressed was the Prince Regent, later King George IV, on meeting Donnelly that he addressed him: “I am glad to meet the best fighting man in Ireland”.
The brash Dubliner replied: “I am not that, your royal highness, but I am the best in England.”
The legend contends that he knighted Donnelly there and then. Though the story is probably apocryphal, Donnelly did adopt the title “Sir Daniel” and a large spirit jug that he kept at one of his Dublin pubs bears an inscription to that effect.
A heavy drinker and womaniser, his lifestyle led to him dropping dead at the early age of 32 and his funeral brought thousands onto the streets.
Body snatchers raided his grave and sold the corpse to a prominent professor of anatomy. The resultant public outcry caused the medic to have the body reburied, but not before secretly cutting off his right arm and coating it with preservative.
After being used by anatomy students for many years at Edinburgh University, the limb was returned to Ireland in the 1950s and was displayed in a glass case at the Hideout pub in Kilcullen, just a couple of miles from Donnelly’s triumph over Cooper.
This year, the grisly relic has intrigued visitors to the Fighting Irishmen exhibition in New York, where it has been on display. It will be returned to its owner, Josephine Byrne, in Kilcullen in the New Year.
