Irish boxing is down but not out
AMAN named Kevin called Liveline on Monday to say that Michael O’Reilly, the Irish boxer sent home from Rio after failing a drugs test, was being badly treated by the media.
In any week, this would have been a hard sell. By the next day, it was well nigh impossible, as every ounce of sympathy was transferred to fellow Irish boxer Katie Taylor, controversially denied the chance of another gold medal after a questionable split decision against her. Michael Carruth, former gold medallist turned pundit, was on Tuesday’s Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk to talk about that, and he had another prediction too as he looked ahead to Michael Conlan’s bout against his Russian opponent later that same day.
After what happened to Katie, he said: “I’m very fearful for Michael now.”
Those fears were justified. Within a few hours, Conlan was out too. Tara Duggan, presenting The Right Hook, asked wellknown amateur coach Brian McKeown of Cavan Boxing Club whether the Belfast man had been Ncigh el ala teLdawou so tn of Haicim en edda ale.rciam
Hedidn’ tm dines ct er uh misrw em or dins: es“t(,Wilhmaotd ia happened to)Kqa uta it euwr au st rfoubg bite rayt.u Mr ninckhk al el today was daylight robbery.”
You might expect it, he added, “on a Monday or Tuesday night in a wee hall at the back of the country” but not at the Olympics in full view of the world. Duggan asked who the cheats are. Brian chuckled grimly. “I’m not going into that now, but there’s no shortage of them and you don’t have to go to Rio to find them neither.”
Conlan’s defeat may have been the top story on RTE’s Drivetime, Today FM’s The Last Word and Newstalk’s Right Hook, but surprisingly it took Radio Ulster’s Evening Extra half an hour to discuss it at any length, and the programme was reluctant to go as far in expressing the outrage being felt, which is surprising considering that the boxer is from Belfast.
There was, for instance, no equivalent to Tommie Gorman’s report on Drivetime from the GAA club bar on the Falls Road where Conlan’s family had been watching.
The lukewarm tone continued on Good Morning Ulster next day. The BBC was clearly worried about possible defamation if the cheating allegations were repeated, but there were ways of reflecting local anger without crossing that line.
George from the Shankill Road did so on Wednesday’s Nolan Show, ringing up to express his own outrage at what happened to Conlan, which he said was shared by eve Wry aotnc eh, IP Tr oN tOeWs tan tan d Catholic .“Sport u ni Ht ae rs duy sB mu co ks re is tohn an the an RyTt Eh Pin lagy,”erhu en ts ia lid. ThaDte’scenmob t ea r l3w0a;yr s tet.rieu/ep , labyue t r it is of boxing.
Sit xepN hate in onNsRou lag nb,yfi os ron hi 3 sP pl aay re tr, upnrteilferred to takD ee a cetmobtael r ly 16d; itfvf3e.rie/np t laaynegr le, first asking whSei tm hp el ry MNiigcehllae isl Co non Bl B aC niPw lay se ri-g chu tr r te ontslw yen ao tr on al vivaeil aT bl Vet aoftveierw theres fi ni gI hr et la(“nDd.o you think I’d get away with sitting here effing and blinding?”) and then questioning whether public money should be spent at all on a sport that causes brain damage.
Both debates annoyed many listeners, but this is what makes Nolan such a great broadcaster. He does love a good scrap.