Barney Eastwood
Millionaire bookmaker who gained international fame as a boxing manager and promoter, writes Liam Collins
IT was Barry McGuigan’s refrain “Thank you very much, Mr Eastwood” after each of his successes in the boxing ring, that turned the self-effacing Belfast-based boxing promoter and bookmaker Barney Eastwood into a national figure.
In the early to mid-1980s while Ireland was in the throes of bitter conflict the arrival on the sporting landscape of ‘The Clones Cyclone’ — as McGuigan was dubbed — became an unlikely cause of national celebration, when there was little else to cheer about. In a country torn apart by IRA bombs, guerrilla warfare and kidnapping and bank robberies even those with little or no interest in the sport of boxing, no matter what their political or religious affiliations, were carried along by the euphoria of McGuigan’s success.
The relationship between boxer and manager started inauspiciously when Eastwood, having retired from boxing promotion to concentrate on his bookmaking business, was watching amateur boxing on television one night. He turned to his wife Frances and said: “That wee fellah has something”, after seeing McGuigan go three rounds in the ring.
He signed the small, wiry boxer from Clones, Co Monaghan, the son of a wellknown showband singer Pat McGuigan/McGeeghan (who represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest of 1968), believing he could succeed in the tough world of professional boxing.
McGuigan moved into the Eastwoods’ home for the first year and began training at his gym in King Street in central Belfast. He was soon cutting a swathe through the sport with boxer and manager becoming equally famous, because of his unceasing gratitude to his manager in the post-fight interviews.
Eastwood cashed in on his cross-community appeal with the slogan ‘Leave the fighting to McGuigan’.
Crowned Commonwealth Games featherweight champion in 1978, he made his professional debut in 1981, won the British title in 1983 and the European title in 1984. He went on to win the WBA featherweight title at the Queens Park Rangers’ Loftus Road ground in London, in June 1985, beating Panama’s Eusebio Pedroza, watched by a delirious crowd and 19m television viewers.
His profuse ‘thanks yous’ to his manager were commemorated in a spoof song Thank You Very Much, Mr Eastwood by comedian Dermot Morgan.
But the ‘father and son’ relationship turned sour when
McGuigan’s next fight against Wilfredo Gomez fell through and he went to Las Vegas instead for a triumphant lap of honour against Steve Cruz, a plumber from Forth Worth, Texas, who had never won more than a $5,000 (€4,500) purse. In searing 110 degree heat in June 1986, McGuigan, suffering from dehydration, lost the fight and the hopes of the Irish nation.
Although he had won 32 of his professional fights, losing only three, the pair severed all connection in the aftermath of the Las Vegas debacle and ended up in court four years later. Eastwood won damages estimated at £450,000 (€500,00) against his former protege, who had claimed in his autobiography that Eastwood had allowed him to go into the fight while injured.
“The whole thing was most unfortunate,” Eastwood told the Irish Independent in 2006. “It probably was something that shouldn’t have happened. But you know I used to say at the time that he had more advisers than the Queen had soldiers.”
Despite never speaking to each other again, Eastwood kept a signed pair of McGuigan’s boxing gloves in his home in Cultra, near Hollywood, Co Down, and maintained his most famous boxer was “a superstar”.
Bernard Joseph Eastwood, who died last Monday at the age of 87, was born in Cookstown, Co Tyrone, on March 26, 1932. He was educated locally and grew into a talented
Gaelic football player. The four points he scored for Tyrone against Dublin in the 1948 minor All-Ireland football final in Croke Park helped his county win back-to-back titles.
While still at school he had developed an obsession with boxing through a Cork-born teacher and watching bouts among the American airmen based near his home.
He married his wife Frances, from Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, when he was 19 and managed a local pub before moving to Belfast. Described as “a gifted businessman” he opened a gym in King Street, promoted boxing contests and over the years opened a string of bookie shops throughout Northern Ireland.
He quit boxing in 1969 to concentrate on his business interests but came out of retirement in 1979 to manage McGuigan. Although ‘The Clones Cyclone’ was his greatest success he also established the King’s Hall in Belfast as a major boxing venue and managed various other fighters such as Paul Hodkinson, Dave ‘Boy’ McAuley and for a couple of years in the early 1990s, Steve Collins.
His career as a promoter brought him into contact with many of the great characters of the era and he had a particular affection for Don King, the colourful American who promoted many of Muhammad Ali’s most famous bouts, including ‘The Rumble in the Jungle’ with George Foreman and his fight in Croke Park, Dublin, with Al ‘Blue’ Lewis.
Eastwood hit the jackpot in 2008 when he sold his chain of bookie shops to Ladbrokes for £135m (€150m), making him one of the richest men in Northern Ireland.
In the years that followed he invested in a property empire with borrowings from Anglo Irish Bank. But like other developers he was badly hit by the financial downturn.
The BBC reported in 2012 that five property companies associated with him had been placed in examinership, a move described by a family spokesman as “unnecessarily aggressive”. The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (the former Anglo Irish Bank) claimed it was owed €83.8m by his company Wildrose Properties.
Following Barney Eastwood’s death Barry McGuigan, now a boxing commentator and promoter, paid a warm tribute to his one-time manager and said: “We achieved great things together and shared some amazing times.”
Barney Eastwood is survived by his wife and children Brian, Peter, Adrian, Fiona, Stephen and Fearghal. He was predeceased by his son Fintan. His funeral took place in Belfast last Friday.