Ex-boxer was still haunted by his past

BY SARAH WARD BRADLEY Welsh gave an interview just days before he was shot dead in which he said his past was “always with him”. In a story published in an Edinburgh newspaper last Saturday, he spoke of spending his teenage years getting involved in protection rackets, before a spell in prison made him feel that being behind bars was for “imbeciles”. The 48-year-old said boxing offered him “a way out of the ghetto”. Welsh said: “Boxing got me through the very hard periods where I went off the tracks. “I was born in Moredun in the 70s, when there was nothing there. It was an area where you grew up with the mentality that you had to go and take stuff and I was predacious due to a lack of education. “Everybody knows my back story, about going to prison and using boxing to transform my life. “At the time, I was a young boy. From 15 to 19, I went through the stratosphere, got involved in protection rackets, the security industry. I was a nightclub promoter. However, the minute I landed in prison, I realised I was with a bunch of imbeciles.” But he said even two decades later, his past was never far away. Welsh added: “It’s always with me but I don’t have to atone myself for anybody. The things I did, they were wrong, but I understand why I did them, because I had f*** all. “Of course, I regret them. I have a daughter and a wee boy who is like a son to me, and I want a better society. That’s why I do what I do.” Welsh’s work at Holyrood Boxing Gym, running classes for children, women and unemployed and homeless people, attracted Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh’s attention. But despite landing the role of gangland boss and sauna owner Doyle in T2 Trainspotting, he ruled out a screen career. He said: “Thing is, all they would want me to play is the Scottish hardman. I’d be typecast.”