A Geographical Overview

The Boxing Scene in Early to Mid- twentieth Century Dublin: A Geographical overview. 

Theatres and Music Halls served as a cornerstone of entertainment from the eighteenth-century. Their relationship to boxing can be broken down into three phases. The first is the bare knuckle phase, when a pugilist who was engaged at a theatre or Music Hall covered their naked fists to display their skills to an audience. It attracted curious onlookers, the amateurs and those interested in self-defence. In the decades to come, bare knuckle boxers, who adorned gloves, were able to use the ring and stage in tandem. Performing their boxing skills as part of a theatrical show. And boxing (this being gloved sparring) was respectable enough that the manager of the Theatre Royal in Crow Street could facilitate boxing lessons at Temple Lane in Dublin.

What’s more, theatres like the Royal in London could advertise a pantomime that included the cream of boxing, like Belcher, Cribb, Dutch Sam and Dogherty, who employed their skill in partnership with the production. It was a form of entertainment that appealed to theatre managers and entrepreneurs alike. Had this not been the case, it could be said, the sport would have declined. 

This successes can be illustrated through Pierce Egan, the first chronicler of boxing. His book Life in London became an eminent depiction of life in the Regency period. It was so popular, in fact, that it was followed by a show. Egan was in Dublin in the 1830s and assisted Calcraft as a secretary, treasurer and business manager at Dublin’s Theatre Royal. 

His two characters from Life in London Tom and Jerry engaged in a boxing scene excited lively interest in the city. While, Dan Donnelly’s sporting parlour was considered important enough to have a facsimile background painted for Egan’s ful burletta of ‘’ Life in Dublin’’ and it also featured a set-to between Mr. David Reese and ‘’Corinthian Tom’’ Boosting the sports popularity as well as respectability. 

The Old Royal 

The next phase consisted of big fistic tours made popular in the late nineteenth century through renowned boxers like John L. Sullivan. It offered the public a chance to see their hero in an exchange with an accomplished sparring partner. 

The Theatre Royal was destroyed by fire in 1880. On the site was built The Leinster Hall which also facilitated boxers like Charlie Mitchell. It opened in 1886 and closed in 1897. The building was later remodelled and was known as the ‘new’ Royal. One of the biggest fights in Irish history Roche v. Burns occurred at this venue in 1908. 

The third phase, which materialised in the 1880s, and carries on in our time, involved the undertaking of actual boxing contests and not just gloved exhibitions. In this period prize-fighting had been displaced by amateur and professional boxing under Marquis of Queensbury rules. In London the National Sporting Club (NSC) was opened as a private club in 1891, and served as a substantial boxing venue. And while it could only hold thirteen hundred spectators. It consolidated boxing and made it respectable. Boxing began to distance itself from an unsavoury sport, and became a national one. 

Boxing Venues of the Nineteenth Century: Not just Bricks and Mortar 

In Dublin there was no equivalent to the NSC. In the early nineteenth century boxing transpired at the Curragh, Portobello or Marlborough Barracks (McKee Barracks). While, the boxing promoters of that time made use of what was obtainable, including the Earlsfort Terrace Rink (roller skating rink) Parnell Square Hall (most likely the Ancient Order of Hibernians Hall) and Rutland Square Hall (most likely Fowlers Hall which served as an Orange Lodge) as well as parks, rugby grounds/ sports stadiums. 

Many of the unique and historic buildings that once hosted boxing events in Dublin, including the substantial Theatre Royal on Hawkins Street, are no more. Obviously, they were designed for entertainment. More importantly perhaps is their geographical location -they were easily reached by the docklands and inner-city communities, who desired an escape from the drudgery of working life. By the 1890s most could be reached from the suburbs, places like Glasnevin, Rathfarnham and Inchicore, on account of the new tram system. 

The Music Halls of Ireland and Britain facilitated an activity that encompassed new rules and equipment. For gloved boxing had earned a degree of respectability. It veered toward but never became pure entertainment. Its function was instead a distinct activity that’s essential ingredient was unpredictability. 

The Queensbury rules stipulated that gloves should be of a ‘’fair size’’ yet this could mean anything, and they were often skin tight, which made contests particularly spirited. The number of rounds that occurred do not seem to exceed twenty rounds. One exception perhaps was when Miler Keogh and Pat Scully fought over 30 rounds. Though this may be a misprint as the fight was ratified at Sport Office (83 Middle Abbey St) which indicates it occurred under Queensbury rules. This coincides with the National Sporting Club who scheduled twenty rounds maximum for championship fights. 

The Rotunda 

The Rotunda Round Room was one of Dublin’s earliest Music Halls, which began facilitating boxing from the 1880s. The formation of the Amateur Boxing Association in Britain in 1880 seen the rise of amateur boxing clubs in both Britain and Ireland. The Rotunda facilitated Irish clubs like the Dublin Amaterg Boxing Cub (not a misspelling). The Irish Championship of 1884 included categories in boxing (four weights) as well as wrestling, single-stick and foil. The County Dublin Boxing Club also held its annual competition at the Round Rooms in 1886, where it was noted that they needed a proper instructor. A good indication that amateur boxing was not quite developed in Ireland in this period. The Round Room also facilitated champion boxing and in March of 1888, for example, it hosted the Irish Boxing Championships. On offer, for the winners, five valuable sterling silver belts with five sets of Earl’s Boxing gloves for runners up which could be viewed at Johnson's of 94 Grafton Street.

The promoter John C. Earl promised to bring the middle and welterweight champions to the Imperial Theatre Royal Westminster for the all-England Championships. Peter Maher, who won the 1888 Middleweight Championship of Ireland, and the 1890 Heavyweight Championship of Ireland, learned the basics at the North City Gymnasium, but made his debut at the Rotunda, where he whipped a big fella named Sullivan. Later, Tony Sage, the veteran sportsman of Dublin took hold of him with a view of making him champion of the world. 

       Peter Maher Irish Champion 

In 1911 King Edward was at the races at Leopardstown, and many flocked to get a glimpse of royalty, yet, others spent their time at the Rotunda, to observe Con O’ Kelly (Hull based Cork man) face Packy Mahoney, also of Cork. Mahoney would gain the Irish title after defeating Dublin’s Dan Yoyles at the NSC on St. Patrick’s Day 1913. Yoyles the army and navy heavyweight champion fought an epic battle with Bombardier Billy Wells for the British Empire Title that same year. 

Notable contests that occurred at the Round Room included Johnny Curran Irish bantam champion and Johnny Hughes 8 stone champion of England. As well as London’s Harry Duncan who was billed as 8-stone champion of England and Dixie Kidd who was billed as the world welter champion (the ring being invaded a decision was not reached). An indication that such contests could be rowdy affairs. The Dixie Kid would face Duncan again at Blackfriars in England. The Rotunda remained a location that facilitated boxing well into the late 1940s; it had received so many spectators in 1925 that the Dublin Committee recommended that, ‘only 1.000 persons be allowed entrance to functions of this kind.’ 

Antient Concert Rooms 

Archiseek Image 

The Rooms as they would of looked originally. 

The Building has not changed much today.

The most important venue was perhaps the Antient Concert Rooms on Great Brunswick Street (Pearse Street). It was in many respects the home of Irish boxing by the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The building had originally been the Dublin Oil and Gas Company Gosling and Taylor, which was set up to extract gas from fish oil. It went into liquidation in 1834 and the 800 seat Antient Concert Rooms opened in 1842. This venue rapidly became the centre of Dublin musical life. 

Boxing at the venue started around 1890. One of the first recorded fights was between Alf Gunner and a man named Hacket. In December of that year, the Antient Concert Rooms advertised a high-profile contest between Joe McAuliffe Champion of California and Peter Maher. The fight had been brought about by the Irish sportsman and promoter Tony Sage, who also supplied a splendid cup for amateurs. It never went ahead, but this was a key moment in Irish boxing as rumours had circulated that the police might interfere. The fight was a test of boxing's legality, and it was cancelled not to risk any interference; however, it was stated that, ‘the exhibitions would have been one of scientific boxing only, and that the arrangements would have been found of the most perfect kind.’

A familiar face in the early days of the Concert Rooms was Myler Keogh of Donnybrook. The son of a prize fighter who first came to public notice in 1889 when he fought a prize fight at Ballsbridge. The same year that John L. Sullivan fought his last bare-knuckle fight. Like Sullivan, Keogh covered his fits with leather (adorned boxing gloves). He became a regular at the Concert Rooms thereafter, fighting some 16 times over a five-year period. He knocked out Tom Lynch in 1893 at the Concert Rooms securing the Middleweight Championship of Ireland. In 1902 he returned to this venue to face Jem Roche of Wexford, he lost badly and retired a year later. Keogh’s acclaim, it may be said, was derived from James Joyce's passing awareness of his career and his mention of him as 'Dublin's pet lamb', in several passages of Ulysses. By the 1920s this venue was a cinema and ballroom, though, it was still utilised for amateur contests, and as late as 1926 St. Andrews Club put on a tournament there. 

Boxing also occurred at the Mechanics Theatre on Abbey Street where D. Reilly (Dominick F. C) fought Pat Whelan for twenty rounds and a large purse presented by the management. Another important boxing venue existed at 47 York Street which had previously been Father Matthews Total Absence Society in the 1880s. By the 1890s, however, it was Patrick Dowling’s School of Arms, where many a good contest was undertaken. However, that establishment was finished by 1900. A sale notice described the venue as a spacious house let out to clubs and societies. In the following year it was occupied by the Dublin Concert Halls Artists Association. In 1932, not far away at No. 42, a large Georgian room at the rear of a tenement facilitated the beginning of St Andrews Amateur club. That building has also been bulldozed. 

While there were efforts made to provide a venue for professional boxing in the city, it never came to anything. There were several venues, including Dan Lowrey’s Music Hall or the Empire Theatre, that facilitated Irish boxing. They cemented an old relationship between the theatre and this unique sport. The expansion and growth of this connection, it could be said, made boxing possible.