Tag Archives: mike mctigue

THE public are being urged to have their say on a proposal to rename a bridge in Ennis after a sporting legend of Clare. As reported in The Clare Champion earlier this month efforts are being made to change the name of Victoria Bridge at Cusack Road to The Mike McTigue Bridge in honour of the famous sportsman from Kilnamona. The Ennis Municipal District is now inviting the public to make submissions on the proposal with online consultation now open and continuing until Friday, April 7. The bridge is dated to 1840 and when this road was first built, the road was known as New Road. It later became Victoria Road, then Cusack Road. Mike McTigue was born in Lickaune, Kilnamona Co Clare in 1891, Mike was one of 11 sons and one daughter of Pat McTigue and Ellen McTigue (née Nylon). He emigrated to New York in 1912 where he went on to become a professional boxer and fought …

CHAIRMAN of the Mike McTigue Memorial Group Nicholas Rynne is a grand-nephew of the world champion and said he was aware of the fighter from a fairly young age. “There used to be a picture of him in the old Flan’s bar in Ennis, my father would often be asked about him as well. “We became more aware after the book about him came out, A Bloody Canvas: The Mike McTigue Story, written by Andrew Gallimore. We started to get more inquisitive as we grew up,” said Nicholas. There is a GoFundMe page set up to help pay for the memorial to McTigue. The GoFundMe has a target of raising €20,000 and will be the main source of funding, with one or two other local fundraisers set to take place also. On the idea for the memorial, he said, “Kevin Rynne and myself were talking about three years ago and we decided that we should do something for the centenary …

PROBABLY unknown to most younger readers, Kilnamona’s Mike McTigue is one of Clare’s all time sporting heroes, having won the World Light Heavyweight Title in 1923. With the centenary approaching, the world champion’s namesake Michael McTigue is going to create a new monument to one of Kilnamona’s most illustrious sons. Michael is actually a distant relative of the boxer, while locals Nicholas Rynne, Kevin Rynne and Antoinette McCormack are grand nephews and a grand niece of the man who took the belt. With the Civil War raging around Dublin, McTigue won the title on St Patrick’s Day, 1923, with a points victory over Senagalese fighter Battling Siki. Unlike today when there are numerous belts and four major sanctioning bodies, in 1923 there was just one world champion. At light heavyweight, McTigue was the man. The story of the fight is worthy a book in itself, with Siki having recently become the champion against the odds; McTigue being an outsider but …

MIKE McTigue beats Battling Siki was the headline of the lead story  in The Clare Champion the week after the Kilnamona man took the World Light Heavyweight title on St Patrick’s Day 1923. Sub-headlines read ‘Clareman’s wonderful display’ and ‘Triumph of brain over brawn’. The paper had pictures of the two fighters across its front page, while the lead story described the excitement and anticipation that gripped the county, as people waited for news from Dublin. “Ennis was agog with excitement on Saturday evening, anxiously awaiting the result of the fight between Battling Siki and Mike McTigue for the light heavyweight championship of the world and the heavyweight championship of Europe. “Large crowds arrived from the most distant parts of the county and from 8.30pm onwards, rumours and counter rumours with regard to the result of the contest filled the air. (See rather grainy footage from the fight on YouTube link below) “The suspense was almost unbearable and great was …

A Commemorative plaque, honouring the late John O’Gorman will be unveiled in  Doonbeg village on this Saturday at 2pm. Already remembered for his huge contribution to Clare GAA, in the form of the O’Gorman Cup, John O’Gorman’s contribution to the ICMSA will now be acknowledged on Saturday. He was the first national vice-chairman of the ICMSA, which was established following a meeting in Nenagh on July 8, 1950. Incredibly, John O’Gorman cycled to that meeting in Nenagh with a neighbour from Clohanes, Doonbeg. They left home at 4am on the day of the meeting, returning the following morning at 4am. Martin McMahon, Clare ICMSA chairman, paid tribute to John O’Gorman this week, saying the Doonbeg man was a visionary figure. “He got up off his backside, went to Nenagh and formed the ICMSA. We owe him a huge debt. He saw that there was a need for representation for farmers and he saw the changes in the times,” Martin McMahon …

HE was famously known around Ennis as “the man with the tractor”. Yet there was a lot more to John O’Donoghue, a whole lot more. In the first instance, he was a son, a brother, an uncle, a neighbour and, above all else, a friend. A man who neither backed down nor backed off when put to the test, a man with an iron will when he had made his mind up and a person who lived every one of his 93 years without fear. To further enhance his many hidden qualities, he was a passionate GAA man, an engrossing political enthusiast and an outstanding conversationalist and raconteur. John was born in the townland of Drumcreen on the borders of Dysart and Kilnamona in June 1920. He was the second child of Jack and Mary O’Donoghue (née Kelly). His sister, Bridie, married in Crusheen and became the mother of the famous Tierney clan there. John inherited the family farm when …