The former world champion boxer’s epic life has been scarred by sectarianism and alcoholism. But he insists he would not change a thing
‘I’ve had a beautiful wee life,” Eamonn Magee says soon after he has opened the front door in his dressing gown and cracked open his first beer of the day just after 11 on a Monday morning. The former boxer, who knocked down Ricky Hatton in 2002 and was a world champion when he won the WBU welterweight title, is cut and bruised from being attacked the night before.
Magee’s left hand is also swollen with an obviously broken finger making him wince whenever it brushes against his can of Carling. Such pain, however, is fleeting compared with the deeper hurt that runs through him in Ardoyne, the tough Republican enclave of Belfast, where Magee’s life has been scarred by violent sectarianism, tragedy and alcoholism.
Written by Donald McRae
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/may/08/eamonn-magee-boxer-bullet-ira-sectarianism-world-champion under the title “Eamonn Magee: ‘My father convinced the IRA to give me one bullet’”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
