Dan Donnelly (boxer) - Champion of The Needy

Champion of The Needy

Donnelly was born in the docks of Dublin, Ireland in March 1788. He came from a family of seventeen children. His father was a carpenter, but suffered from chest complaints, probably bronchitis, and was frequently out of work. In those days there was no pay if you didn't work. It was a terrific struggle to bring up a family of that size. To Donnelly, like most kids of his time, this was the life he knew and was not particularly aware of the poverty around him. As soon as he was able, he went to work as a carpenter.

The country was still reeling from the aftermath of the 1798 Rebellion when the Act of Union was passed. It merged the Kingdom of Ireland and the Kingdom of Britain to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. There was a smooth transition to the Union that was only slightly disrupted by a revolt in Dublin in 1803. This campaign was doomed to failure, but it had a profound effect on Dan Donnelly. One of his workmates at Connery's timber yard on Sir John Rogerson's Quay was the brother of Anne Devlin. Anne played a central role in the conspiracy. Anne Devlin was Robert Emmet's housekeeper. She was arrested, tortured, and jailed. Emmet, who led the revolt, was hanged and beheaded once dead. Donnelly now lived in a land that seemed leaderless and broken in spirit—a land in desperate need for someone to come along and give the British a bloody nose.

During the period between the 1798 Rebellion, the Act of Union, and O'Connell's political campaign, there was Dan Donnelly. He gave the Irish a sense of pride and self-respect at a time when it was badly needed. Boxing is democratic. In hurling, soccer, Gaelic football, or rugby, there are 11–15 members on a team. The boxer is on his own in the ring. There's no one there to back him up.

Even on the tough streets of Dublin, Dan Donnelly had a reputation of being a hard man to provoke, a man who would go to great lengths to avoid settling an argument in the traditional manner. But when the need arose—usually when the old, feeble, or female were mistreated—Donnelly was known to be handy with his fists, and he became the district's new fighting hero.

There was an instance where he heard the screams of a young woman down at the dockside area where he lived. He found two burly sailors were attacking this young woman. He went to her rescue. The sailors grabbed him, attacked him with stones, and kicked him. He ended up with a mangled arm, which would have certainly precluded any boxing career that might have lain ahead of him. Luckily, he was taken to the premises of Dr. Abraham Colles, a famous surgeon. At first he said the arm would have to be amputated, but he then delicately was able to put the arm together and put his arm around him and proclaimed him a "pocket Hercules". There was another instance where an old lady had died in poverty-stricken circumstances from a highly contagious fever. People were reluctant to approach the body, but Donnelly on hearing this, went to the room, hoisted the body up on his shoulders, and went off to a local graveyard, where he found grave diggers at work. He declared that the grave they were finishing would be for the woman. They refused, stating that it was reserved for a person of distinction. He insisted that she would be interred in that grave. The grave diggers stood back and let him do what he wanted to do.