Dan Donnelly (boxer) - Donnelly's Arm

Donnelly's Arm

Dan was laid to rest, albeit briefly, at Bully's Acre, one of the city's oldest cemeteries. After just a few nights, grave robbers put Donnelly's body in a sack and delivered him to an eminent surgeon who paid good money for cadavers for study. They may even have been working to order.

Donnelly's admirers tracked the body to the home of a surgeon by the name of Hall and threatened him with death. There was a quick negotiation and he agreed to give the body back as long as he could keep the right arm, the one that slew the English champions, for medical observation. The arm was preserved in red lead paint, and traveled to a medical college in Scotland where it was used by medical students for a number of years to study how all the bones worked together.

From an Edinburgh classroom, the arm became an exhibit in a Victorian travelling circus, and it journeyed around Britain many times. In the early 20th century, it finally came back to Ireland. In 1904, a Belfast bookmaker, Hugh "Texas" McAlevey, acquired the arm and displayed it in his pub.

The publican got tired of it and thought the grisly-looking sight might be frightening off customers, so he stuck it up in an attic. A betting parlor employee remembers as a teenager being told not to go up in the attic—that Donnelly's ghost was up there.

Donnelly's arm made it back to Kilcullen in the 1950s. Publican Jim Byrne came up with the idea of recreating Donnelly's fight with George Cooper in the Curragh. The fight was promoted by bringing Donnelly's arm back to where it defeated the English opponent.

The pageant brought the historic contest alive again, rekindling the Dan Donnelly fire. It was An Tóstal, an Irish festival started at that time nationwide in an effort to promote tourism. Each region was encouraged to have some sort of festival to attract visitors. This was the genesis of the Dan Donnelly pageant.

Kevin McCourt, an army officer, was picked to play George Cooper, the English champion; Jim Berney was chosen to portray Dan Donnelly, the Irish champion. George Cooper and Dan Donnelly, as played by McCourt and Berney, had a group of supporters as well, dressed up and cheering, carrying them down into the arena. Two "supporters" performed getting involved in a ruckus. Local sporting clubs and townspeople comprised the spectators.

Donnelly's arm found a new home in Jim Byrne's pub, "The Hideout." It became a popular attraction in Kilcullen.

It was on display there for 43 years until Jim Byrne died and the pub passed to his son, Desmond. Des then eventually sold the pub.

Des died 6 December 2005. On that day, his son took a phone call from James J. Houlihan in America, looking to take the arm and display it there. Deciding this was not the appropriate time, he opted to call at a later date. In February of the following year, he called the widow Josephine and told her he was going to have an exhibition entitled "Fighting Irishmen: A Celebration of the Celtic Warrior". She was not interested at the time believing that he would take the arm and she would never see it again. He kept on writing her, phoning her, and asking her to look at his website. Convinced that he was an honorable, respected man, she agreed to put the trip in motion.

Josephine wouldn't let the human limb that was almost 200 years old go into a cargo hold for transportation to America. One of Des's bandmates had been Henry Donohoe, then the chief pilot for Aer Lingus. She called him and asked how to get the arm to the States. He told her that he would take it in the cockpit with himself.

Josephine sat in first class. A special box was made for the arm, crating around it to prevent it from getting banged around. It fit into the cockpit with two inches to spare.

As the centerpiece of the Fighting Irishmen Exhibit, Donnelly's arm went on display at the Irish Arts Center in New York City, in the fall of 2006. The show traveled across the city to the South Street Seaport Museum in 2007. Its next appearance was at Boston College's John J. Burns Library in 2008. The arm returned to Ireland in 2009 when the show arrived at the Ulster American Folk Park in Omagh. 2010 was a homecoming when the exhibition appeared at the Gaelic Athletic Association museum at Croke Park in Dublin.