Jack Doyle - Return To Ireland

Return To Ireland

He returned to Ireland with this new girlfriend Movita Castaneda (having recently split from his wife Judith Allan), a member of the Mexican aristocracy and (perhaps unfairly) branded as a Hollywood starlet. Following a celebrity wedding in Dublin's Westland Row Church they toured both sides of the Irish Sea, selling out music halls and opera houses.

Around this time Jack fought his last professional fight, against a journeyman called Chris Cole in front of 23,000 in Dublin's Dalymount Park. Arriving late for the bout after a stop at The Clarence Hotel for refreshments, the inebriated Doyle went down in the first. Movita packed up and moved back to Hollywood, where she went on to marry Marlon Brando.

Shortly after, Doyle found himself residing at Mountjoy Jail in Dublin for knocking out a Garda Detective in a Ranelagh pub. He moved to England and his spiral downwards into alcoholism and bankruptcy continued. He found his friends had deserted him as fast as his bank balance, spent in his own words on "slow horses and fast women". He odd-jobbed for a while but when he couldn't afford the rent on his humble flat, he took to sleeping at the homes of friends, in Pimlico, London, SW1. His only source of income during this time was an allowance he received from Movita.

He died in 1978 at St. Mary's Hospital in Paddington and was buried in his native Cobh in the Old Church Cemetery.

Shortly before his death, he was interviewed by a journalist who asked him if he had any regrets about not spending his money more wisely. "None at all," he said, "twas never a generous man went to hell."