McDonagh’s Round

Irish Voice Sport

McDonagh’s Round

June 28, 2007

Ruggedly handsome and looking younger and fitter than his 44 years, Seamus McDonagh looks more like a budding film star than the Irish boxing sensation he made his name as. But don’t be fooled by appearances, behind the tough guy exterior lies a sensitive soul who’s as comfortable discussing poetry as he is throwing a left hook. Now he’ll make his mark on a different kind of stage: treading the boards Off Broadway in the starring role of the new play Kid Shamrock. He talks to Cahir O'Doherty about the sporting life and his own battles along the way.

Any writer can tell you, there’s real drama in boxing. When the bell rings the crowd is completely captivated, waiting for the inevitable fall.

And almost always some boxer does fall, taking his dreams with him, even as his opponent punches the air victoriously. What could be more compelling than that?

Seamus McDonagh knows all about it, the peculiar loneliness of standing in the brightly lit ring, eyeing your wary opponent, and trying to impose your will.

“Boxing is completely psychological,” he says during a recent interview with the Irish Voice. “You could write books about it, about everything that happens to you from the moment when you step through the ropes.”

At first glance McDonagh might seem like an unlikely candidate for the boxing life himself. An honors graduate of St. John’s University with a degree in English literature, he is also a former New York Golden Gloves champion and was the number three ranked cruiserweight in the world.

But it was exactly his combination of strength and sensitivity that made for a champion. Add to that McDonagh’s own admission that he never actually liked boxing, and a fuller picture begins to emerge.

Born and raised in the tiny town of Enfield, Co. Meath, McDonagh left Ireland at the height of its recession in 1984 and moved to New York City, currently dividing his time between the Big Apple and San Francisco.

“The motto in our house growing up was “You’re as good as your last fight,” so you had better win it, you know? It was how my father motivated us to compete.

“But for a long time I resented him, I resented boxing, I mean I resented the whole package. But now I see that he just wanted the best for us, that he was sharing what he thought would be the best thing for us to do. He was sharing his whole life experience with us, everything he knew.”

From an early age McDonagh’s father was training his sons to fight. “He would drive around the neighborhood until he found some tough kid. He’d put the gloves on us and we’d start boxing. It’s how we got started.”

In 1990, against the wishes of his own father who felt he wasn’t ready, McDonagh fought Evander Holyfield, the world heavyweight champion in Atlantic City.

A cruiserweight, McDonagh’s handlers decided he should take his shot as a heavyweight before he had proved himself at his own level. They pointed to McDonagh’s long series of wins against formidable opponents he was winner of the Golden Gloves, he’d become a local celebrity and they claimed with justification that he was on a roll.

But after three long and surprisingly scrappy rounds against Holyfield, McDonagh was declared a technical knockout in early the fourth round for the second time in his entire career.

With all McDonagh’s professional experience and understanding, it’s no surprise that he has just been cast to play the title character in Robert Cassidy Jr.’s new boxing play Kid Shamrock, which opens this weekend at the Producers Club in Manhattan.

Based on the long life and career of the playwright’s own famous father, one-time middleweight and light heavyweight contender “Irish Bobby” Cassidy, the play depicts the euphoria of becoming a champion alongside his father’s long struggle with alcoholism. McDonagh was a natural choice for the part, having struggled with the same demons for years himself.

Says McDonagh, “I got a call from playwright Bobby Cassidy, and I had known his dad, who the play is about, from boxing circles in New York. In 1975 Cassidy was ranked number one light heavyweight in the world, but he never got his title shot. It was due to his drinking.

“And that’s a metaphor for what happens to most of us in life? Who gets their title shot? Nobody!”

McDonagh throws his head back and laughs heartily. “We can all relate to that, I think.”

Reading the script McDonagh knew right away that it was perfect for him. “I loved the story because it talked about all the issues I knew as a professional boxer. There were a lot of parallels to my own life.

“Most fighters end up with the raw end of the stick. They make the money, but they often come from the ghetto to begin with so it just goes to their heads. Or they actually get hit in the head so much themselves they misspend it, they’re not used to having it and it just goes.

There are guys who come out well, but I don’t know what the percentage is. I imagine its low.”

There’s another, more intimate reason for McDonagh’s investment in the play. “I’m a recovered alcoholic. People always describe you as recovering, which is not true. You do recover if someone shows you how – so I describe myself as a recovered alcoholic.

“And I do the 12 steps every day to stay recovered. I begin the day by writing down my fears and anxieties, and then I meditate. I know that when I don’t get what I want I get resentful, so I struggle to deal with that. Winning that struggle is very powerful.”

But when the euphoria of winning in the boxing ring is gone, when the crowds have gone home and you’ve hung up your belt, what do you do to regain the high you once knew as a champion? For McDonagh, who quit boxing in 1991, the answer was drink.

“It’s not a fantasy high, it’s real high when it’s happening. I want to feel good now, the thinking goes. So you might as well do it all and get it all now. But that’s also the kind of thinking that can lead you into trouble.”

Waking up the morning after is the hard part. One morning, after a night of hard drinking that tuned out to be his last, McDonagh was standing on the corner of 34th Street and 11th Avenue in New York. His car had been towed again, and he’d forgotten where he’d parked it. It was a low point but just at that moment his new life beckoned too.

Says McDonagh, “I’m standing there on the street and the actor Jimmy Smallhorne drives by and he roars, ‘Where are you going?’ He’d just got the lead in the Bobby Sands play at The Irish Arts Center. Very quickly I was in the play too.”

The door to his new life had opened, on his own terms, where he finally got to pick his own battles.

And this weekend a bright new chapter in his life will open when he steps onto stage as the title character in Kid Shamrock. If he speaks with surprising authority on stage it’s because he’s earned it, after all.

As for boxing itself, after all this time he’s philosophical and accepting about it. “Boxing will probably be banned, someday, when we become more civilized,” he says, with a wry smile. In the meantime catch him on stage this weekend as he delivers a new knockout.

Kid Shamrock will premiere June 29 at 7:30 p.m. and have two performances on Saturday June 30 at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The venue is the Producers’ Club Theaters, 358 West 44th Street. For tickets phone 212-352-3101.

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