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The Public Nuisance Podcast
Host Sean McComb interviews various guests
The Public Nuisance Podcast
The Public Nuisance Podcast #053 Faith After Fighting with John Connors
Welcome to a new episode of The Public Nuisance Podcast with me, Sean McComb.
This week we welcome John Connors to the podcast.
We cover life after the cheers, faith after fighting, Darndale roots, world tournaments, brutal weight cuts, sparring damage, MMA vs boxing safety, Ireland’s boxing ecosystem, Traveller fighters setting the standard, acting as controlled chaos, talent versus work, ego and humility, miracles at Knock, and finding purpose beyond the ring.
New episodes every Tuesday.
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Sean McComb
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Killen Studios
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That Prize Guy
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Website: https://thatprizeguy.co.uk/
Welcome to this episode of the Pump Nations Podcast brought to you from Killing Studios right here where you can get all your content on from Four Shoots Podcast Studios set up for you. What if it's a day? We have former Irish champion, John Connors.
SPEAKER_03:It wouldn't add up to the amount of titles you won, Sean. I won a few back in the day, yeah. She just where you come from boxing was just a part of part of the deal, you know. You have to box and you or or you get bullied, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, exactly it. Um they were through the hands, uh like they were still getting old boxing sessions in every now and again.
SPEAKER_03:Every now and again, yeah, but I'm just sort of riddled with inju injuries, you know. Uh the other day I there was a there's a big sort of there's a big sort of martial arts film and they're looking for they were looking for real fighters rather than actors, but the producer knew of my fighting background, so I took the gloves out, dusted them off, and then uh a couple of rounds of pads and sent them on the video. So fingers crossed.
SPEAKER_00:Fingers crossed, fingers crossed. It's it goes a long way, you know. It's it's I think a lot of it I think there's a great like there's a stigma around like boxing and and where it comes from and in the background that people have the box, but what it creates overall is you know the discipline that you need to have the boxes You know, if you let's say you speak to someone from an upper class area and you tell them you're a boxer, they're like what they can't believe it, they're like punched in the face.
SPEAKER_03:The best people I know are boxers, you know. There last Saturday, myself and Danielle were at the 50 year anniversary of my boxing club, uh Darndale Boxing Club. So it was founded in 75 and uh that club has had just like such an impact in the area you can't even really quantify, you know. Never mind all the Irish titles and all that, and like best club in Ireland many times, and Leinster and Dublin many, many times. But I mean um the trainers there were more than just trainers, you know, they trained people for life. And you know, the head coach Joe Russell, Bartler they'd call him, was like a father figure to me. And you know, him along with other people were a big part of why I'm still here, you know, and then boxing years and what I learned from boxing, you know. Uh but they saved so many people out there, man, hundreds, if not thousands of people in the 50 years, you know.
SPEAKER_00:It's crazy the respect you have for a boxing coach, isn't it? No matter what unbelievable, no matter how bold you are outside of boxing, no matter how like much of a like you know anti-social behaviour, whatever you get up like me. I was involved in a lot of anti-social behaviour and I had very little respect for anyone growing up. It was a little bastard, as you can imagine. Most kids are from the from the area, you know. And but my coach was like you always had that respect, and you would never like you were even afraid to lie to him when you when you were out of order or you were being bold, you would just say, I'm sorry. You wouldn't even go as far as telling yours telling lies to get out of it.
SPEAKER_03:Even to this day, I go into the pub there at the Newtown House, which is right beside the club, and my trainer would be in there when I I smoke and a drink, you know. Um I when I see him, I don't smoke, but I just don't, you know what I mean? Because he'd say, You fucking smoking, eh?
SPEAKER_00:No, no, I he was just like no for that.
SPEAKER_03:I just turned into a little child again. But it is the respect to have for him, you know what I mean? It's like you it's a bond as well that that you'll never forget because you know, man, when you're young and you've known that you've been in clubs all your life, like you know I spent what right my whole childhood of into early adulthood just living in a boxing club.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:You're there five, six times a week, like coming up the Wains and all, you'll be there six times a week. The amount of time you're spending the UCL, and then when you're going to the stadium, you'll be there twelve hours with them one day, twelve hours the next day. So I mean, they really become your family, and no matter what, you never forget them. And actually, boxing is what um uh tooled me up for acting because if you think about boxing, the level of focus that you have to have of what's in front of you, what's right in front of you, yeah. You're downloading information all the time, you know, um and and and you're reacting or trying not to react. Yeah, but that's what acting is, that's exactly what acting is. So when I went into a room full of professional actors and I never acted before, I was automatically at a certain level, and that was over the boxing.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:The focus I got from the boxing. And also, like they were complaining about silly stuff, and like I never got this role and boo-hoo, and I was like, so what I So what? On to the next one? Yeah, I've been punched in the face a million times. Like, that that's worse. Exactly. You know what I mean? So it kind of gives her perspective, you know what I mean? And when you you know, when you've when you've been through the wars in the ring and outside the ring, you know.
SPEAKER_00:You can compare everything with that, then nothing's gonna match it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and nothing's mad then well, you know. And it's mad the closest thing I've gotten to boxing, because when I boxed, um like people used to think that I was cold as ice, like I didn't have nerves, you know. It was the exact opposite, right? But I was bullied as a kid, so I learned not to show my nerves. I was very good enough. But honestly, I swear, Sean, I used to be in a pad way, brother. Like I used to go, what am I doing? You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00:You know, in the comment, you know, walk into the ring and then go, oh walk pit. I go, Pete, what the fuck am I? Sean in the dressing room doing the pad.
SPEAKER_03:Like I'd be saying, what am I doing? What am I torturing myself? And then I've seen the other fella doing the pads, and I'm convinced that he's a killer. Look at him, look at the shots of him. Oh, how's he so big? What are we dealing with? And you're eyes, he turns into Oliven Dragon Right. He turns into him, you know what I mean? And you're gone. And every time I did that, I used to say to myself, What are you doing? This is your last fight. And then you go out and you show the first punch, and you get stuck and you're like, ah, I love this. And then the relief afterwards is like euphoric relief. Yeah. And then you jump back down and you do it again, you convince yourself you're not doing it again. But it's a bottom of the mind.
SPEAKER_00:It's insightful. Okay.
SPEAKER_03:But man, that's why you have so much respect for fighters, and especially when they go pro as well. And obviously, amateurs at the high level, because they're the amateurs at the highest level are the best of the best. They are better than 99% of pros, of course they are. Yeah, of course. But but the level of discipline it takes, and then to do that all the time, all the time to be doing that.
SPEAKER_00:Five times a pick in some major tournaments. You're gonna go to Europeans or whatever. You want to Europeans, I had four fights in five days. That's crazy. Four fights in five days. So every time I won, I had a straight away and were you doing weight every time? Go go and put a sweatsuit on, drop a kilo or two, weigh in the next morning, rebuild myself for another fight, do it all again. Four days in a like four out of five days I only got one rest, one rest day. At the European games.
SPEAKER_03:I remember losing nine kilos in about twelve days for four nations, and uh when I finally ate the morning of the wane, I got got sick. Sick. Got sick, couldn't eat it, I couldn't digest it. And then when I got in the ring against this Welsh fella, he bit the shite out of me. It was my first loss, and I took a bad man. It was so it was hard.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and then you first loss so much of having your own way, but yeah, you near almost.
SPEAKER_03:And when you take a punch when you're dwing when you're drained like that, you could you're bollocks like you know how to do it. You know, but it's a tough sport, but it it's really a gladiator sport. Anybody gets in there the respect I have for them. That's why like it's the only sport I watch. The only sport of watch, but watch a bit of MMA, more the highlights, but boxing is the new sport I watch because for me, I don't I don't care about football now. You know, and boxing is the most dangerous sport.
SPEAKER_00:See the striking just yeah many there's been no deaths in the UFC, there's people die in the box you know, it's the blows of years. The the blows you're getting hit with. Yeah, boxing gloves on. People say boxing, oh, but you're wearing big boxing gloves. You can hit someone harder with a boxing glove on than you can or an MMA glove.
SPEAKER_03:But that's why there's so much debt is because of the big boxing gloves. The smaller gloves would knock you out uh quicker, which is what the MMA do. But the thing is about the boxing gloves is they're you're able to sustain them over 12 rounds then. That's what does the damage. That's what actually killed you. MMA is nowhere near as dangerous. Neither is if people talk about bare knuckle, bare knuckle is nothing. Bare knuckle just has exterior stuff, cuts and all. Yeah. But it's not it's not internal. They're not internal, you know. That's why boxing is so dangerous and not to be messed with. And you know yourself from like the the sparring is where you you get injured. The sparring is where you get hurt, the sparners where you die.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly, because you uh let's say as an amateur, you only fight three round fate, three threes maybe. If you spar for a full camp and they lead up to that competition, you maybe have you'll you'll spar f 60 rounds. You know what I mean? 60 rounds in six weeks, sparring sixty rounds with head gear and heavy gloves on, and in sparring you don't hold back, you go toe to toe, there's no tact, you're not gonna you know to try and work on stuff as an always you just get wired in.
SPEAKER_03:See the generation. What age you though, Sean?
SPEAKER_00:33.
SPEAKER_03:I'm 35 saying sort of generation, but uh when I we were growing up, like honestly, like we'd often wouldn't even wear headgar and sparn and and and we'd just kill each other. Yeah. We would and it wouldn't matter, because I grew up I was in my club, but we're just mad. You know what I mean? It was just loads of mad travellers and loads of mad working class kids from Darendell, and we just killed each other. And we wouldn't listen, box, box, box. We just would never listen. And then I remember like one time I got an injury, I got a I got a tennis elbow, and uh I I had that injury and it stopped me from sparring for three months, it stopped me from fighting. And I only realised that I had a headache for a long time, and only realised that when I stopped sparring, it disappeared. I went, Oh, I've I've had a headache now for two years, you know, taking constant punches.
SPEAKER_00:And then you were saying it like it sort of helped you get into your your acting career.
SPEAKER_03:Did absolutely, man, just a confidence of like confidence, and it's like look, you you face the nerves of fighting, you face fighting, and also just a hard, rigorous training. You go, what's this compared to that?
SPEAKER_00:It's a piece of piss. It's a piece of piss when you think in terms of the fear of it, there's still entertainment, boxing's still entertainment, you're entertained in front of so much people, on top of getting hit on the face, repeatedly repeatedly and repeatedly, and you're trying not to do that. Plus, we all have an ego, so you don't want to get beat, so you're afraid of losing. Absolutely. You're afraid of getting hit. Plus, you're trying to look good in front of all these spectators, yeah. So we're so much to um whereas acting you can just go into it. I'm sure that's where the confidence came from.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely, because you're just going, What's the worst that's gonna happen? Yeah, I'm not gonna get knocked out from the birdie. You know, fascinated by fighters like Carl Frampton. I know that near the end of his career he star he stopped sparring as much. Yeah, and he said it really helped him much. It made sense. It makes sense because you already have uh you already have that muscle memory anyway. Yeah, it's just that where it the wear and tear doesn't make so much sense when you get later. I know cowboy Soroni, that MMA fighter, he stopped sparring completely for the last five years of his career. Still, he doesn't spar at all.
SPEAKER_00:Anto Kikati doesn't spar? Does he not?
SPEAKER_03:Anto and me, we were on the Irish team together a few times, right? He was on I remember we went together 2005 in Wales at the Four Nations, and uh he was a year older than me. He's 89, isn't he? 1989. Nah, he would be so he was a year older than me. He's 36, now he was the same weight, he was 57 kilos at that time.
SPEAKER_00:Still the same weight. What a story, what a story this story. So happy from I think everyone is because he's such a likeable, you know, just normal, turned earth or even though.
SPEAKER_03:But you know see when you try to say as to people in England they're like they didn't know right now.
SPEAKER_00:Until he beat up Joe Cordina.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I know. Oh, and then he disappeared in his teens as well. Do you remember like he was so good and then late teens he kind of disappeared and then he came back and I always wondered what happened.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, in the Irish seniors, he lost bad points, and then he went off a radar, and he was just he he just he hates training. Yeah, he hates it, and he he he has to train but yeah, he hates it. But then as I say, he hates sparring too, so he won't spar.
SPEAKER_03:The best the best amateur fight I ever saw was it was the elite senior final between Carl Frampton and David Oliver Joyce. There was three knockdowns in it.
SPEAKER_00:I think it was tight scoring back then. It was tight scorn, it was two each, yeah. That's right, so yeah. They beat lumps of each other for the first round. I mean they went in to us walking in the middle of the round and beat lumps of each other and it was two each after the first round.
SPEAKER_03:Man, it was just so exciting. It was like I was big fans of both of them, and I I followed Carly's whole career, like all these fights in Belfast I went to watch. Uh I just loved him and and I loved the way he kind of brought the communities together as well. Just a gentleman class act. Yeah, and like one of Ireland's best.
SPEAKER_00:He was on last week, he was on here last week, and just so down the earth and relatable with just stuff that you know he went, you know, he he travelled a lot with my brother, they were on the same team, same airs team, and they went to travel a lot, and just so even still to this day with all the achievements and all his punditries doing he'd still make time for people, like for like well he's a class actor, he's a class actor, and he's one of the best analysts there is as well, and fairest.
SPEAKER_03:Very honest. And he doesn't he doesn't get swayed by just because he's working for this telly or this organisation, he doesn't go he stays doesn't sit on the fence.
SPEAKER_00:No, he stays straight, you know what I mean. Like I I think it comes from being, you know, being Irish. Absolutely. You know, we like I believe we all have we all were prey on our sleeve in terms of everything. Like we can't be sweared by money, we can't be sweared by oh, your job might be in chapter. If you say this, we just say it. We're very honest people, and I think it just comes from the background of being from a reality.
SPEAKER_03:We produce so many great fighters in this country, a tiny little country like Ireland, like it's a great thing. Uh and also we we hit just way a bit overweight even in the amateur boxing. If you look at now lately, especially in the underage, it's doing unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00:That's fan.
SPEAKER_03:But if you look at our population, the size of it, we hit so many times above our weight, it's unbelievable. Like fighting Irish is a very real thing.
SPEAKER_00:We finished um in the recent world championships, we finished seventh in the world medal stages above Cuba.
SPEAKER_03:And I can't I can bet you that everybody in that uh above Ireland is at least ten times their population.
SPEAKER_00:At least at least easy. Like we finished above TB. Yeah, who've popped up. They're ten, eleven times that the population. They were pot their their budget was sixteen million per Olympic cycle. Ireland's was four million. Wow. So they're spending four times the amount we are as a nation on their budget to make their fighters better in terms of nutrition, training camps, everything. They're getting four times what we're getting, and we're still finishing above them. A hundred percent.
SPEAKER_03:And then if you look at not to zone in on travellers, travelers make up 0.5% of the population of Ireland, so a half of 1%, and they make up sometimes up to 50% of the Irish champions at underage level. And then the majority of world medal winners at senior level since 2000.
SPEAKER_00:How crazy is that? Crazy. And they're they're so um they start so young, they're so advanced when they get the see when they get the boy in. That's what it is. See in Belfast for us coming down. See when we draw a traveller, we we we panic. Yeah, we always done it.
SPEAKER_03:When we drew someone from Belfast, that was always a thing.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Just not just traveler, but in Ireland, in Dublin, you didn't want someone from Belfast, you didn't want someone from Antrim.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you look you didn't want that. Because there's so much boxing clubs and it's just a lot of.
SPEAKER_03:And you know how many times I went in these Irish teams and the team was populated with travelers and Antrim fighters. Yeah, that's all it was. That's all it was. Like the loads of my trips. Me and Tommy McCarty going together, and Tyrone McKenna was there, and loads of the lads from the Michael Mongan. Do you ever remember Michael Mongen?
SPEAKER_00:Smash him. He was one of the like man, we're better. He was one of the most fair boxers in Ireland, and I remember everyone. I used to say to myself, he never has to fit anyone who's good because no one anyone was good used to move with. Used to dodge him all the time. Used to dodge him, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_03:But Sean, I remember we went away, me, him, me, him, and what's called the lad Mark McCullough, Tommy McCarty, there's a few other lads, uh, forget their names right now, but we went away and it was for the President's Cup in Azerbaijan. And you know at that time you if you got through uh a Russian or something, you you oh fuck's sake, a Russian, you're gonna get killed or whatever, or you're in the Ukrainian or these Europeans or whatever. And um I was sort of naive, you know. I I I got through an American, but uh but he was he was a world champion schoolboy. I didn't know. Yeah, thankfully I didn't know. Yeah, because he would have been fleeked out. But anyway, I gave him a good old go, he beat me 32 with 80 in, but I get my count and blah blah blah. He stopped everybody else and he won them. He went on and won another world title that year. But Michael Mongen, that was in my first fight, unluckily got him in the first fight. Michael Mongen, right, he kept getting drawn, all these killers, yeah, and he didn't give a shit. He did not give a fuck. He was drinking and all. He was drinking cracking. He was drinking vodka, and he's gone into fight a Russian and beaten, and he was the only fella got a medal. And if he just hadn't been disciplined, he would have won. Like me and I remember me and Tommy, because me and Tommy, we lost our first fights, and we were out drinking then that night, you know. He was drinking with us. We were like, Man, you're fighting for it. What are you doing, man? I don't care, man. I don't give a shot. But you could actually win these. And then he when he lost, uh he lost by a pint or two. And he was drinking every night. He was only 15. Crazy, you know what I mean? Like a crazy talent.
SPEAKER_00:I was always he was fucking super talented, like, and he was just so powerful for his age, so strong. It reminds you of Ricky Hatton as well. Just that square stance explosive that he just used to bully people. Yeah, he was a pure bully, yeah. Poor old Ricky Hatton as well, man. That was heartbreaking. Heartbreaking, isn't it? Just because they show you, like, it's people at the the fame and the money, and it's never enough. It's just a hard road, like it's it's retirement, you know. People I was actually speaking to Conrad Cummings about this the other day, as he he'd say lovely things about the podcast and just where I was coming from when I was speaking to Rambert Nap, but people have this persona where they want to box and retire in that same as for the rest of their lives, like retirement don't have to work. I say different, I say people should work because they need accountability, they need to enjoy work. Like Carl Fram's working, he he's doing the punditry. He doesn't need to work, he's made his millions.
SPEAKER_03:You know, well there's a thing called retirement syndrome when people retire. A lot of people who actually do retire late at age, they die within six months of retirement. Yeah, because it's a psychological. So the idea that you'd want to do that in your thirties is crazy. Yeah, crazy. And it's the wonder so many end up in addiction.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, of course. What else are you gonna do with the filler team? Come on, everybody else goes on about their daily life.
SPEAKER_03:But boxers love chaos, yeah. So, like, people get surprised. They get surprised by boxers going mad on the drink and drugs. Should they love chaos? What are you talking about? Yeah, exactly. Adrenaline, that craziness.
SPEAKER_00:Adrenaline, you get that's the addiction that you need to be sick, you know what I mean? It's sad, it's funny.
SPEAKER_03:But there needs to be it's it's a shame, Sean, you know, because with the MMA, at least right, you have this sort of structure, and it's an all-encumbanant encompassing structure with the with the MMA, with the organization because they're so big, especially UFC. But because there's no unilateral connection, universal body, there's no way then of creating a structure like a retirement programme, like ways to retire for boxing. They're so out on their own, everybody's so out in their own boxes. That's it. Take it or leave it, they get used, abused, underpaid. People don't believe in what's boxes. People just see a boxer there, they could be headlining the card. Oh, he's getting two or three million. No, he's getting twenty-thirty grand sometimes.
SPEAKER_00:Sometimes, yeah, sometimes sometimes even if you want it. Um yeah, it's fucking organization. UFC is an organization, yeah. Boxing isn't boxing as an individual, you're on your own. Yeah, you're on your own. Like you're a number. Once you lose, on the next one.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it's such a shame.
SPEAKER_00:It's fucking something needs to happen with that. Yeah. I think you know, the Smith brothers, Paul Smith, names B. F. Smith, I think they're trying to set up something where like boxers can have like a community, like retired boxers can go into like a community and sort of help give back, and I don't really know what they're trying to do yet or if they've got it off the ground and running yet, but it's something they're certainly looking into because I've I read up a little bit about it.
SPEAKER_03:Um, you know what, whether you're boxing or not, Sean, no matter what you're doing in life, you're always searching. You're always searching for something, you know. And usually we go to the things that um give us pleasure, you know. And we get driven by our wants. Whether that's sex, whether that's drink, whether that's drugs, whether that's food, no matter what it is, we try to fill it with something and and those wants end up actually destroying you, you know. We're all looking for the nutrition for the soul, you know. That's what we're looking for, no matter where where you are. And this is what's led me to God. This is why I do reclaim the faith with me and Danielle, because I was always looking for something and searching for the truth, and the truth often got me in trouble. A lot of trouble, you know. Uh and and politically in trouble in any other way, and nearly ruined my career. But um, I didn't realise that I was looking for God all along. And once I surrender to that and I give it up, I don't worry about me being the centre of the universe. Yeah. Because if you were the centre of your own universe, in a way you're God, and if that's the case, you're putting some pressure under yourself. You're never gonna live up to that. But you're only gonna be driven by all these wants and pleasures, you know.
SPEAKER_00:You've got your faith.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely, yeah. No, and without it, I I don't know how I would have went on in life. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Like I just maybe that was your pleasure of fentanyl podcast, you know, you've got the for sure. Well, that's giving me nutrition for me so. That's uh that's your message now. You're you've got that, and that's your fulfilled. You feel fulfilled where as you're s saying is like boxers don't feel fulfilled after they retire because their fulfillment was was with was in entertainment, uh rambling, yeah, searching out like where your fulfillment now is setting that message out within the podcast chain.
SPEAKER_03:Well you see, boxing is a very egotistical sport, and I get that because that's what it takes. It takes uber masculinism, masculine, uh masculinism, um, masculinity, or obviously women are doing it too, but it it requires an ego. Yeah, it requires a big ego. You have to you have to have a big ego to get up in front of thousands of people and fight, you know, to put them gloves on and jump to the right. You have to have an ego.
SPEAKER_00:And that's when someone hits you, you have to hit them back.
SPEAKER_03:And same as an actor, you have to have an ego to be an actor. But the problem is being in an ego-driven uh lane is then uh that ego is unstoppable. Yeah, you know, it never stops, it keeps wanting more and more and more, and the ego always wants to be recognized. Yeah, and the ego will there was there to destroy you. That's what the ego does. It's why people people with humility are genuinely the most happiest people. So they understand they're not the centre of the universe, you know. So faith is for everybody. It's whether or not it's whether or not you you believe it, or whether or not you check in or when you check in, but eventually, actually what happened to Sean is uh you could be someone who suffered greatly, uh, or you could be in deep trouble, or you could be riddled with an anxiety affair, or you might have gone through grief and lost somebody, or something as simple just feeling a bit lost, even though things are kind of going well, but you're not quite knowing why you don't have meaning. And one way or another, you're gonna gravitate towards a higher meaning. Like you a lot of people now are looking into kind of things like um you know, paganism is a thing in Ireland, paganism and the shamanism and all that, and the DMTs and and all that and uh because they're doing it because they're searching and they're looking for meaning. We had a recent guest, Sha Shane Hae, who uh who talked about that, and Shane was on that search and he got deep into all that world, and actually what happened was he realised the word was fucking demonic. That's what it was. And it was and and it was getting them into evil uh and even spiritual warfare. Yeah, for real.
SPEAKER_00:I I'm a I I I'm a firm believer in that. I believe what you're saying, like if people can't find what they have within themselves without having to go down the road to the MT and mushrooms, like surely the like you can find what what's in you spiritually but Christ is in his all being yourself.
SPEAKER_03:Christ is in us all, first of all. But anyway, it's free. This is free. The greatest thing in life is God, and that's free. All these you know, these shamanistic ceremonies, they're pulling two grand out of you for the weekend, it's all a con. Anything where there's money out of it, it's a root of all evil. Money is the root of all evil, you know. Or when money has to exchange, the there's no transaction with God, you know. It's just you turn to God, ask God to help you, God helps you, and you live accordingly.
SPEAKER_00:Direct you in the right direction, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:It really is, you know. You look at Martin Rogan there, yeah. Martin Rogan would have been one of my boxing heroes. Yeah, like I remember watching Martin in Prize Fighter, you know, back in the day. Remember that? Back in the day. That was just one of the best. Yeah, it was unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00:It was a great story because you know, for West Belfast, everybody knew Big Roger, he boxed in my boxing club. He was he was in the McGadatta later on, but he started off in Holy Trinity. And I can always remember as a kid he used to bring me around in his car, and I just remember everybody in West Belfast being like, whoa, that was like the start of our new like we've got someone who's winning now, and he's a headline for the stuff.
SPEAKER_03:And he started the boxing at 29 boxing after seeing Audley Harrison win in the Olympics, and then he beats Audley Harrison ten years later. That's right. That's unbelievable stuff. That's really a rocky story. Yeah, very clear. Well, you look at him like post-retirement. Uh Martin Rogan has gone to God. Yeah. Martin Rogan has has is full on, went to Majigori. Uh he's he's he's full on into his faith now and seems happier than ever, you know. So uh the thing is, God is always going to be there for people, and that's a message I definitely love boxers to know. Uh, that God is always gonna be there. All you gotta do is turn around and meet him halfway, and he'd be and he will be there because all these things of your wants in your ego will never satisfy you. Never satisfy anybody. You know what I mean? Truly, truly won't. The only nutrition for your soul is God, you know.
SPEAKER_00:When you're vulnerable, if I ever find myself in a vulnerable and no one c like when you're fighting, before a fight, God's on my corner, I know. And not before fighting, like I'll always subconsciously or subconsciously, I'll always have God and like I believe like I've got my like my grandfather and other people here close to me, uh, over like watching over me and they're they're with me. I I can feel it and know they're with me. And I can like I just I don't know why I have this feeling, but I just I always seem to have this feeling. And um and I just keep I keep bad faith where like I know like I it gives me it gives me a wee bit of a release to know that I have that regardless of how.
SPEAKER_03:I have that I have that as well with my family, my own, and my father as well. But isn't it funny? Uh whenever we're we're we're we're in dire need or whenever we're in trouble or we have nerves, that's when we turn to God. Isn't that funny? Because it we have this a gut instinct, a God instinct, right? Yeah, and that tells us now no, I'm in a bit of trouble, now I need you, God. Do you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I need you.
SPEAKER_03:But if you th if you look at it this way, Sean, and I I only realise this myself in the last couple of years, you know. Say so say you have a girlfriend and um you don't put a lot of time into the relationship, yeah, right? And you don't ring her at much, you don't meet up with her much, you don't bring her to the cinema, you don't go out for a few drinks or dance, you're not very romantic, yeah? Yeah, and all of a sudden then you need her help or you need her support. Yeah, well she's not gonna give it to you, is she? Like so think about God. Think about God. God God is the most important thing. When you've got at the centre of everything, everything else falls into place, right? But if you have no relationship with God, so what that means is if you're not saying your prayers, if you're not giving thanks, saying your prayers, going to mass. Simple little things, you know, doing a rosary. These are only simple little things, you know, we can do and scroll for 10 hours a day, but we can't do these things. But then all of a sudden someone gets sick in your family and you go, God, please help. Do you know what I mean? And listen, it's never too late anyway, because I've seen it in my own family, and I've seen miracles happen. My aunt got a miracle in Nock after being told she's dead in three months, and 14 years later, she's still alive, not a bother, cancer-free. That happened in Nock, the holiest uh place in Ireland, you know, and one of them in the world, you know, the most biblical uh operation of Our Lady as well. Um, so that's my message to the people is because don't wait until you're down, don't wait until you're suffering, don't wait till someone you know got a cancer diagnosis. Don't wait till then, build that relationship now because that line, that signal to God will be much stronger when you build it. Exactly, exactly.
SPEAKER_00:You know, no, it is, it's a powerful message. I've I have a lot of friends who've turned like strongly to God now. And um they've had a fucking mod past, like crazy, crazy past, and just turned to go now. They're just entirely different people. Wouldn't even recognize these people now. I'm like, what happened to you? Spiritual transformation. I'm like, oh that's that's what he's needed. Like this person, like one in particular is just like he was just insane, running around with guns and drugs, and he was just a friend of mine like chaos. But got this stage where all the lads were like, keep him at arm's length, he's fucking chaos. And now he's probably trying to keep us at arm's length. You know what I mean? That's brilliant, though. That's great, it's great. But this that's what happens, man. He's happy and he's content as life and he's you know.
SPEAKER_03:That's what happens when the Holy Spirit takes over. This is what happens. People, because we live in a world uh where we want to see everything, everything needs to be proven instantly. Like for whatever reason, right, your average Joe soap in the pub will believe the theory of revolution just because they're told science is all facts, but then they won't believe in God just because we've the internet in the last 20, 30 years. It needs to be proven out in front of you, not knowing actually that there is great evidence for Jesus. Like, for instance, if you look at uh Julius Caesar, if you look at uh any of the emperors, uh like if you look at Alexander, if you look at like put uh Alexander and Julius Caesar together, right? Both of them weren't written about until hundreds of years after their death, right? Now, if you put all the documents written about both of them together and you multiply that by a hundred, there's more still more written about Jesus. And it was written only twenty years and Ten years after he's dead, and eyewitnesses right now. You know, so people don't want to actually look at the proof of it as well. You know, so it's it we we just live in this world where um uh people think they're smarter than every great mind that the past two thousand. Everyone who doesn't believe is just ignorance, it's pure ignorance, but also man, you know, I go back to spiritual warfare. This is the devil. If you you're easy to control, the devil loves a passive person. So a person's like, ah, whatever, grand. Well, he has his claws in you, you know. It's actually when you start going out there and going more bold than about your beliefs, is that you get harder attacks. Because the devil is happy enough if you're just in and out of it, you know what I mean? He's happy enough. I have him, I'll get him doing some drugs, I'll get him doing a bit of drinking, I'll get him sleeping around and doing adultery and committing sin. Ah, he's grand. It's when you turn around and the Holy Spirit fills your heart, that's when you become a target for the devil.
SPEAKER_00:The devil is real, you know. He really wants a target. Yeah, he really wants, you know. So you could you could you could get a wee film going about this, you could direct a wee movie about this somewhere in the future where like well, me and Danielle we're gonna write um uh Our Lady of Nock.
SPEAKER_03:So about that. There hasn't been a film about Our Lady of Nock, you know. And Our Lady of Nock, uh like, oh, she's performed so many miracles, you know. She is she is she has brought so much peace to Ireland. Uh, this is one of the holiest sites in the whole world, and Ireland's in dire need of Our Lady of Nock, and in dire need of to go back to faith and go back to the church and to reclaim her faith. That's why we call the podcast that. So so actually we're looking at kind of what our skills is, you know, we're actors and we're writers, and we're thinking, so we need to do it then. If we don't do it, no one else is gonna do it, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Send the messages.
SPEAKER_03:So I'm interested in doing more faith-based stuff now. I've done it all, the gangster stuff and painting people's heads in and all that stuff. And the bike isn't it.
SPEAKER_00:Is this one you're doing? Ireland's call we're talking about just a minute ago. That's the Ireland's Call is gonna be there's one on the Rodries, which is close to me. Obviously, a lot of my f followers and a lot of my fears will be look all to the Rodries. Yeah. That's probably one alcohol. When is that?
SPEAKER_03:So that's November the 10th for six days. It'll go to the 15th. And uh so it's like a 55-minute show. It's called Ireland's Call. It's about intergenerational trauma, addiction, it's a working class tale, republicanism, loads of laughs, too. Yeah, and I I did a world tour of it in 2019, I did a hundred shows across the world, and I had it in Belfast in a lyric theatre, but I I planned to do it in Roddy's, and we were one of the first shows cancelled over uh COVID. So I always had that target to come back, and me and Danielle were just talking about it one day, and I was like, it's a shame I never did Roddy's. And she said, Why don't you just ask them and bring it back?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So I asked them and I got in touch with the last.
SPEAKER_00:So a lot of people will will relate that, plus it's really fast the amount of ticks and trauma and stuff, people sometimes.
SPEAKER_03:And it has all those teams running right through it, like you know, and it's it's I do a post-show discussion after each one. So I talk about the teams and talk to people and take questions. And if people want to say something and just meet and have the crack, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Do people just buy tickets in the Roddy's?
SPEAKER_03:They can buy them in the Roddies or they can buy them online. Uh either or.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. No, I'll just have to because it's probably something I'll go to as well. We meet me and the wife, we we we always do stuff like that. We go to lyric, or we'll bring the in laws to the lyric and do a couple of shows and stuff.
SPEAKER_03:Great man, because theatre is for all of us. Um you know, when you work when you grow up in sort of working class areas like our areas, we're told that it's not theatre's not for you, but it is, the theatre is for for us. Um I I recently watched uh a show in the lyric uh Tony um Tony Devlin directed it, Marty McCamison. What's the name of that, Danielle? You there? What was the name of that? It's a shame of forgetting the show.
SPEAKER_00:What was it called? Was it in the lyric?
SPEAKER_03:It was in the lyric, it was like one of the best shows ever.
SPEAKER_00:I watched I I went and watched two. There was one called The Tunnel. Oh The Tunnel, was it?
unknown:The tunnel.
SPEAKER_00:The tunnel I went to watch. Unbelievable. Wasn't it? Marty McCamison. Yeah, Karen Nolan.
SPEAKER_03:Brilliant Kieran Nolan, yeah. Everybody in that, that lad from Derry.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, he was brilliant as well.
SPEAKER_03:Andy redhaired fella. He was brilliant. Everybody were class, the pole fella.
SPEAKER_00:The whole class, the whole castle. Everybody was understanding.
SPEAKER_03:And it was and was put together brilliantly and brilliantly written. And you know, it's very hard actually to get theatre that good. Yeah. And it was so good, so so good. Me and Danielle have often went to shows and we walk out.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:We walk out of shows.
SPEAKER_00:There was people crying at the end. When I was sitting there, people beside me were like, you can hear them like crying at the end, and then I was like, that's I I think that's why theatre's so special, because you you you almost feel invested, you know. Totally. You can just I don't know, when you're you when you're there, you no one looks at their phone, it's just yours there, yourself.
SPEAKER_03:But listen, if you think about it, it's like the boxing, there's a communal experience. Yeah, you know, like there's a whole community in the room. Yeah. And it's like, oh, I didn't think it happened. Yeah, anything could go wrong.
SPEAKER_00:You don't know what's happening.
SPEAKER_03:You don't know what's happening. And that was that, that feeling. Like the greatest shows like have a sense of danger. That certainly had it, you know. Tony Devlin directed it. Tony's actually how Tony um was the person that um introduced me and uh Danielle as well, and he's a super talented director, and and he's an actor too, as well. And uh but that show, like honestly, we watched uh a show recently in in the Abbey, which is like the national stage, and uh like the show was terrible. That's just being honest. Me and Danielle walked out, but we went and watched that in the lyric, and that was like night and day, just like one of the best I've seen in the yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I went I watched that one and then about two weeks later, I watched In the Name of the Son. I watched that one that was a single actor that was just unbelievable. That was the one you were telling me about, Danielle. It was unbelievable from start to finish. I was like, the acting was just unbelievable. Tony the Legend.
SPEAKER_03:Get the Tony Devon Tony the legend. Keep them coming, keep them coming, Tony. You have an audience, brother.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, but like it was just like spectacular viewing, and I was like, Whoa, this is unbelievable. I guess that's what it's all about. I love it, I love theater.
SPEAKER_03:When theater goes right, it's the best, you know. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:When it goes right, and I think like from where I come from, West Belfast, a lot of people wouldn't know much about it because it's like you know, it's like it's a bit like especially where I come from. But my wife's same, like from Darn Dave. Yeah, my wife done. She went to drama school and she was the rainbow factor and she'd done all this, so she sort of introduced it to me when we met, and I love it. I love it, and you know, even like Aunt O'Boyle, Anthony Boyle, he's done the the he's he's the acronym for the and the kennel show, and we know him, and then but growing up people were like, he's in a girl school, he's going to drama school. And we used to think that that was the way we looked at it as kids. Now we're looking at sure my I ain't put my kid in.
SPEAKER_03:I thought I was gay when I said I was an actor. You're obviously gay. What?
SPEAKER_00:Do you know what I mean? Um but um it's it's class to see, and it's another thing with Ireland just growing. When you see what it's like, we're just talking earlier before, like when you start to see someone do so well in a certain you know, on a certain field, whether it be boxing, it then you start to believe that it's achievable.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and then it you know But I have to say, Ireland is really on the rise in sort of pop culture altogether worldwide. You know, uh Ireland is a real uh loved country, yeah, isn't it? Like and the culture of Ireland is loved, and it's like the best passport in the world to have no matter where you go. When you find out you're Irish, you're grand. That's it. You're okay, like you know, our neighbours unfortunately over there, they don't get the same thing. Even when they go to imagine they say that you know a lot of them, but uh but but like I mean even the people over in England as well they don't get the best invites, you know, when they go bra but we and no matter where we go, we get it. It's it is a great thing, you know. It is a it's a great thing to be Irish, it's great, it's it's the best feeling in the world, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00:Um it's class. And I had a video up on my Instagram a couple of weeks ago. I was going I'd go to Amsterdam for camps on over training back, but there's a massive queue with all the British passports, and there's a 40-minute wait time, and I just put the video up of me with the Irish passport, and I just sail on through.
SPEAKER_03:And you know I can get the British passport because I was born in London. I have a British passport, I have an Irish passport. I had to get a British passport to go to Calm Off Games, but um so I believe both abroad the um the the like even in the EU when you're going within the EU, they give the British passport people some asset. Like the queues that they have to do, and the and they put them in a queue where only one person is working just deliberately to get them, yeah. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00:It's like it's almost as if like it's not invented through the watches here. Yeah. Oh, it's great, it's great being Irish, I'll just say. So listen, the the show's gonna be great. I'm looking forward and I'm definitely going to go to it. Uh and in terms of acting, I'll I'm gonna hit you with a question here. Who's the who's the most talented? Now, not the bit like who's the most talented actor you've worked with in terms of like you've just went, they don't like it doesn't take much. I would say you would be very talented because you started so late and still going around to being great films, that takes talent. That's not hard.
SPEAKER_03:It's funny because I was actually talking to Danielle about this. There's talent versus body of work, you know. So like if you look at um for me, Marlon Brando would be a far more talented and magnetic force than De Niro or Piccino, however, they both have a better body of work.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And you know, in Ireland, say I would look at just actors in general, I would say Brenda Fricker would have more talent and uh and magneticism and presence, but like wouldn't have the body of work of a Killian Murphy would have. Yeah. So there's kind of there's talent for that. So it is an interesting distinction. For me, um, like just in terms of like talent you're working with, uh just raw, I suppose, talent rather than a body of work. I did I ha I've had the pleasure of working with a good few. Like you look at someone like like uh Tom Von Lawler who plays Nidge and his transformation is so radical.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, from being that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_03:Because Tom is completely different, like it's no being that Tom is a different human being. So when he turns into Nades, it's very, very impressive. Yeah. And he'd be brilliant technically. You'd never ever make a mistake, never, like flawless. Yeah, he's flawless, you know. But then sometimes you get a near a different kind of actor that might make a lot of mistakes, but they have they have something else that draws you in, you know? Like charisma, like characteristics. Yeah, charisma, a presence. You actually an internal something going on inside them, a pain or hurt, you know. Yeah. I think like to be an actor you have to have um you have to have drama, unfortunately.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I that's I think that's where the best people in the world. Yeah, a lot of trauma, underland trauma.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:That brings the best out and the most successful people in the world.
SPEAKER_03:And trauma can like you basically the ingredients to be an actor or an artist is the same ingredients that will do will make a very destructive person, you know. So a lot of trauma, a lot of bad stuff has happened to you, a lot of pain, and you've managed to overcome it and whatever. And these things can lead you down the dark road to drinking drugs and all that excess of all those things. But if you can manage to sway away from those, you've also the right ingredients to be an artist or to be an actor, you know, or to be a boxer. Like there's no coincidence as to why all the greatest boxers of all time, they're all working class, every one of them, because they were born at the bottom, you know, with poverty. Poverty is a great motivator, you know. Fear is a great motivator. One of my favourite sayings of all time is Teddy Adlas talking about fear, which is you know, fear can heat up the whole house and keep the family warm, but it can also burn it down to the ground if you don't control the fear. You know what I mean? Acting is very like that too, you know. Like um actors sometimes get overwhelmed, especially in theatre, but in general, with their fear, you know, and you go, you know, they go nerves as screwed. And I agree, nerves are good, and nerves are good for for boxing too. But when you go too far, they're not. And I remember having nerves that went too far even as a boxer, and you're boxed. Your legs go, you're exhausted, you're and you're exhausted before the first round. And that you don't want it to get there either as an actor. And I've seen actors like I was doing a show one time, Sean, it was a theatre show, and this poor actor I won't say the person's name, but but it was a it was a good it was a good show, and it was kind of a big show, and this person took a wrong approach, in my opinion, to the whole um uh the whole show, which was this person decided to be very withdrawn from the rest of the cast and go into their head a lot about the topic of the of that we were dealing with. Now the topic was a very heavy topic. It was about suicide. Now my father died by suicide, I caught from McQuandy, highest suicide rate in the world per capita. I had no interest in living in that topic. No interest. I have enough pain and hurt and whatever, I'll just acted on the day. So I stead out of that, and for me, what the whole rehearsal was about was having fun and just getting getting um playing it many different ways. Just having fun, just getting that right, just flowing, just going to be fine. So what happened with that person by the time the play came around, that person backed out opening night of the show. Opening night. And that person was the co-lead with me. And listen, the poor person, honestly, I actually prayed for the person, but uh like uh someone else came in with a book, with a script and went on stage that night. But that'll tell you it's a good example of how to control it, you know. So I I don't I don't let it consume me too much, you know. It's like uh I convince myself even on not doing the show if I do like when I do my one-man show now, I will get nervous, but I'll just convince myself, like because I'm a bit stupid, I'll just say you're not doing the show until I'm on stage and I'm about to do the show. Yeah, do you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00:That's it, and then the curtain opens and 15 seconds heards of panic, and that's it.
SPEAKER_03:Instead of panicking all day. Yeah, and it's a furrowed legality. That's the way I do it. So so it's about control and the fear, and about you know, I always remind myself, no matter what I do in life, whether it's acting and public speaking or the podcast or whatever I do, um, I always remind myself to slow down whenever you're in doubt or whenever you have fear or whenever you have nerves, slow down. Relax. Everything happens through a relaxation, everything and and do it unnaturally slow if you have to. It's better than speeding up. Yeah, just because that's when panic, and then you'll just zone into the right signal and you're good then, you know what I mean? So but you have to remind yourself no matter what what thing you're doing in life, just relax, relax, relax.
SPEAKER_00:I think a lot of that comes back from boxing as well. Because I think my life like is like that, yeah. Like I I'm very I my wife of panic about a lot of things. I I just go relax. Like, what like we're late, we're late, she's so we're late. I'm like, okay, we're late, so what?
SPEAKER_03:Well, from a young age doing the warm-ups and doing I'm sure you were like me with the trainer that gets you to do the breathe downs. Oh, I think it's from a young age you're doing that and you're doing it after every session, you know what I mean? And you're being told to relax and you're being brainwashed how to do it. But these are the tools that you end up taking with you in life.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, through the right.
SPEAKER_03:And you use them for everything you do.
SPEAKER_00:It's like my young fella and Adam and he's in school and they're they're complaining because he's coming in after lunchtime and he's going K, he's going nuts, he's going haywire, and they're like, We can't control him, he won't listen. I was like, just let him do so. Throw him in the corner and give him a little Lego blow. What a four. So what do you say? I mean he's fucking four, let him relax, just let him let him just bring himself down and then he'll join him with a class, something like that.
SPEAKER_03:You know, school is a very interesting structure, Sean. You know, our idea of school came about from the British military gentleman subject um subjects, right? So in the in in the mid kind of 1800s, they created the sort of modern school that we see where you go and you study maths. And the reason why you'd study maths back then is because you would get a good grasp of maths so you know how to coordinate a cannonball in case you became a cannonball shooter. You did English for obvious reasons they had good English reading and writing, and that was very important to be an officer. You'd French because it was the diplomatic language, and you did history to get a grasp of history of past wars. These subjects were all it was created to be the perfect British military gentlemen. So I don't know how compatible it is to now today. And they get and now you get you get educated, as they say, but you get educated to pass tests, not to actually think to critically think. And oftentimes the most intelligent people drop out of school because they can't be controlled by authority, you know. What school really proves is that you're able to stick authority for long enough. Follow roots. Yeah, that's following. That's why I stood out.
SPEAKER_00:My son's gonna stand out. I've got to do that. Yeah, I was out of 1500. My son's almost saying goodbye like he's only throwing out a school around like.
SPEAKER_03:Especially with young men, you're like the what they're gonna be a hairwire in school. What do you expect?
SPEAKER_00:You're throwing them into a square from the classroom all day, like and he's just his knees when they're writing a story, and the guard says to me, Sean's a problem, he keeps making noises, he keeps going, well, all of a sudden, all of a sudden they try to diagnose you.
SPEAKER_03:You know what I mean? You're like, Will you go away out of that? It's just a child being a child, it's a little boy being a little boy. Yeah, you know, we used to be uh punching the heads out of each other years ago. Do you know what I mean? I'm blackguarding all the time. You'd be out insane, doing the same things till till ten o'clock at the night, and your mother be calling you. It's just it's just the way it is, like you know. You can't control that.
SPEAKER_00:You know, let it step out of the way, let them grow up. 100%. Let them live naturally. Live and let the kids live, let them till till they'll find their own way. Do you know what I mean? Exactly. Um and look, listen, unfortunately, I have to drop a shoulder here soon, John. But like I I know you've made the drive up here, I really appreciate it. Anybody wants to hop in on their faith and and you know, get on to the what it what's the podcast? Reclaim the face. As well as the show in the Roddy's. Yeah. Um if anyone who's listening wants to go and watch a show, I h highly recommend going to you know, theatre anyway and just and and getting a good feeling of of what it yeah, it's it's about the area, it's about West Belfast. It's republicanism, it's it's got every it's got every ingredient that West Belfast suffers from and it's certainly something I'm looking forward to, so I'll I'll get on there and and look for tickets. But uh listen to John, thank you very much for coming. Thanks, Son.
SPEAKER_03:It's a pleasure, man. God bless you.