The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-12-16
ARE THE IRISH GOING BACK AS
 FIGHTERS NIX ON THAT STUFF

T E
 Every once in while. somebody lets out wall to the general effect that the Irish are going back as a 'sagnting race" !" and that they no longer have
 the punch when 1t comes to scrapping on either the battlefield or in the ring
 Nix on that stuff
 Those who shed sad and salty tears
 over the alleged physical decadence of the sons of Erin point to the melan- choly fact that there is now only one pugiIistic champion of the world who
 can boast of Hibernian descent-re- ferring, of course, to MT. John Xiii bane, Of Cleveland, who sports the featherwefght belt.
 It is true that Johnny is the only
 bona ffde and b1own-in-the-bottle champion of the world at the vueens- berry game. But what of it7 Cham pions are not everything in the noble
 art There is MT. Packey Mcfarland, :, as Irish as Paddy, who, if he holds no ] title, is yet about the best boxer the ring has had in a decade Packey
 could have the weItefweight belt any day he wanted it, but it would be an empty honor, for there is nobody in
 his class to compete for the title.
 Then there is MT. James C1abby, of Indiana, whos is one of the best mid
 dIeweights now in our midst. Jimmy may or may not become the -recoe- nized and authenticated champion,
 but be. is right there with the goods.
 And he's Irish. l
 There are quite a. lot of fans, too, 1 who esteem MT. NfichaePs Gibbons, of
 St Paul, as a very good man with his fists. As a decadent Irishnan, Mike isn't so bad. MT. Edward McGoorty, of Oshkosh, is another contenp orary
 scrapper eligible for membership in the Ancient Order of Hibernians who l l. a Gz.5- sLr-- the Irish can no longer fight.
 One might go right through the list of the most promising of the boxers now engaged in altering the maps of their opponents, and almost every
 other man would in his speech betray
 at least the relic of brogue. And | yet-shades of Dan Donel1y-some
 folks would have us believe that the Irish have hit the toboggan. e
 Almost from the time the English l invented modern boxing, the Irish demanded a hand-two hands-In the l game and they have been right up in the front ranks ever since. Dan
 Done1ly, who was in his prime just a century ago, ranks as one Of the great popular heroes of the Emerald Isle. and his grave. is still kept green by his i admirers. After -Done1Iy's time the Irish began to take an increasing in l terest in the sport. and in 1925 an other son or the Ould son. JeTn Ward,
 nicknamed ssThe Black Diamond. be-
 came the recognized Champion of the 1 United Kingdom.
 l Ward was succeeded as champion l by JeTn. Burke, the Deaf 'Un,'' who was one of the greatest fighters of l the century. Burke was largely re-
 sponsible for popu1arizing the game 1 in America, as he paid a visit to these
 shores and gave exhibitions of his l prowess in New York and other cities. l While on, this side he went to New l Orleans to fight Sam sO' Rourke, who claimed the championship of Ireland. 1 The Crescent City fans put their mon- l ey on O Rourke.3 and when they saw l he was no match for Burke they just naturally chased the poor Dead 'Un'' l out of town. and came mighty near to soaring him to death. Burke wasn't afraid of any man or dozen men who scrapped with their fists but the ex- citab1e sports of the Louisiana metro polls threatened him with knives and