Talk on Dan Donnelly, pugilist

Donnelly's arm on display in New York in 2006, and (insets) a contemporaneous picture of the man and the cover of the 1950s pageant programme.

An illustrated talk on the 19th century champion Irish boxer Dan Donnelly will be given in Naas on Tuesday 1 October, writes Brian Byrne. The long arm of Dan Donnelly will be presented by Larry Breen and hosted by the Naas local History Group, in the Town House Hotel, beginning at 8pm.

The Dublin-born pugilist gave his name to the former Belcher's Hollow on the edge of The Curragh after he fought Englishman Tom Hall there in 1814. His fame was cemented the following year when he vanquished another English fighter, George Cooper, at the same location. That fight is commemorated by an obelisk on the site, recently refurbished. Donnelly died in 1820 at the young age of 32.

The fight was commemorated in the early 1950s in a pageant organised by this writer's father Jim Byrne and the Kilcullen Boxing Club. Consequent to that, the fighter's mummified right arm was presented to The Hideout, where it was a well-known centrepiece until the pub was sold out of the family in 1996.

The Diary's stories about Dan Donnelly can all be seen here. 

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