Kellie Harrington the latest to inspire Dublin's inner city and her heroes are all around her
A snapshot of those Harrington talked of at her own special, noisy, homecoming in Dublin’s north-east inner-city
These are Kellie’s Heroes.
A snapshot of those the gold medallist called out from the stage at her own special, noisy, homecoming in Dublin’s north-east inner-city.
She finished the first part of her inspirational address with the punch line “You are just ...bleedin’ brilliant”
Read More: Kellie Harrington double-bubble gold: an Olympic icon, a hero for our divided times
There was a pause as the uplifting Tones And I track ‘Fly Away’ came onto the speakers
‘I had a dream some day, that I could fly away ...’
Harrington, as successive boxers in Tokyo and Paris found out, is a hard act to beat.
It’s an all round good news story for a neighbourhood comprising the walk north from the Custom House on the north side of the Liffey to Croke Park.
A place that doesn’t have an easy past to romanticise with its past of tenements and crushing poverty, and its more recent drug-riddled time.
But with a present thriving with individuals who can fight the good fight, those like Harrington provide a positive influence.
Sheriff YC is one of the most successful amateur and schoolboy soccer clubs in Ireland, FAI Junior Cup (All-Ireland amateur) champions four times since the turn of the century, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, runners-up in 2015, 2019.
It was their kids and coaches who marched in the homecoming parade behind Pipe Major Damien Fynes and the Dublin Fire Brigade Pipe Band playing tunes such as ‘Who Fears To Speak’, ‘20 Men From Dublin Town’, ‘Let Erin Remember’.
“It is great to have a double Olympic champion here, to have someone who won at two successive Games,” says under-age coach Grace Richardson.
“Kellie is so visible around here, lives here, works here, jogs around here, somebody the kids can not just look up to but say ‘hi’ to as well.”
Freya (9), Holly (9) and Aria (8) have their soccer hero, Olivia O’Toole, but admit there is room for a second and that’s Harrington.
“I’m not really into boxing, I just love football,” says Freya.
“But I think Kellie is brilliant too at what she does and winning the gold medal, everybody is really happy around here about it.”
Greg Hanney, Brian Dunleavy and Johnny Walsh are long serving Sheriff YC committee members, have held all the key committee positions at important times, overseen the building of their outstanding complex very much at the heart of the north-east inner city rebuild.
Dunleavy gets double-bubble at the homecoming, guest artist Gemma Dunleavy is his niece.
“What we have seen here is people very much welcoming their own, being proud of their own, no matter what others think,” says Dunleavy.
“Kellie is an inspiration for many; you don’t have to box to appreciate her character or her honesty or her love of the people in this area.
“She inspires people across all walks of life, not just sport either. Gemma, for instance, is proud to call Kellie her friend.”
Medals don’t just come from the Olympics either, the Arkins Dance Academy on Sean McDermott Street, and which caters for 5-18 year olds, just brought back 30 from the World Championship, contested by 57 countries, in Prague.
The bronze medals came following an ‘Acro’ (Acrobatic/Gymnastics) routine to a Lion King medley and indeed, TV viewers got a glimpse of the troupe in the lead up to RTÉs showing of Harrington’s Olympic final.
Dance coordinator Alysia Arkins’ admiration of local sports hero Harrington is unwavering:
“Kellie is amazing,” says the 25 year-old, “it is such a great thing, a straightforward demonstration that you can actively pursue your dreams, achieve goals.
“Because there are good people in this community no matter what is perceived.
“In Kellie’s case this is a person they can see living in the community, the little kids all wave to her, the adults respect her.”
Local singer Gemma Dunleavy was the one left with the task of following the boxer on the main stage and she began by asking to huge approval:
“How proud are we of Kellie, our double Olympic champion?
“Moments like this are so rare, I think it is going to go down in history as a time of great joy and strength,” she continued.
“I went to the same school as Kellie and it is a joy to be standing here, to have taken to the stage after her ...”
The singer stands back to allow Bryan Adams ‘Heaven’ (the DJ Sammy version) enrich the air before talking of the origins of her own hit Up Da Flats which, despite its title, is a sweetly melodic R&B love song.
“I wrote this song for people like us, like (pointing) you and you, to remind us we should always hold on to our community.
“Money can’t buy it, nothing can buy it.
“Always hold on for the things that are special and remember this moment forever, this time with Kellie here and now, you may never get a moment like it.”
Dublin’s north-inner city has had its previous brushes with the Olympics, some say boxing great Maxie McCullagh who lost his best years to World War Two, was robbed in a 1948 Games quarter-final, while soccer’s O’Toole is a former Olympic Torch bearer.
Says O’Toole, quite possibly the best pound-for pound footballer ever to play for Ireland and who now works for the DCC in the community:
“Not one bit changed, that’s Kellie.
“I only got to know Kellie before the Tokyo Olympics because of her connection with Dublin Docklands Boxing club
“She was very friendly with some of my own friends and we have been mates ever since.”
The two women have more in common than just playing their own sport to elite level.
Theirs was a struggle to breakthrough as young kids when everything around was strictly for boys/men and O’Toole is an avid amateur boxing fan.
“I work with John McCormack, the son of inner-city boxer ‘Spike’ McCormack and he has always been showing me the game, pointing things out, so I was throwing every punch, feeling every hit through Kellie’s three fights.”
O’Toole took the 2012 Olympic flame on from Paul McGrath on a leg that included Sheriff Street before handing it on to rugby player Donncha O’Callaghan.
“Having the Olympic Flame was one of the highlights of my life and sport and soccer has been good to me but when Kellie was in that final I was crying, and people know I don’t cry.
“I’ve tried to explain I wasn’t crying because she was winning, wasn’t crying because I was affected by the cheering but because I know what she went through to get there.”
That Dublin Docklands BC mentioned earlier and set under the Railways Arches on Seville Place is run by legendary boxing trainer Noel Flood, who hails from Cannon Lillis Avenue may be about to be writ large in headlines in the coming weeks via its top protégé.
Pierce ‘Big Bang’ O’Leary, undefeated in 15 fights and who has stopped his opponent in eight of those since turning pro in 2019, is expected to be offered a crack at a world title fight in the very, near future.
Maybe having a boxing champion in the north inner-city is just about par for a course; there is a road adjacent to Diamond Park that was re-named Champions Avenue nearly 75 years in tribute to the number of boxers produced.
Those included 1948 Olympian lightweight McCullagh, middleweight McCormack, handsome Gussy Farrell, Ske Mullen who fought at Wembley (the ice-rink in Johannesburg that is!), Paddy Hughes, Peter Glennon, Mick ‘Blinky’ Gifford and Mylie Doyle ... all champions.
It is also where silken-skilled soccer international Wes Hoolihan was born.
Harrington is associated with both Dublin Docklands BC and Corinthians BC on Bella Place but boxes out of St Mary’s ABC in Tallaght, where her coach Noel Burke jnr is attached.
St Mary’s, founded in 1977 by Noel Burke snr and John Riordan, travelled in numbers to Harrington’s Portland Row homecoming, 25 blue track-suited members crossing the Liffey to attend.
“Everyone is just so proud of Kellie and knows not just the athlete but the girl and the person who was on the stage, she is just a great person,” says St Mary’s Mel Leonard.
St Mary’s is a thriving concern; 63.5kgs George Bates just missed out on the Olympics; Grainne Walsh, who boxes at 66kgs, was at the Olympics, while teenager Wisdom ‘El Samni’ Oseyemi has been pencilled in to make a big mark in this Olympic cycle.
There is also Harrington’s north-east inner city taekwondo connections. She was once a member of the Christopher Fagan (Black Belt 7th Dan Master) taekwondo club on Sean McDermott Street, a sister club of the one on Sheriff Street run by John Moffitt (Black Belt 5th Dan) and catering for 30 children aged 6-14 between them.
“I remember when she was a young ‘hopper’ and her having a pair of boxing gloves that had been discarded by someone because a dog had gotten at them,” says Fagan, a taekwondo world champion in 1984.
“She was with our club for a while and earned a green belt, that can’t be taken away from her, it is her’s for life so maybe she will drop down again and do some more classes.
“We have a signed poster of her here in our dressing room.”
Nancy Bluebell’s coffee stop is beside one of two great inner-city ‘shrine churches’, Our Lady of Lourdes, which has the remains of Matt Talbot.
The shop is fashioned from a shipping container and sells some of the finest Dublin food
The Acai Bowls and in particular the Summertime Splash (strawberry, blueberry, banana, kiwi, peanut butter, Nutella, coconut shavings, sesame) is to die for.
“We got this spot beside the church because it had been a derelict spot where people would discard drugs paraphernalia and it was attracting anti-social behaviour, “ says Sinead Donnelly.
“Fr Casey gave us the go ahead, and with help from the North East Inner City Initiative and people from the local community we cleared it away, put in the shop which is named after my mother Nancy ‘Bluebell’ Donnelly,” says Sinead.
“We provide some of the most wholesome, best value food and cheapest coffee in the city. Our dinner, the ‘D1 Deal of the Week’, is always €5 and people love it.”
‘Bluebells’ is a hub, a place for a chat, and a respite, after funerals/weddings/christenings.
A good place not just for a breakfast roll or cup of coffee, they have a new subject to discuss — the new pride stemming from a very popular local hero.
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