James Carroll sat down with Network Cafe owner, Oliver Cruise, to discuss the successes and challenges of his first eight months of trading.
Author: James Carroll
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Second Captains are leading the Irish podcast charge
James Carroll reviews Second Captains World Service and speaks to the show’s Ken Early about podcasts, politics, and plans for the future.
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Conlan’s carnival arrives ringside
After Michael Conlan’s first professional fight, James Carroll asks what the future might hold for the Irish boxer.
“I don’t think I will ever forget this night, this is a real special night for me and you know I am so proud and happy to fight here.” said Michael Conlan after his first professional victory.
He made light work of American Tim Ibarra in a junior featherweight contest at Madison Square Garden in New York on St Patrick’s Day.
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Conlan headlined the fight card in front of a sold-out raucous crowd of 5,000. Irish dancers performed in the ring before the fight. And with legendary announcer Michael Buffer on the mic, this gave us a glimpse of Michael Conlan’s possible future in professional boxing.
The Belfast fighter won a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London and was moving on from the bitter disappointment of failing to win a medal at last year’s Rio Games where he felt he had been cheated out of victory in the quarter finals.
Conlan dominated his American opponent from the first round until the stoppage came midway through the third round.
Although he may have been anxious about putting on a show and getting a quick knockout, there was many positives on display that would suggest he has a big future ahead of him.
He found his rhythm and range early in the first round where he used his jab and picked his shots. However, he was far from composed in the second round.
Although there was little resistance by Ibarra throughout fight, Conlan was attempting to get a big knockout, but kept swinging and missing his overhand right.
“I don’t think I performed too well but I still got the stoppage but I had a lot of nerves you know, it feels like I’m fighting for a world title and it is only my professional debut.”
Michael Conlon
In round three, he went back to basics with the jab. Before long, Conlan had Ibarra on the ropes. Then he unleashed a flurry of combinations to the body, and the referee called a halt to proceedings.
“I don’t think I performed too well but I still got the stoppage but I had a lot of nerves you know, it feels like I’m fighting for a world title and it is only my professional debut,” Conlan said after the bout.
UFC star Conor McGregor walked out with Conlan to his first professional fight. McGregor also offered encouragement to the boxer throughout the match
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“It was special. You know, who gets the biggest star in their country, and possibly the world, to carry the flag out with me. We are a small country, we stick together, we have Niall Horan here from One Direction, we’ve got big support,” said Conlon.
Conlan’s future
Conlan is now based in Los Angeles near Venice Beach with his fiancee, Shauna Olali, and their two-year-old daughter, Luisne.
He signed a contract in September 2016 with Top Rank, the biggest boxing promoter in the world.
“Top Rank are expecting massive things from him, they’ve invested a lot of money into him and that adds a little bit of pressure as well and he has to go out and perform now,”
Kenneth Egan
Bob Arum, Top Rank’s CEO, has been in the business for 51 years and has promoted everybody from Muhammad Ali to Sugar Ray Leonard. He has said he sees potential in Conlan’s professional career.
“Like everybody else we watched the Olympics. We saw that this extraordinarily talented young Irish lad got screwed by the politics in amateur boxing and felt that when he turned pro, we would love to handle his career because he could be a major international boxing star,” Arum said to NewsTalk FM.
Former amateur boxer and Olympic silver medalist Kenneth Egan spoke to The City about what the future might hold for Conlan.
“Top Rank are expecting massive things from him. They’ve invested a lot of money into him and that adds a little bit of pressure as well and he has to go out and perform now,” he said.
Egan says that moving to LA was absolutely the correct decision for Conlon.
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“The first thing he did was find a good home out there, so he is in the right place… [away from] the hassle and stress that he would have had if he was flying from Belfast to LA every few weeks,” said Egan.
Conlan will fight six times a year under his current deal. He is scheduled to fight again in May.
“I’d like to see a few more fights soon. He didn’t get the knockout on Saturday but he needs the knockout soon because that’s why the fans tune in,” said Egan.
“His punch variety is very good but we don’t know what his punching power is yet in the pro- game. I think Michael has always had a fantastic work rate, throws an awful lot of punches and he is super fit.”
Some worry that not having his extended family around could affect Conlan’s performance, but Egan does not subscribe to that. “He can’t learn a lot more, he already knows the shots all too well, he is well educated in that sense.”
Will there be anything that his new coach Manny Robles can teach him?
“The new trainer might fine tune him, train him for 12 rounds and show him the tricks of the trade of the pro-game,” Egan said.
Top Rank will patiently build his profile, so the fans should not be expecting a world title fight in 2017, but Egan expects him to be competing for a world title in three years.
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Friday’s bout was unlikely to ever be a contest but Conlan showed his skill set – a good jab, nimble footwork, and solid head movement. However, he is far from the finished article yet.
A massive part of training will be gradually building up fitness for 12 rounds and being more patient and cleaner with his shots. His skills will develop with more fights and allow him to show his punching power.
Top Rank have booked Madison Square Garden on St Patrick’s Day for the next five years. This suggests that they want a fantastic atmosphere and competitive fights in the famous venue.
Conlan has all the right supports to succeed – a leading promoter, a world class coach and, more importantly, his family.
Although there will be greater tests ahead for the Belfast fighter, the only thing that could slow his progress is the chaos that surrounds boxing: the fame, the media and the politics.
Conlan’s own statements suggest he has no fear of those pitfalls: “I do believe I’ll be Ireland’s greatest ever fighter and three-weight world champion and you know what, this is the start of something great.”
Feature image Boxing AIBA Flickr via Creative Commons
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Three Ireland announce price increases
James Carroll dials into the latest developments in pricing and roaming charges in the Irish mobile phone market. (more…)
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Deflector Trump struggling to keep a lid on ties with the Kremlin
While Donald Trump sounded more presidential at his recent address to Congress, the issue of Russian connections still lingers for team Trump. What does this all mean for the president, and for the Irish as the Patrick’s Day shamrock approaches? James Carroll reports.
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Litter louts still a problem in Dublin city
James Carroll sniffs around the dirty business of illegal dumping in Dublin.
The law is being flouted in Dublin by some businesses, as two-thirds of litter fines are going unpaid.
Anti-litter campaigner Cieran Perry, a member of Dublin City Council, said that rubbish is being dumped and littered on the streets of Dublin at a distressing rate. “The number one reason is, the will is not there to enforce it,” he said.
“We have a litter problem in Dublin,” Perry adds. “If you go to a lot of places in and around the city, you see a lot of dumped bags.”
Litter on the streets of Dublin, image by James Carroll The figures of unpaid fines, and the lack of will behind them, are distinctly clear to see. “There is no detailed breakdown as to why those fines were not paid,” Perry said.
“If management were serious about tackling the litter and illegal dumping, they would have gone through the figures and seen where it is happening. They haven’t done the basic analysis to see where the fall down is.”
On the spot fines for littering is €150 and the council spends €300,000 cleaning chewing gum and another €500,000 a year on cleaning graffiti.
Litter on the streets of Dublin, image by James Carroll. An example of the law being disregarded and the council not being on top of matters was in 2015, when, according to Perry, 70 fines were issued to a pop-up shop, Halloween HQ, for illegal postering. “None of the fines were paid,” he said.
Rubbish on the streets of Dublin, image by James Carroll “No other legislation would be breached like that. If you were towed for illegal parking, you would not write to the council saying I do not respect your authority, it just does not happen.”
According to Perry, Halloween HQ last year again put up posters illegally. The council knew the premises, identified the offender but did not pursue the fines.
“I regularly asked about how the progress of the 70 fines was going,” Perry says. He says the council has responded by saying “they could no longer release that info because of data protection”.
Perry says Halloween HQ is not the biggest offender, but is an example of the lack of interest in tackling the problem.
The main problem for the council is businesses leave their waste outside, at the wrong time of the day, so waste sits idle on the streets outside the premises. Waste must be off the street between 10am and 5pm.
Litter on the streets of Dublin, image by James Carroll “Usually how the council find illegal dumpers is by finding letters with their addresses in the bags but recently dumpers have become more canny,” Perry said.
Initiatives that the council have installed to deter the public from illegal dumping have generally worked.“When there is an initiative started, the figures stand out a mile,” he said.
CCTV have been installed in areas such as Glenvale in Lucan, Church Lane in Rathfarnham and Russel Square in Tallaght.
Audio messages have also been installed in areas to tell dog owners to clean up after their pets in parks in Palmerstown, Tallaght, Walkinstown, Wellington and Greenhills park.
In a road that is local to councillor Perry, bags are dumped in the exact same spot every day and collected, unofficially, every day.
Litter on the streets of Dublin, image by James Carroll. “What has become the norm on this road, in particular, is as new people move in, they see what is happening and assume it is a collection service,” he said.
“I’ve seen people do this in broad daylight and clearly they must feel that they are not illegally dumping.”
Perry believes there is no incentive not to dump because there is little chance of being caught: “If you are caught, there is a one in three chance of being fined.”
Litter on the streets of Dublin, image by James Carroll. In Dublin Central 691 fines were issued by five litter wardens in 2015. That’s fewer than 140 fines per warden, approximately one fine every second working day.
Some 465 prosecutions were taken, but there were only 47 convictions.
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A passion 4 food and a passion for home
James Carroll visits Passion 4 Food to sample the authentic food and learn about the international crossfire affecting Kurdistan.
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Will email leak beat Brand Beckham?
James Carroll reports on whether the latest email scandal is going to hurt ‘Brand Beckham’?
Hackers believed to be using Russian servers, accessed millions of messages and documents from the PR firm Doyen Global – which looks after David Beckham’s publicity – and attempted to blackmail the celebrity for £1 million, The Daily Mirror reported.
Beckham’s business team refused to engage or cooperate with their request, and immediately notified the police earlier this year.
As a member of the famed Manchester United brand – the Class of 92, Beckham was blessed with one of the best right feet the game has ever seen. He is also known for his specialty in dead-balls, incredible stamina, and ever-changing hairstyles.
“If you told me as a young boy I would have played for and won trophies for my boyhood club – Man Utd, proudly captained my country, over 100 times, and lined up for some of the biggest clubs in the world, I would have told you it was a fantasy,” he has said.
The Emails
However, a series of personal emails leaked by the website Football Leaks threatens to derail his gentlemanly image. These include:
“Katherine Jenkins OBE for what? Singing at the rugby and going to see the troops plus taking coke. F***ing joke.” This barb was in relation to Jenkin’s admission that she took class A drugs in the past.
Beckham then allegedly laid into the honours committee, who recommend recipients, raging: “They’re a bunch of c**** I expected nothing less.” While adding, “It’s a disgrace, to be honest and if I was American I would of got something like this 10 years ago.”
The apparent emails were allegedly written in 2013 due to his frustration at not receiving a knighthood.
The English tabloids ran with the story on Saturday but his advisors were quick to release a statement saying, “This story is based on outdated material taken out of context from hacked and doctored private emails from a third party server and gives a deliberately inaccurate picture.”
Beckham missed out on a knighthood in 2013 because of an apparent ‘red flag’ from HM Revenue and Customs over his tax affairs.
Although there is no suggestion that he broke the law, the ‘red flag’ was enough to halt his nomination.
It is rumoured that he is particularly annoyed about the way the emails depict his work with the United Nations charity UNICEF.
One email suggests that he complained about being approached by their ambassador relations manager, Chloe Edwards about contributing money at one of the auctions.
“Chloe asked me outright which I was p***** off about. . . I don’t want to do it and won’t do it with my own money.”
However, UNICEF’s deputy executive director Justin Forsyth defended the footballers commitment to the charity.
Furthermore, a statement from UNICEF read:
“Before establishing the 7 Fund, David had supported UNICEF and a number of other charities over many years, including donating his entire earnings from PSG during his time playing there. David and UNICEF are rightly proud of what they have and will continue to achieve together and are happy to let the facts speak for themselves.”
The Backlash
Having landed their big scoop last week over the emails, the British tabloids went to town on Beckham. Even betting giant Paddy Power are humorously offering odds on which celebrity will receive a knighthood before him.
Piers Morgan also weighed in on the story over Twitter.
The Damage
Will Beckham be the last celebrity to have their private emails or messages hacked? This is doubtful.
Last month, Italian authorities arrested two people for hacking into the emails of European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
It remains to be seen whether the British authorities will bring charges against anyone for the hack on Beckham.
Publishing the emails raises an ethical issue, as they were his own private emails.
Is the public entitled to know that the honours committee were a “bunch of c****” according to Beckham in his private mail and be vilified for it?
Football Leaks is a website that reveals contract information and transfer fees about famous footballers. It has been described as the Wikileaks for football.
However, it can be argued that the Beckham brand will not be dented by the material exposed in the emails.
The hacking may cause more sympathy rather than outrage among the public because of their fear of having private emails hacked.
There is a reason why people have conversations in private, it is a strictly private matter or, they trust the person they are talking to.
Back in 2004, it was alleged Beckham had an affair with his PA, Rebecca Loos, when he moved to Real Madrid.
Loos sold her story of the alleged affair to the News of the World. When the story was splashed all over the tabloids, it did little long-term damage to “Brand Beckham.”
If the Loos story did not hurt Beckham’s image, then people’s opinions of him are unlikely to change because of a few throwaway comments in his inbox.
Featured Image: Some rights reserved by Bob Bekian
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The (Rugby) Boys Are Back In Town
With the rise of the St Fintans in the Leinster Schools Senior Cup, James Carroll asks is rugby an elitist sport?
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