Boxer’s Mummified Arm Hits Big Apple
By Robert Ecksel July 3rd, 2006Irish bare-knuckle sensation lends a hand for worthy cause
NEW YORK (July 2, 2006) – Just when one thinks that the bottom of the boxing barrel has been completely scraped of all residue and trace molecules, news comes from Ireland that a keepsake of one of that country’s greatest bare-knuckle fighters, ‘Sir’ Dan Donnelly, will hit Gotham Wednesday afternoon at Gallagher’s Steak House in midtown Manhattan.
The memento, according to Jim Houlihan, curator of exhibition “Fighting Irishmen: A Celebration of the Celtic Warrior,” set to open at the Irish Arts Center later this summer, will join artifacts like John L. Sullivan’s fur coat, Jack Dempsey’s blazer, Gerry Cooney’s robe, John Duddy’s trunks, and the punching bag from the Great John L’s final bare-knuckle training camp.
The newest addition to the collection is a boxing curio, a certifiable boxing fetish, something from the dark side of boxing’s dark moon… it’s the mummified right arm of a fighter. But not the mummified right arm of just any fighter; no, the mummified right arm of a pugilistic legend named Dan Donnelly, Ireland’s greatest 19th century bare-knuckler, and it’s enclosed in perpetuity forever in a glass case.
Dublin-born Dan Donnelly was the 9th of 17 children and became Ireland’s first boxing hero. He was 6 feet tall, a sturdy 14 stone, and a carpenter by trade, but he made a big name for himself using his fists.
Donnelly’s first official fight was on Sept. 14, 1814, when he stopped Tom Hall in 15 rounds. His second fight, and the bout for which Donnelly is best known, was against the Englishman George Cooper in 1815. Donnelly was being outboxed when he landed a solid right that broke Cooper’s jaw and ended the fight. Dan’s third and last bout was against Tom Oliver on July 21, 1819. Donnelly won the fight, but he’d been drunk for years, was totally in debt, and had one sex disease or another, so when he died suddenly in his pub in Dublin on Feb. 18, 1820, it came as a shock but no surprise.
‘Sir’ Dan Donnelly’s funeral was one of the biggest in Irish history. He was eulogized. He was lionized. He was gone but not forgotten.
That should have been end of story. But then in a macabre twist of fate, Donnelly’s corpse was stolen by a couple of grave-robbers and hand delivered to a Dublin surgeon searching for a Superman gene. The good doctor, thinking ahead but bisecting an arm, kept Donnally’s right one as a souvenir. It was until the 1950s that the mummified boxer’s arm was returned from Edinburgh, where it was participating in medical research, to the place of its birth.
And now, after all that, the famous bisected mummified bare-knuckle boxer’s arm is coming to the Big Apple. The arm’s ‘rightful owner,’ Josephine Byrne, former owner of the Hideout Pub in Kilcullen, Ireland, and the arm are flying to America together. They’re about to land at Kennedy Airport. Getting through customs should be a trip. I can’t wait to meet the arm and its owner on Wednesday.
July 3rd, 2006 at 2:54 pm
i had read about the arm years ago and had forgotten about it till now.
wow,that should be a site now !
have fun
bill major
July 3rd, 2006 at 10:29 pm
bill was right. an article on the arm was published in one of the major boxing mags about twenty years ago. about two months ago i told the story in a local pub, but couldnt recall details. another story i recall was about a small cemetary in greenwich villiage, nyc that was the final resting place of a famous bare-knuckler. possibly written by a former middleweight contender from the northwest who wrote for, ibelieve, boxing illustrated in the early seventies. do a pullup over a fence and theres the headstones. anybody else recall the story?
July 4th, 2006 at 10:52 am
Keyword: Mummified Arm.
Yes, let’s repeat that: a traveling, Mummified Arm.
July 4th, 2006 at 9:02 pm
obviously nobody out there. did my own research. the writers name was frasier scott. fought benvenutti for the title. knock, knock, anybody out there?
July 5th, 2006 at 11:57 am
Actual descendant of the fighter, I just (as in July 4) returned from Ireland, and a quick jaunt to Kilcullen where I hoped to see the arm. Learned it was gone. Got to Colorado and found out I missed seeing it in good old Manhatten by a day. Bummer. Other odd note-I was following a news article written 35 years ago by another descendant who saw the arm in Kilcullen the weekend of the Irish Derby. This last weekend, walking 3 miles out to Donnelly’s Hollow, was also the Derby. Hmmmm
December 2nd, 2006 at 12:25 pm
searching for relatives, please contact me (judy) working on family tree mabe we can help each other . please if colleen can read this please get back to us .if there is a way to get a hold of her can we please get her information.
thaank you sincerly, judy and heather donnelly
December 19th, 2006 at 8:01 pm
Hi to Donnelly’s above
I’m curious that I might be connected to Dan Donnelly too. I’m named Australian named Donnolley (named changed from Donnelly in the mid-to late 1800s), a descendant of convict cousins Michael and Patrick Donnelly who were born in Rosetown Kildare at the end of the 1700s. They were transported for life to New South Wales in 1825 for stealing a horse. Rosetown is within walking distance of Donnelly’s Hollow and I’m sure they would have been at the fight in 1815. What interests me is that Michael was also 6ft tall — very unusual for the time. Patrick was a wild man too, with the only comment on one document describing him merely as “dangerous”. Patrick absconded and joined a gang of Irish bushrangers (outlaws) called the Hunter Banditti and disappeared after years on the run. I know Dan came from a huge family, and so did our lot too, so the chances of a family connection are probably fair to good. Rosetown is not that far from Dublin, where Dan was born.
Cheers, Chris Donnolley