Within sight of O’Connell Street, a plaque adorns the wall of an innocuous red brick house that reads: ‘A tribute to the champion boxers and the people of the Sean McDermott Lr. Gardiner Street area 1930-1940.’ The house sits on the corner of the aptly named ‘Champions Avenue,’ the street taking its name from the several boxing champions the area produced throughout the thirties and forties. Gardiner Street and Sean McDermott Street spawned a good many talented fighters- Paddy Hughes, Peter Glennon, Mickey Gifford and Mylie Doyle among them. But arguably the most famous was John ‘Spike’ McCormack.
Though Spike would become synonymous with the north inner city, he was born in Listowel, Co. Kerry in 1919. The McCormack family moved to Dublin when he was eight and Spike would take up boxing soon after, fighting amateur by the early thirties. In 1939 along with Peter Glennon and Mickey Gifford he went to America with the Irish amateur boxing team to fight against the Chicago ‘Golden Gloves’ (amateur champions) in Soldiers’ Field, Chicago. The trio returned home as victors with the Irish team matching their hosts, gaining five victories apiece.
Either side of his trip to the US Spike enlisted in the British Army, his strength and physical fitness leading him to become a Commando. It was his sense of adventure that led him to join the British Army rather than the Irish one, his son Young Spike remembering him saying ‘Hitler took Poland by storm and Ireland by telephone.’ Initially stationed in Scotland, he boxed over there and was highly thought of, even receiving an offer from a promoter to buy him out of his service. Once, while there according to Frank Hopkins ‘the night before St. Patricks Day in Kilmarnock, he painted a statue of King Billy green to aggravate the town’s Orangemen.’
In 1943 during his second spell with the army, an expeditionary raid down the French coast ended in a short but brutal clash and Spike sustained an injury to his thigh from a grenade blast. He returned to Ireland and whilst recuperating in the Mater Hospital was approached to fight Jimmy Ingle in what was to be the latter’s last amateur fight but not the last fight between the two men who had a competitive rivalry throughout their careers. Feeling the exertions with the injury he was carrying he went down in the third round, exhausted. According to his son ‘Young Spike’ in Kevin Kearns’ Dublin Voices
They took off his shorts and saw this big hole in his side and they said ‘Jesus Christ, he shouldn’t have been able to stand. So Jimmy Ingle turned professional but my father said ‘I’ll get him back when I’m good.’ So my father turned professional- just to get back at Jimmy Ingle.
The fight sent Spike straight back to hospital and he underwent surgery the following day. Following an extended recovery, he undertook heavy training and true to his word, turned professional. His first fight was a victory against Jack Sean Clancy with the bout held in Dalymount Park. His second fight ended in a loss to Northern title holder Tommy Armour but his third fight gave him the opportunity to act good on his promise- he went the full way with Jimmy Ingle in a fiercely combative contest and won on points. The men would fight each other a further four times in the space of three years, twice for the Irish middleweight title. Spike would win both of these fights, before fighting to a draw in a bout in Dalymount in June 1946, and Spike losing to Ingle in May 1947 in Tolka Park. A lack of opponents at middleweight eventually led McCormack to step up to light-heavyweight where despite his stature (he stood at 5’ 8”) he also excelled, several times beating larger, heavier fighters than himself.
Though greatly respected for his ability in the ring throughout his career (and long afterwards,) his fame was not solely confined to it. For as good a boxer as he was in the ring, his prowess as a brawler in the streets drew huge crowds whenever (and it was often) someone decided to chance their luck against him. He had an ongoing feud with the local Corbally family that went back to his and their parent’s time and pubs would empty to see him take on the sons of the family. He was easily provoked, more so when drinking whiskey he often admitted himself and this was a trait that was taken advantage of- sometimes due to sheer begrudgery, often for the entertainment of others in whatever bar he was drinking in, (generally Killane’s on Gardiner Street where he would count Behan as one of his accomplices) and on occasion, for more sinister motives.
The local Gardiner Street ‘Animal Gang’ would count Spike as one of their number when muscle was required, and were known to rile him up and point him in the direction of trouble. He took part in what would become known as ‘The Battle of Baldoyle,’ which took place on May 14th 1942 and was ostensibly sparked between a northside and southside bookmakers over the hedging of a bet. The bookmakers acquired the services of their respective gangs and a large set-to occurred at Baldoyle Racecourse. One account in Kevin Kearn’s ‘Dublin Tenement Life’ speaks of Spike being the Gardiner Street gang’s prime weapon in a melee that involved ‘knives, walking sticks, bits of lead pipe, knuckle dusters, a French bayonet..’ The fight saw two people stabbed and resulted in several people being jailed.
Despite frequently being on the wrong side of the law, Spike struck up an unlikely friendship with Garda Jim ‘Lugs’ Branigan. The men would harbour great respect for one another, and Branigan when dealing with Spike’s street fighting would warn his colleagues to stay out of the way of his fists, and come at him from behind, in numbers. Those who ignored his advice would end up on their backs.
As well as being a champion boxer, Spike was a deep sea sailor for almost twenty years- his family (six boys and eight girls) receiving a retainer from Irish Shipping when he was away at sea. And though the retainer guaranteed money coming into the household, his wages on his return did not so. Young Spike in ‘Dublin Voices’ would say
When my father used to come home he’d get all his money and bring it up to the fellas that was maybe laid off the ship and he’d buy them food for their children … So consequently he became like a Robin Hood … And when father got drink on him he’d go home at night and all the kids used to be around him and he’d take out handfuls of pennies and ha’pennies and throw them money … And when he’d reach Sean McDermott Street he’d reach into his pocket and throw all the money … My mother used to say to me ‘go down and get the money, pick up as many crowns and half-crowns as you can and let him give the kids pennies.’
The same book also mentions an interesting episode involving Spike being sent onto a ship being brought out to sea by scab labour whilst the Union was on strike. Spike, reluctant to board the ship for his disdain for the scabs was asked to do so by the Union in an attempt to take it back. When the captain of the ship abandoned the ship to the scabs and locked himself in his room
My father worked as a greaser in the engine room and he went up – and this is history- on the deck with a big fire hatchet and he says ‘There’s no way you’re taking over this ship, cause you’re scabbies and I won’t have that’ … Oh, he went amuck on the ship with the hatchet.
Spike’s sons would follow him into the ring, with John ‘Young Spike’ McCormack quoted above was British light-heavyweight champion 1967-69 and another son Pat was light-welterweight champion in 1974. He died in 1986, at the age of 66 in his own words ‘an old gunfighter.’ Young Spike, in speaking about his father’s funeral
They all said ‘he was a great friend, your father’ … ‘When your father walked into a room, he lit it up.’ He had this Kerryman’s way of lighting up a room and he knew everyone. Older people still say today, ‘oh you’re Spike’s son’ … Young Spike. I loved my father.
While he made the streets of Dublin his own it was said that Spike was the only man who could stand on Hill 16 and shout for Kerry. Who was going to try and stop him?
