Luck of the Irish for Danny O’Connor

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. (March 11, 2009) – No sooner had the announcement been made that the March 16th “Erin Go Brawl II” show in New York City was canceled, Seminole Warriors Boxing informed its prize light welterweight, Danny O’Connor, of his repositioning on a show this Saturday night in Boston.

The National Guard Armory in Dorchester (70 Liberty Ave.) isn’t a long drive for family, friends and fans from Framingham to watch O’Connor (4-0, 1 KO), 2008 U.S. Olympic first alternate, fight live against Charlie Wade (4-7, 1 KO).

O’Connor is coming off of his impressive national television debut January 30, winning a 4-round decision in the opening bout on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights against light welterweight Jamar Saunders (2-1-1, 1 KO) at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida.

“I was disappointed when I first heard that the show at Madison Square Garden had been canceled,” O’Connor said. “I think every time I’m supposed to fight in New York something happens. This is the second time but I believe everything happens for a reason and this got me in a card in Boston. I’m so happy. It’s amazing. Now everybody from home can come watch me fight live. They wanted me on ESPN my last fight and now they can see me in person. I can’t imagine how I’ll feel when I walk into the ring with everybody there cheering for me.

“My ESPN fight was huge because a lot of people got to watch me fight for the first time. It helped build my fan-base. It was also a step-up against a tough kid. I’m a pro. This is what I do – fight! I turned in a solid performance but I’m also a perfectionist who thinks I can always do better. It was only my fourth pro fight and was another part of my learning process. I leaned a lot last fight and we’ve bee working to improve some things that I’ll bring into this fight in Boston. I want to stay busy and learn something new every fight.”

The 23-year-old O’Connor won last year’s US Future Stars National Championship, in which, he was named Most Outstanding Boxer, as well as the 2008 National Golden Gloves Tournament. The highlight of Danny’s amateur career was defeating eventual 2008 Olympic Gold medalist Felix Diaz, of the Dominican Republic, last May in a USA-Dominican Republic dual meet.

“We were very happy with Danny’s last fight against a legitimate, young fighter,” O’Connor’s head trainer and co-manager David Keefe remarked. “He used his jab very well and showed excellent speed and good overall boxing skills. We’re very happy to have Danny boxing in Boston. We accepted the opportunity right after we learned about the New York showing being canceled. This was our next best choice and we hope Danny will be fighting at Madison Square Garden in the future. When (co-manager) Rob (Valle) and I were looking for a promoter, we had a game plan for Danny to stay busy. We didn’t want only five fights a year. We believe it’s very important for a young, up-and-comer like Danny to fight a lot. It’s been that way since the first day we met Leon (Margules, Executive Director, Seminole Warriors Boxing).”

For more information about Danny O’Connor go online to

www.dannyoconnorboxing.com.

Bout Card here
-DO-

IRA dissident killings unites Northern Ireland

(AP Photo/Peter Morrison)

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK [AP]
BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — The Protestant and Catholic leaders of Northern Ireland mounted an exceptional display of unity against rising violence from Irish Republican Army dissidents — and vowed Tuesday to defeat hard-liners with the power of popular will.
Former IRA commander Martin McGuinness, who long hoped that slaying police officers would help him achieve his dream of a united Ireland, stood shoulder to shoulder with his Protestant partner atop the government, Peter Robinson, and Northern Ireland police commander Hugh Orde.
The scene itself was an unprecedented surprise. More stunning were the clear-cut words from McGuinness, whose Sinn Fein party has faced years of outside pressure to embrace British law and order. He pledged his personal support to the English police chief, and demanded that his own police-loathing supporters abandon their traditional code of silence and expose the IRA dissidents in their Irish Catholic communities.
"I have to keep my nerve, and to appeal to my community to assist the police services north and south to defeat these people," McGuinness said of the dissidents who killed two British soldiers and a policeman over the past three days — the first such killings in more than a decade.
"There is a duty on me, a responsibility on me to lead from the front, and I expect that people will follow," McGuinness said. He called the IRA splinter groups "traitors to the island of Ireland. They have betrayed the political desires, hopes and aspirations of all of the people who live on this island, and they don't deserve to be supported by anyone."
Analysts said the dissidents' dramatic escalation of bloodshed since Saturday was designed to divide and undermine McGuinness and Robinson as they embarked on their most significant foreign mission: a planned 10-day tour of the United States culminating at the White House on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, to meet U.S. President Barack Obama.
Twice, deadly shootings have obliged the power-sharing chiefs to postpone their departure. They will try again Wednesday, and still expect to meet Obama next week on Ireland's national holiday, the day when Northern Ireland leaders traditionally curry U.S. economic and political support.
But political analysts widely suggested Tuesday that the dissidents, though likely trying to exacerbate tensions between Robinson's Democratic Unionists and McGuinness' Sinn Fein, were having the opposite effect.
After their first-ever joint appearance with the police chief, McGuinness and Robinson — who have kept their distance during eight frosty months sharing power — traveled in the same car together to visit the widow of the most recent victim, 48-year-old Constable Stephen Carroll. The 23-year police veteran was shot in the back of his head Monday night when a gunman from the Continuity IRA dissident group fired on his parked police car.
Carroll had been part of a police backup unit for front-line officers investigating the home of a woman who reported that youths were smashing her windows in a Catholic part of Craigavon. Carroll's widow, Kate, said he had hugged her and told her before leaving home that morning: "Don't worry — they won't get me."
"A good husband has been taken away from me, and my life has been destroyed," she said.
Police raided several homes in a nearby state housing project Tuesday and arrested a 17-year-old-boy and 37-year-old man on suspicion of involvement in Carroll's slaying.
The Northern Ireland Assembly, the 108-member legislature that provides the bedrock for the Robinson-McGuinness administration, observed a minute's silence Tuesday in honor of Carroll's sacrifice. The day before, they did the same in memory of Cengiz Azimkar, 21, and Mark Quinsey, 23 — the unarmed, off-duty soldiers gunned down by another splinter gang, the Real IRA, outside their army base Saturday.
Both the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA are committed to unraveling the 2005 decision by the mainstream "Provisional" IRA to renounce violence and disarm, officially ending its 1970-97 campaign to force Northern Ireland out of the United Kingdom after killing 1,775 people and maiming thousands more.
Politicians and police agree it has been only a matter of luck that, until Saturday, more than 20 dissident attacks against police and army bases since November 2007 have wounded just seven policemen and killed nobody.
Both groups remain small, with estimated membership ranging from 200 to 500, and their pool of recruits is restricted versus previous generations. Whereas the Provisional IRA enjoyed strong support in a largely poor and excluded Catholic minority, today's Catholics are largely middle class, comfortable and pleased to have a share of power.
Nonetheless, experts on the IRA and its dissident offshoots caution that the Real and Continuity factions are unlikely to stop in response to public pressure — because they are pursuing the same stubborn example long set by McGuinness' generation.
"The kinds of things they (dissidents) are doing now is what the Provisional IRA, which was led by Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, was doing 15 years ago," said Kevin Toolis, author of a study of the IRA and commentator on the Sinn Fein-IRA movement.
The dissidents' determination to keep killing police and soldiers is "not alien and foreign to Irish republican thinking," he said.
A fringe political party linked to the Continuity IRA, Republican Sinn Fein, forecast Tuesday that troops and police would always remain subject to attack in Northern Ireland until the territory was merged with the Republic of Ireland.
"It's always been on the cards while England remains here, and while they have their occupying forces here," said Geraldine Taylor, a former IRA prisoner who represents the party in Catholic west Belfast. "It's inevitable that you'll have young people take up arms against the occupation of this country, whether it be the armed force of the police or the British Army."

Rally New York to Honor a great volenteer.

Tuesday, March 10th 2009, Rally New York USA 2009 has named three Delaware County, New York special stages to Honor the Memory of Ham Radio Volunteer
Steve Bogart, N2UZV.

Steve passed away suddenly on February 1, 2009. He was an extremely dedicated long term Radio Operator volunteer at many Rally New York events. Steve was a big guy who often worked with Ed Jackson as a mobile operator in one of the course safety cars. When he was not doing that, you could find him helping Olga at a time control. One thing Steve was never without at the Rallies was his great big smile! He will be missed by all his fellow Radio Operators and Marshal volunteers as well as the competitors and crews.

Aside from Rally, Steve was a very active volunteer with Ham Radio groups providing Safety and Emergency Communications for many different disasters and Public Service events in the Hudson Valley. As an active member in his local Fire Company, Steve served both as a volunteer and a commissioner.

We should all be thankful that we had the opportunity to know and work together with Steve Bogart. With his passing we have all lost a good friend and volunteer.

So, on Saturday afternoon, April 4th , when you are out working or competing on the Steve Bogart Special Stages please remember Steve, N2UZV and how much he contributed to our sport!

More info on Steve:Here

www.rallynewyork.com

Bryne doesn’t get bite out of Big Apple, yet

LOS ANGELES (March 10, 2009) – Unbeaten light welterweight Dean “Irish Lightning” Byrne’s dream to fight in New York is only delayed, not shattered, after the recent announcement that “Erin Go Brawl II,” scheduled for March 16 at WaMu Theater in Madison Square Garden, had been canceled.

Byrne (10-0, 4 KOs), fighting out of Los Angeles by way of Dublin, was supposed to fight in an 8-round bout on the card headlined by his friend, Andy Lee, and featuring his hero, Wayne McCullough. Dean, who has Freddie Roach as his trainer, works out at Roach’s famed Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles, where he has sparred with Manny Pacquiao, Amir Khan and Juan Marquez.

“I was very disappointed,” Byrne said about not fighting Mar. 16 in New York City. “I was looking forward to fighting in front of so many Irish at Madison Square Garden in New York City. A lot of my family were coming over from Ireland and booked flights. It was a big opportunity for us because they’ve never seen me fight as a pro. Hey, that’s boxing and someday I’ll fight there. I want people in New York, all up and down the East Coast where there’s a lot of Irish – Boston and Philadelphia – to see what a good entertainer I am.

“Freddie gave me the weekend off and I was back in the gym on Monday. I’ll continue training hard and hopefully I’ll be in a fight soon, maybe the end of March or in April. Someday, though, I’ll be fighting in Madison Square Garden.”

Byrne had more than 200 amateur fights, winning an Irish National title, and he turned pro in Australia, where he captured the New South Wales State belt on only his fourth pro fight, and one fighter later added the Australian crown in a 10-rounder. On his way from Australia to relocate in Boston, Dean stopped in Los Angeles and trained at World Card, where Roach took a shine to him. “He’s a tough kid who is a really good fighter but doesn’t know it yet,” Roach spoke about Byrne. “He’s learning to sit-down on his punches and has had two knockouts since he’s been with me. Dean’s learned a lot sparring with Manny, Amir and the others. He’s a lot of fun to watch, very exciting and cleaver for a young man. Early in his career he fought 10 rounds for the Australian title, so he already has that experience. He’s one of my best prospects.”

Byrne last fought in December, when he registered a win by fourth-round technical knockout against Francisco Rios Gil (13-8) in Inglewood, California.
“One of Dean’s most important dreams is to fight at Madison Square Garden in New York City,” Bryne’s manager Steven Feder (Standing Eight Management) remarked. “Ever since we started working together, Dean has told me that coming from Ireland and traveling around the world, his dream was to fight in Madison Square Garden. He was excited about fighting in an Irish community. We feel bad for Irish Ropes. Dean was looking forward to fighting on their card with Andy and Wayne. It’s too bad things didn’t work out for that show. Dean Byrne has a clear shot at really making it big in boxing. He’s 10-0 and ready to go. He never had a 4-round fight, starting with a six and going right to eights and then tens. Fans love him and Irish fans on the East Coast will embrace him once they get to see him fight. We train in LA because that’s where Freddie is but New York is my hometown and we hope New York fight fans will make Dean their adopted son.”