THE NIGHT JOHN DUDDY WAS GREAT
“WE WERE TAUGHT TO TREAT PEOPLE WITH RESPECT REGARDLESS OF RACE, CREED OR COLOUR”
ON September 29, 2006, John Duddy fought Yory Boy Campas at the Theater at Madison Square Garden. Duddy was never a great fighter in the traditional sense. But that night, he was great.
A native of County Derry, Ireland, Duddy lived and trained in New York. “I feel at home in America,” he said. “But I’m a guest here. My home will always be in Ireland. I’m not Irish-American. I’m an Irishman who’s living now in New York.”
Duddy was gracious and charming with a thick Irish brogue. He wasn’t just media-friendly; he was friendly to everyone. He looked like a fighter from an old-time movie. In other words, he didn’t look like a fighter. His face was too pretty. His body lacked the clear muscle definition that characterizes many of today’s elite athletes. But his charisma and action style made him popular in the Irish-American community.
Duddy was also linked to a seminal moment in Irish history. On Sunday, January 30, 1972 (a day known as “Bloody Sunday”), fourteen unarmed demonstrators were shot to death by British soldiers during a civil rights march in Northern Ireland. The march had been organised by Derry MP Ivan Cooper to protest a policy of internment without trial that the British government had introduced on August 9, 1971. One of the dead was seventeen-year-old John Francis Duddy.
“He was my uncle,” John said. “That’s my history, and there’s nothing I can do about it. His name was
