Ron Jackson
Author Donald McRae has produced another winner in his recently published book In Sunshine Or In Shadow – How Boxing Brought Hope In The Troubles, and he must be a strong contender for The William Hill Sports Book of the Year for the third time.
The South African-born McRae tells the story of the golden era of boxing in Ulster inspired by the trainer Gerry Storey whose Holy Family Boxing Club in Belfast helped to bring Protestant and Catholic communities together through the sport of boxing.
Storey survived three attempts on his life but he continued to work through his gym and boxing, despite the divide and went into the notorious Maze prison to train fighters, irrespective of their religious or political beliefs.
The book relates mostly to the Troubles in Northern Ireland which left many family’s devastated by the injuries and deaths suffered on both sides. The conflict is reported to have begun in the late 1960’s and was ended with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
The story also features the talents of outstanding fighters like Davy Lamour, Barry McGuigan, Charlie Nash and Hugh Russell and a number of others.
The author has done an outstanding job as he tells the story of fighters and trainers in the time of the Troubles and the Bloody Sunday in Derry.
Even though there is lot about the Troubles, McRae never loses the boxing theme which makes for a fascinating story of hardships and death that happened at the time.
McRae is the author of 11 non-fiction books and is a three-time winner of the Interviewer of the Year award and has also been Feature Writer of the Year on three occasions.
I visited Northern Ireland a few years ago and reading the book brought back memories of places I had driven past on a bus tour in Belfast, like the site of the iconic King’s Hall, Ulster Hall and the murals on Falls Road and Shankill Road.
This book must rate as highly as the author’s two award winning books, Dark Trade and In Black and White two of the top books in my collection.
The book comes in hard cover with 371 pages and is published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd.