‘You Can’t Do It Forever’: Craig O’Brien Calls Time on Career That Inspired a Community
By Aaron Dunne
The late summer sun punches through the early morning clouds in Dublin’s north inner city – Craig O’Brien sitting down to reflect on a professional boxing career three decades old and five days in the rear view mirror. Every second the gentleman – and every second counts.
A doting father, he sees to his daughters Noah (8) and Darla (4) before attention turns nostalgically back to his final ring walk – escorted as he was by his eldest son Craig Jr (13) the previous weekend. The important things in life.
A family man – and a dyed in the wool Dubliner. A beacon of hope in a part of the world known for its poverty.
Heroes abound all around Las Paulas cafe – a stone’s throw to Olympic legend Kellie Harrington and heavyweight hero in the making Thomas Carty. Home to past and future heroes.
Craig’s eyes betray a sobering reality – from a knockout punch that harkened the end but also eschewed in a new beginning. Two purpled eyes, but a face 36 years old yet none too evidently worse for wear.
A somber end to a great career – the retiring former Irish champion remains a gentleman; and a scholar to boot. Having left school at 13, he now holds a level 5 degree in addiction studies from UCD. And a taxi licence. Options open.
No finer an example for the kids from a deprived part of our capital city. Just a bloody nice fella.
The final bell, however, has echoed. A beaming smile and the most charming of demeanours, his story deserves telling for so hard earned it was. A beacon of what’s possible for all and sundry. His assessment of the end so humble – “The better man won”.
If there is indeed a “better man”, they’ll have work to do to catch up. Professional boxing is not for the feint-hearted – yet its abundance of kind heartedness is incomparable in any other professional sporting world.
The gentlest hit the hardest – perhaps because they were hit the hardest. A “waken up shot”. Some stories need telling – and this is one.
“I’ve four kids – 14, 13, eight and four,” Craig glows. “The eldest is Hallie – Craig walked me to the ring last weekend.”
A sucker punch had brought the final curtain down. “One second to the bell in the fifth,” he chuckles. “I’ve been hearing I was ahead on the cards, depending on how you score these things.” He was unlucky too.
“I had to go for a urine test 10 minutes beforehand because I was fighting for the title. They took me downstairs to do it, and it fairly upended my preparations.
“It took 15 minutes to get up and down the stairs – by the time it was done I was walking onto the stage.
“We’d no time to even do pads – and I was stone cold walking to the ring. It took a couple of rounds to warm up, but I think I was only just getting heated up when I was caught. It’s just one of those things.
“That’s the end now – but I’ve got so many options. Where I am now, compared to where I was before… I mean I was in and out of addiction, in and out of prison.”
Part of that future is the work he does with Solas – a champion of the “Fighting For Change” programme in Dublin 8 that does so much important work with the city’s youth.
“Growing up around here, it was just full of addiction. My brother Clint was in addiction but he’s 15 months sober now; he’s 46. All I saw growing up was him in addiction.
“My cousin Wayne, I lost him in 2018. I’d won the Irish title the night before. He was 38; sclerosis of the liver. When I finally came around I went to study. Everything sort of snowballed from there.
“I went on to work with the Solas project after getting my degree. I’m over there on a Tuesday now, doing boxing classes. We bring people in to talk to the kids, the likes of Thomas Carty who’s from around here; UFC fighter Kiefer Crosbie.
“We train in the same gym – Celtic Warriors in Corduff, Paschal Collins’ place. I’d a great camp, the fight just didn’t go my way. Fighting in the Point was great – I’d fought there 15 months ago on Dana White’s ‘Contenders Series’. I got fight of the night.
“That was a great occasion – this was a great occasion too. I had my little fella walking me out; Ciara Moran (Ciamo) sang me into the ring with ‘The Aul Triangle’ but the result is the result. The better man won. That’s boxing. You can’t do it forever.”
The proudest man in the north inner city is Craig’s father Gary. Another gentleman, possessed of perhaps the finest moustache in the vacinity of Henrietta St – a gentleman as well. “He’s been fighting since he was 8,” Gary adds. “Time to give it up.”
“My Da is my biggest fan,” Craig chimes in. “And he said ‘look Craig, you can’t do it forever’. In a way it might be for the best – if I’d have won that fight I’d only have been looking for another one.”
The time has indeed finally come – but the people of Dublin’s north inner city should be proud as punch.
