McGuigan doc wins IFTA
15 February 2011
For the second successive year, Dublin-based TV documentary director Andrew Gallimore captured the top prize in the sports category of the IFTA (Irish Film and Television Awards) with a boxing film.
In Sunshine or in Shadow, produced by Fastnet Films, marked the 25th anniversary of Barry McGuigans capture of the WBA featherweight title from Eusebio Pedroza on that unforgettable night of June 8, 1985, at Londons Loftus Road football ground.
The documentary, shown on Setanta Ireland, traces the Clones Cyclones fascinating rise to the top during the troubled times in Northern Ireland of the 80s and ends with his world title triumph. One of the highlights is how the makers managed to track down Pedroza in Panama to record his reminiscences about the fight.
Welshman Gallimore won the 2009 IFTA award with his documentary on Mike McTigue, the Irishman who returned from America to take the world light-heavyweight title from Battling Siki on St Patricks Day 1923, in the midst of a civil war on the streets of Dublin.
Gallimores next boxing project, a documentary on Irish-American Gentleman Jim Corbett, is currently at the planning stage. It will be based on Patrick Mylers 1998 biography of the former world heavyweight champion, which is being brought out in paperback this year by The Lilliput Press, Dublin.
