Grave honour for ex-slave and boxing champ – 200 years on

The life of freed American slave and boxer Tom Molineaux was celebrated in Mervue on Wednesday when, 200 years after this extraordinary man died, a headstone was erected above the pauper’s grave which was his final resting place.

A trailblazer in the 1800s, the almost-forgotten Molineaux’s headstone was unveiled by another boxing trailblazer  – undisputed World Champion and Olympic gold medallist, Katie Taylor, alongside her manager Brian Peters.

Born in slavery on a tobacco plantation in Virginia in March 1784, Tom Molineaux rose to become the ‘Ali of his day’, known across America and also this side of the pond, in England and Ireland for his sporting prowess.

Molineaux earned his freedom from slavery through boxing and became a well-known figure in Britain after making the three month-long journey by boat to England – the boxing capital of the world at the time.

The self-styled ‘Champion of America’ soon became the talk of English boxing circles and after several fights, was lined up to take on the English champion in a bout that would have made him the de facto champion of the world.

Pitted against the title-holder Thomas Cribb, Molineaux was cheated out of that match, and the rematch that followed. This, and a series of subsequent misfortunes, ended with him dying destitute in the Shambles Barracks in Galway. Three fellow free African-American slaves who were members of the army band cared for him in his final days. The local army regiment was based in what is now the site of St Patrick’s National School.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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