Rocky from Rosmuc

Lifestyle – The extraordinary life of Connemara boxer Seán Mannion is the subject of a poignant new documentary film. Judy Murphy talks to the people behind it.

A bitter-sweet story” is how film director Michael Fanning describes the extraordinary life of Connemara boxer Seán Mannion, the subject of a poignant new documentary film, Rocky Ros Muc, which will get its European premiere on July 12 during the Galway Film Fleadh.

Seán, now aged 60, was one of the finest boxers ever to come out of Galway or, indeed, Ireland.

His professional career, which spanned from 1977 to 1993, included a period in the early 1980s when boxing magazine Ring ranked him No 1 American Light Middleweight Champion.

Seán fought 57 fights, winning 42 and drawing one, but back then, fights in the US weren’t broadcast in Ireland, so people here didn’t witness just how talented he was.

The first fight of his to be shown in Ireland was in 1984, when this handsome young man took on Jamaican Mike McCallum for the world title.

Unfortunately, Seán lost. It was a defining moment in a life of highs and lows for this man who has spent most of his life in South Boston’s tightly knit Irish community, associating with the Irish Mafia – although never getting involved in crime – and struggling with alcohol addiction.

Boxing is at the centre of Seán’s story, but there’s far more to this modest man’s life, Michael explains.

“I wanted the film to be not just a story about sport; it has a much broader appeal than that.”

He’s right. The 90-minute documentary, based on the award-winning book, Rocky Ros Muc, by Carraroe-man Rónán Mac Con Iomaire, is poignant and moving, cinematic in scope, and totally absorbing.

It won Best Documentary in Boston’s Irish Film Festival earlier this year and got a standing ovation from a home audience, where the story of a boxing hero in a world of gang warfare, street crime and drug-related deaths really resonated.

That criminal world, ruled over by the infamous Whitey Bulger is explored in the documentary, via interviews with those who were involved with Bulger. Some were repentant, others including Pat Nee, a gunman convicted of shipping arms to the IRA 1984, were not. He’s also from Ros Muc.

With such a line-up of characters, it’s no wonder Rónán Mac Con Iomaire’s book Rocky Ros Muc, struck a chord with Michael Fanning when the TV director and producer first read it.

He approached Rónán, who is Group Head of Irish Language at RTÉ, about a possible film. Rónán, in turn, asked Seán.  They had become friends when Rónán was working on the biography.

“Very humble, very quiet and not one to brag about his exploits,” is how Michael describes Seán and Rónán agrees.  When they suggested a film to the former southpaw, his reply was simple. “I don’t care what’s in it, as long as it’s the truth.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.