 Rwy'n ddim yn gwneud y gwahaniaeth mewn ffordd yw'r gwaith meddwl am gweithio'n gweithio'r gwahaniaeth ac rwy'n dweud i'ch ddim yn yw'r subscribe i'r tofod mewn yna'r ddefnyddio'r boton felly rydyn ni'n nodiwr i chi'n mynd i chi'n gweithio'r podcas yw gyrdd. Rydyn i'r ddim yn ysgol, rydyn ni'n gweithio'n ddefnyddio'n ddoen, rydyn ni'n dweud yw siŵr. Ond 90% of y buddys- I went back and I bullied, well I didn't bully them, but I went back and I got them and educated them for not to be bullied anymore, you know. If and when you win a fight. What happens there James is that you get re-challenged by someone from that family. And this is not just my experience, this experience from all traveling men is to win a fight, somebody wants to take them down, you know. The more to try and take you down and the more you're winning is the bigger the pedestal and the bigger the challenges and the bigger the money goes on from that. Basically it was just a thing going on, somebody tried to tax me, I refused to pay the money and they've come in and they wanted me to leave with them and I wouldn't leave. So they jumped me and shot me in the leg. Oh had guns? Yeah every one of them and we couldn't find a spot, we couldn't find a spot at all. So we kept driving around, I drove down a side alley of Lane so I found this lovely at the car park, I said get out here and let's do it. So we decided anyway, I was the man showing there free and all that. And one of the other guys said I think we better stop this fight now. I said no no no, it's going good, let them have another fight. No he said have a look behind you. And they were just actually fighting under a police station. And there was about 50 of them looking out the window and they were all recording it. And then next minute we just looked up and everybody just makes the run for it. And by the time we get down to the end of the lane there was about four police guards and we're all arrested. It's a terrible thing to where you've got to wake up every morning knowing that this shit has gone on in your life. Knowing that your brothers, your fathers, your cousins are all involved in trying to kill each other and trying to take each other's heads off and having fights every six weeks and all that. Boomer on. Yes and today's guest we've got James Quinn McDonough, how are you brother? Pleasure to meet you. Pleasure to meet you. Thanks for coming on the show. I'm glad to be asked on the show, you know I look up, follow you a lot on the old YouTube channels and I hear nothing good, everything I should have said, everything good about you, nothing bad. And I'm very happy to be here. Thank you, you're named King of the Travellers, I know you don't like that but you're an undefeated, bare knuckle fighter. Undefeated as in on the day I was just a better man to fight. Doesn't mean I was better than every man or any man but just I was lucky on the day I believe you. Your reputation's very well liked and very high in the travelling community. And outside the travelling community you're Book Knuckle. Knuckle yes. And the documentary, powerful. Obviously watched hundreds of thousands of times, people know your name. Can that be difficult then if you're becoming an undefeated fighter in the travelling community? Does people then want to call you out and try and slay the king? It's good for to get it out there and to get the book done and the documentary done and be recognised as a good fighter but the problem there is that you get more challenges and you get more challenges one after the other and then you keep accepting and you'll be fighting every day. So what I've done was I tried to put higher prices on the fights to back people off, not because I wanted to win the money off, I just didn't want to fight type thing. So what happened happened and I'm just happy where I am at the moment. Not fighting and you know at a later stage as you move on in years then you start getting challenges where you hit a certain age and you're over the hill for fighting where sometimes you can be challenged every day but you just ignore them now. I don't even reply to them anymore. I always go back to the start of my guest brother, where you grew up and how it all began. Born and Mwlingar County West Meade, Southern Ireland, reared and went to school for a little bit of schooling I'd done in Dundaw County Loud, Southern Ireland. How was your schooling that you went for? How long did you go? You know what, to be honest and realistic is what I like to be. We only went to school for, basically was for the religious facts, just to get the whole communion confirmation. After that we took out of school and put the work with our parents in the end of the day. Back in the 70s travelling kids didn't have the full education to go further on and what we'd done was we went out and we helped a family in the farm work. What age did you start working? I started at 12, even maybe a bit younger. And you were bullied as a kid as well? I was bullied as a kid. I bullied in school for a little bit of schooling I'd done. I was bullied on the streets but 90% of the bullies I went back and I bullied, well I didn't bully them but I went back and I got them and educated them for not to be bullied anymore. But what I like about when I talk about bullying and anti-bullying campaigns now is I've done a number of interviews and a number of speeches in colleges and schools in a few different areas and countries. And what I like to do is I like to pinpoint the bully, find them, get them and try and use their very psychology on them and try and get him to protect the victims and he doesn't realise that I know that he's the bully. So if I try and switch it and say I pinpoint you, you look like a good guy, I need a girl or whatever, I need you to protect such a person. You know why would you ask me that? He doesn't realise that I know the daily bully so I reverse it on them and then they understand where it goes from there then. Did you have a big family growing up James? We three brothers, three sisters but extended family about 400. Plus. How was it in the travelling community growing up? I was born in 1967, rough. It was very, very rough. Facilities, I lived on the side of the roads, I lived in Barrett Top Wagon. I was born and my first day out of the hospital I was in Barrett Top Wagon and from that we lived in tents on the side of the road. It was an enjoyable life, very enjoyable. I enjoyed as a kid but I don't think the parents enjoyed it because of the hardship and the way of living and moving from one area to another, looking for farm work, a farm hand work and scrap metal and all that. Obviously every traveller is not a bad person. We all get tarnished by the one brush, very good traveller, bad traveller but you're not welcome in a lot of areas. You're not welcome in a lot of areas and that's a big problem for travellers. Why is that because of the reputation stuff? It's because of the reputation of travellers being rowdy, travellers being violent, travellers being teffs or whatever but not all travellers, not all travellers are that way whereas it's a small minority in a very small minority again. It's a thing where people need to get to know us, people need to speak to us and judges and mingle with us and when they get to know individual travellers they will understand that we're all not like the ones that you see are portrayed as bad. It must be difficult though because I know a couple of travelling boys and tough fucking boys, but they and their family keep themselves to themselves. It's a very community where not many people get in. No, you see, it has been recognised a few years back in Southern Ireland as a ethnic group now. We've been recognised as a ethnic group by the Irish government and we are very close to our families, the travelling community. It's very hard for it to accept someone in, we accept that right but there is that traveller, there is the traveller out there who want to get settled down, want to integrate with pubs, clubs, restaurants the general settled community where they don't have that option because your doors are now not open to us where previously our doors were closed to you guys now it's starting to be a deal of our own where we want to get in and mingle with the settled community we find that the barriers are there. Was it difficult though being a traveller and other people's opinion on you as a sense of more being there that people think you're an outsider? I just, when I was growing up, I'm not saying now it's time to change and thank God but when I was growing up we were classed as third rates that weren't recognised as nobody wanted us anywhere at any time councillors, local authorities, nobody were shoved from one area to another because no one wanted us as their problem Instead of trying to fix the problem and get a solution for the problem we were pushed out and pushed on to other areas at all times So he's moved along a lot That can be disheartening though as well if you're setting up That's why we're called travelling people Do you eventually get used to that James? No, I'm going to settle down at the moment I do like travelling, I try and travel in the summers but it's getting locations to travel You know, the end of the day it's illegal now to travel on side roads and travellers are still doing it because it's in their blood to do it but I do think there should be some sort of a guideline where we can do what we can't do but we don't have anyone that would help us out on that situation Do you eventually, and maybe in 10 to 20 years time that there might never be any more travellers in the UK because obviously so many rules and regulations You know what James, to be honest travelling travelling will never die out in us it's in our blood what we do and what we are but more and more and more we're getting integrated into the housing into permanent travelling sites into permanent yards travelling yards into permanent apartments well once you get settled in there and once you get used to it you tend to not leave it so it is going to die out not to travel a way of life not within ourselves within our communities but within the way we used to live it's not there anymore It must be good as well to live off-grid about just nobody knows where your next move is or where you're going It's lovely, we enjoy it I enjoy it I like the open space, I like the country I like moving about because I was like I'm 53 years old so I know I remember way back from the days of moving around I'm glad now they just they're more into living under apartments living under yards never moving around okay someone living in caravans they never travel so they call themselves a traveller yes they are in the blood and in the heritage but not in mobility Some of the caravans though are stunning some of them are better than houses You know what there is expensive assays of some of them you can pay a good 100 grand 120 grand for a good shawley so they are expensive So when you started getting out of the fighting James what age were you then? Do you know what I started fighting after the first experience of being bullied you know my dad took me and got arrested he took me over to the local boxing club Dublin Darndale boxing club and introduced me to the guy Joe Russell who worked there at the time still does and he took me on he's given me a chance to do what I need to do and I've had a very successful when I say successful I didn't have that many fights in the amateur amateurs I've had about 18 fights only I've lost the first and lost the last I fought for Dublin won the county doublins won all the local things and then I was due to fight for my first dollar in title and so we decided to move to England my dad on the 13th of April 1984 we decided to up and go on Travellers we went where the work was my dad had to take us to England and that was the end of my boxing career as an amateur How was the move from Ireland to England? I enjoyed it again as a teenager at the time it was an adventure it was an adventure I think it was my first time on a ferry and then travelling through Wales and then going we went all around Peterborough, Cambridge, Oxfordshire Milton Keynes all them areas we enjoyed it prior to that we were just travelling in local areas in Ireland but over here was a vast country at the time and we really enjoyed as a teenager growing up I enjoyed travelling to the UK When did your street credit start rising when you started the the Bernocco fighting? Yeah it didn't start when I said it didn't start when I was younger it started at about 26, 27 So quite late? Yeah yeah I always liked doing a little bit of boxing but I've never had a few fights that wasn't recorded on it but it really started at my sister's wedding there was a bit of trouble at sister's wedding and my first fight started at that wedding and then a couple of days later I was re-challenged and I took that fight and I moved on from there Yeah so that's what it started just as it did By 1993 yeah, it was about 26 or something So somebody came in to cause trouble and you stepped up to the plate? Exactly something I did So what happens there when you win a fight then and Bernocco on a travel community is that when people then want a piece of you and things they can be in? If and when you win a fight what happens there James is that you get re-challenged by someone from that family and this is not just my experience this experience from all travel men if you win a fight somebody wants to take them down and the more they try and take you down and the more you're winning is the bigger the pellet still and the bigger the challenges and the bigger the money and it goes on from there What was the buzz light for you at your first fight Bernocco? You know when I say you got butterflies I had seagulls you know what I mean emotions all over the place you know wondering you have to understand that you're not just fighting for yourself or your wife or kids you're fighting for your whole clang you're going to represent your clang regards what clang you are you could be anybody in the UK or Ireland you're fighting for that clang whatever surname you are you've got all of those guys to answer them when you go back You seem to have got quite embarrassed when people used to put you on the pedestal I don't like that What it is I don't that part of it is you know that is for you know world champions that's for my Tyson Fury and them they were there and all that where me I've had a couple of Bernocco fights yes I enjoyed it when I won it but I would rather be knowing for something else and it's been honest I'd rather be known for doing a good deed for someone instead of what I'm known for What's the rules for the Bernocco fight because it seems quite fair you've got a couple of referees they get split in every hole I've seen a couple of fights though in your documentary when people are biting each other What is the rules? Preferably what it is you've got if you're challenged you accept the challenge then the way it should be the way it always has been is you get one referee man he gets a referee man you get two camera men and that's it at the road but a lot of people start turning up now but we try and organise where there's only one referee on each side one camera man and the referees have got full responsibility to fight if they think you've been beaten enough they can call the fight even though you don't want to call it if they think that there's a foul as in someone's headbutton kicking or biting they can disqualify you there's no rounds no breaks no timeouts just a fight until one says he puts his hand out or he's on the ground and can't get up because a lot of money seems to be involved at 10,000, 50,000, 100,000 some of these fights who holds the money is it referees? Referees and their men their seconds will hold the money fight some range from a thousand pounds up to a couple hundred grand those fights there there was 180, 200,000 pound person and that's a lot of money for any family to lose so what the referees try and do is they try and come together each referee and say let's fight go for it let them burn off steam but no family wants to because the one guy doesn't put the money up it's a family so the families don't want to lose 80, 90 grand so they'll be really bad blood for years after that if someone takes your money so what the referees try and do is let them fight for a few minutes let them blow off a bit of steam and then try and get the shake hands so everyone gets their money back no loss no one lost so everyone's kind of a little bit better does that money have a rixate you to think you can come out of retirement? no no no no too old for that shit no no enjoy watching the fights now enjoy talking about them and you know giving my own 10-pence word of opinion on it but no to fight again never I know you've had feuds with back in the day that Evans and the Choices it's been well documented I know it's everything everything's caution there you know what I do speak to the Evans and I do speak to the Choices and some of the Choices and Evans are actually family of ours you know so yeah it's all good there at the moment and everyone's kind of you know speaking on good terms which is not a bad thing I think 90% of what did happen should never have happened you know the feuding between ourselves and the other two clients I'm glad and I'm happy that's put the bed and long made last what was that though when it should have started how did that affect you? you know what it affects you in different ways it affects everybody in different ways something that I was worried about because you know prior to that there was feuds going back with my dad before that and he died away there's a plaster put on him for a while and he died out but you know when something starts it's going to last you know you've got to live it down for the next three or four years then you're worried about your own sons coming up and your nephews and your grandsons it's never any story it's just going to continue for the rest of your life his life and their lives when there's a stop so luckily thank God it's actually been put to bed at the moment yeah because it must be difficult to say it's in their blood to travel it's also in their blood to fight so even though there's always peace when you've got nephews and sons coming up they want to follow the footsteps of their dad first thing a traveller does when he learns how to walk and this has been honest is he learns how to fight when he tries to learn how to fight some of them can some of them can't there's some great fight men out there of all clangs you know but the first thing you ever do is you've got to be able to hold your hands up and two reasons it's not to be bullied or not to be picked on and if your challenge or if your dad has challenged you step in his place and things like that so you do it you do it you have to learn you have to at least be seen to learn to be able to box because it must be difficult as well it's a second religion all families coming together and fighting there was no time that you could go all the heads of the families to come together and kind of come to an agreement or these people just love to fighting no you do always get which is a brilliant thing you do get the older clang you know people that's got a reputation in mediation and speaking and talking terms you do get those from other families coming in to speak about the issues what can be settled can we do it can we sort it I'll go to that family he'll go to that family to come back and then phone calls will be made and peace are made and sometimes that peace can last for years more times it can last for a weekend but if you're running that must be hard on other families then because they just want revenge in any family James in any family if any family is losing they always want to try and try and get get one back on you and that's how it works and you know it works in a way where if you're winning somebody wants to beat you yeah so it's non-stop though yeah you know what it's in the travelling community it's in the travelling community to fight and travellers will never stop fighting as you say it's in their blood it's in their heritage it's probably one of the oldest combat sports in the world you know and I think it originated in the UK and Ireland at the beginning anyway and it's something there that's going to be there and I think it's the best way even though you know right now I'd love to see everyone shake hands and walk away from it it's better than using knives and guns drop the knives drop the guns put up your fist if you're able to do that and shake hands after it and that's done and dosed it so be it yeah that's what real men should do I'll just see people out there you know going up because they get hit and family gets hit and they go and stab someone and shoot someone no go out there do your best you're more of a man by going out and lifting your hands instead of lifting a knife you'll get more respect it's not just a case if two families are at a feud calling somebody out and you meet them that day you've actually gone to your boxing camp you do eight weeks twelve weeks training we do yeah the average traveller will do now it used to be like give me six weeks give me four weeks it's not good anymore because they're now trained athletes they're now they're dedicating their their lives to that 12 or 14 or 16 weeks to train not to just look good but to actually be able to be going out there the best they can be so if you go out there and you know you're lost at least you went out there knowing that you had no excuse you know you've got to put your 14 16 weeks into it and you've got to stop everything you train you know when I years ago when I was doing it it was like a small jog I hate jogging man I hate jogging I really do you know when I was going out there I used to do small jogs in the morning 7am in the morning then I was down to the local gym for the weights and all that stuff and then it was midday just after midday it was swimming and then in the evening seven to nine o'clock it was a boxing club and that's you know that's three four days three four times a day six days a week that's the way it used to be done there's ways of doing it but that was my way of doing it Did you ever have a fight James where you thought you knew the boy was defeated because I know a lot of travels are too much pride where they'll never say they want to finish it Did you ever feel wanting something to call the fight when you know you had beaten them Yeah there was one guy I called him Patrick Nevin you know I'll say his name in this interview he don't like me I don't like him his name is Chaps Paddy to call him you know he was a total waste of space and I'll say it on video he's a total waste of space he was never any good and he challenged me he went for 47 minutes but he fought for 47 minutes he fell 47 times he just wouldn't stop he wouldn't stay on the ground but he did it to finish Yeah so he kept fighting and fighting and the refs called that Yeah it was just he put his hand out after finished he put his hand out but the other guys I respect every other guy that I fought you know every other man that I fought I respect him and I give him his due and you know right now it's all good but he no respect for that man whatsoever How is it when you're if you're in the house minding your own business and somebody sends you a video and somebody calling you out do you think fuck me not again or I used to happen a lot and I used to accept him I used to accept him but my dad told me that if you keep accepting it's never in the story and somewhere down the line as you're getting older James they're going to catch you you know the younger man is going to come ahead and there's someone out there that because you're going downhill and they're coming uphill and they're going to get you and I've took his advice and I just stopped regardless of who challenges you know the good woman travel that challenge me now wouldn't take the challenge I want nothing to do with me physically going out there boxing anymore And how is that for you what does people say if they do if they're calling you out and you just don't respond What happens is silence is golden in my books right if you just ignore it then they'll listen to the wrong bullshit and to keep hearing their own voice they stop then you know even you know there's other people there that was doing bits of talk challenging hearing there and you know a crowd doubling there but you know it's all again it's all gone quite thank God and long may it last but if you keep listening to people and you were applying to them which I used to do it would drive you mad you know every day every day videos watch apps you know call outs so I just about four months ago my mum told me please do it for your dad do for your dad's all and just stop so I've stopped the videos and I haven't done any any replies since that they feel better mentally absolutely absolutely feel my head's completely clear because I've not let them get into my head anymore I've not let the challenging into my head I've not let people get into my head I've not let what people say on the WhatsApps I've not you know they insult the dead they insult the women they insult the kids they call the dead names stuff like that and it was really getting to me it does get to me sometimes but now I know that's all you can do you can do nothing else yeah and I accept that that's their best so be it you were on a fight James for nearly three hours how does that even happen without any breaks without any drinks two hours forty seven minutes that fight was the issue with that fight was you know I respect that young man I respect that young man for taking that fight it was good but the training I'd done for that fight was it may sound stupid to people as less than it is but what it was when I trained for that fight I didn't train like a boxer I trained like a fighter meaning that when I used to go into the boxing club and we all do a three minute bags and three minute skipping and three minute shadow boxing and all that no I would do a minute boxing stop for 30 seconds I would do eight minutes on the bags take a break I would do 12 minutes I'd do four minutes and I would do the same in rounds I would do a 12 minute round six minute round four minute round so I was training my body not to be wait for that 15 second bell at the end of the three minutes so my body didn't know when and my mind didn't know when that's why I was going to stop and that's what I worked out was sometimes I'd do shadow boxing for half an hour sometimes I'd do shadow boxing for an hour and 20 minutes I'd do the bags for 30 minutes not where you see the kids and young lads doing an hour to do three minutes and three minutes and all that and that means that you know in the last 10 or 15 seconds that you're taking that break and then you've got your minute break I wouldn't I train myself in a way that I don't know when this fight's happening and that's the way it worked out two hours, five, seven minutes we had no breaks, no rounds, no water no nothing it was tough he was a tough young lad at the time it must have been tough it was tough and it was one of the hottest days of the year as well so how do you deal with that then because that just doesn't come down to endurance that comes mental strength what are you thinking then when it's going after an hour two hours it's all down to being hit and not be hit it's all down to working in a way where you've just got to work out your counter punching work out your jabs work out your distance work out get yourself comfortable get yourself comfortable and get yourself settled in because you know some fights you know you're in there for the long haul some fights are not a fight but a fight sometimes you know because when you make your move on them he's way back, he's gone you know you've got to chase him all around so you just set yourself in and let it take its course when did Bernoco came and ended in the 1900s late 1800s how come way back from James Figg yeah, Irish guy American then the real Godfather of Bernoco boxing was John L Silvan you know the start of him but a lot of people think that guy had a lot of fights he didn't he had four Bernoco fights on record he was the last champion to hold the world title at Bernoco when he beat Jake Kilrayne he was Irish he was Irish he beat Jake Kilrayne in 1889 I believe and then a year later he was gentlemen Jim Colbert that took the title from him for the first world glove title when the London prize wheels came in or the London prize wheels or the Max the Queen's prize wheels, whatever but he was the old original recognised champion of Bernoco boxing crossing over to the modern era of glove boxing and he was the first champion and the first champion on that Were you not putting the Hall of Fame for Bernoco fight? I was, I was putting the Hall of Fame in upstate New Birmingham, upstate New York I'm in the Hall of Fame a couple of years ago for recognition of what I was supposed to do I don't know about that but again mate, that's what you do that was in your blood it must make you feel proud as well obviously it can be difficult because everybody will want to be the first man to beat you but it must make you proud as well that you've kept your name and kept everything above board while winning basically You know what, you have to you have to try and present yourself James as good as possible you know, you don't want to be going out there as you know, I've never challenged anybody in my life I've never asked anybody in the fight because I know what it's like to be challenged and it's not a nice thing so I don't do that every challenge that came to me I accepted to a stage where I took them fights where other fights were negotiated and settled I was supposed to fight other guys but they were all negotiated and settled whereas you know, I respect every fight in the man in Ireland I respect every fight in the man in the UK but I do think that, you know, wait to be challenged don't challenge anybody and you get more respect for that Why do you think bare-knuckle fighting has never been legalised? I'll have to contradict you it's legalised and sanctioned at the moment Yes, since when? In 2014 a company I ran I still have hands-on knuckle promotions has actually put on the first bare-knuckle sanctioned show in the UK in over 118 years in a five-star hotel in Nottingham and from that show we now as expanded to about six, seven, maybe eight good bare-knuckle boxing promoters in the UK from that one show where Dave expanded and now the police, the councils and local authorities have allowed us to put on bare-knuckle boxing shows in five-star hotels and that's good, man I always thought it was kind of underground and never really heard much about it You know, it's up and running there's shows being in the O2 arena there's shows being in the big arena in Liverpool there's shows in Wales there's massive shows going on it's a pandemic has slowed everything down at the moment but I'm involved now at the moment if I can say what a company called bkwars.tv and it's with a very good friend of mine from New Jersey, Donna McSabbato and we've set up bkwars.tv as a reality TV show at the beginning where we get a 12 heavyweights plus a captain on the UK taking on 12 heavyweights USA, so it's country versus country but I've got four scotch four Irish, four English on my team and when we go into a big world of star house what happens is the team captain is not easily eliminated from he's the main fight so we only can take eight of those guys to take on eight of the Americans so there's going to be in-house fighting to get to the last eight and each fighter will take home 50,000 pounds it's not bad but then we now have the bkwars.tv TV channel coming out where we've got signed up and talked with seven different boxing promoters from France Norway, USA, UK Wales and India where they're all coming under the umbrella but using their own names and promoting their own stuff but we're going to be financing the programmes financing the fight cards and we're going to be airing them on our channels Do you think bare knuckle boxing can be potentially be up there with boxing and UFC, you look at UFC the last ten years it's just been pumped for steroids and it's competing with boxing it's just started off with Daniel White very, very small budget at the beginning bare knuckle boxing at the moment is getting in very, very fast coming at the bottom there's companies in the US, there's companies in the UK there's companies in different parts of the world there's one there in Russia extreme fighting I believe is called we're in talks with those guys as well to put on a promotion show with those and it's massive and I do believe I'm not just saying this right but what we've come about since and documentary and locals come out in 2011 prior to that documentary there was no promotion company in this country or in any other country there was no such thing as bare knuckle boxing promoters, illegalised now there's sprouting up like mushrooms Yeah anything's possible people just love combat sports like UFC became so big people just love to see violence we never understood where bare knuckle boxing was at the beginning because if you look at MMA you've got four weapons, knees and elbows when boxing you've just got your hands no clenching, no holding, no nothing it's way more safer it's more physical you'll see the bruises and the punches and all that but long term or glove boxing you take more punches so it's more long term damage to the head where in bare knuckle boxing facial that will heal How's your injuries and stuff when you were fighting did you get any? No, I was just lucky I broke a few fingers because when you won James it's like when you were coming home you came home with a package of money and you become home like a hero everybody's out, street parties I don't know about the hero but everybody's out celebrating is that because is it 50-50 so say a fight is 50 grand one family put 25, the other put 25 when I take off but people are putting money in a couple of grand double their money but it's a lot of pressure if somebody's putting in a 100 grand it's all their wages there are so many different families I believe there's a fight coming up soon I'll keep the names quite but there's a fight coming up soon and I believe they're looking to put 250 grand that's a supplement of money for one fight which could go anyway best to look about them Did you know getting all the fighters before you fought them or was it just like Some of the fighters I've never seen before in my life some of the fighters, one of the fighters he was a drinking partner I used to live with him every side in London years ago and he was a good guy but it happened and we fought other ones I've never seen before Does that make it awkward then the man's not knowing how they hit Of course, the problem is nowadays there's a lot of YouTube videos where you can study your fighter like a boxer would study his fighter and you train on working on what you're doing and we know what he's like but prior to that there's not just videos or things like that or we could look at and analyse and sit down and talk about he's there in front of you, he's got his hands up you've got to just do it One thing at a night you had a big fight coming up I think it was 100 grand but five men came out with bala clavas It was a thing going on somebody tried to tax me I refused to pay the money and they've come in and they wanted me to leave with them and I wouldn't leave so they jumped me and shot me in the leg How was that experience though I was a bad experience as it should be it's a rough experience something that I put to the back of the mind and I've left it after a long time and I do talk about it sometimes it's something where again down to bullying if you want to be a victim or a cash machine for somebody keep giving them money but if you want to take a stand and stand up to the bullies and say no and that's it Do you think if you went with them you'd have died that night I actually believe I would have but it's again like that that's in the past and that's been all sorted out and it's done and does it again does it bring back a lot of emotion because I had a small family at the time as well I had two boys five and eight or five and nine and I was worried about them I was also worried about how what would happen that night how would the kids you know it all brought out memories so I tried to from that on I tried to change my life as much as I could but that night I wasn't in the wrong So how do you re-evaluate your life after that and be a knock-off fighter to then potentially being nearly killed to then You know what I try and do what I actually try and do I haven't been a saint far from it I haven't been I've been a party boy we all do what we do I haven't been clean I haven't been in the mean night a good person in my life in a way but what I try and do now is I try and give back a little try and help people that I've seen people that need to help and do anything anything at all a good turn I will do it How did people cheat in a travelling community after that experience I get respect from travellers and I give respect James what it is within the travelling community you only get what you give if you've been a prick excuse my language you've been a prick to somebody they'll be a prick to you if you've been half decent or kind that's it but if they're not coming back to you I try and mix mingle and talk and get on with everybody and the ones that don't want to get on with me that's a bad experience and you're gone because you had a fight coming up I think it was 100 grand on the line but if you don't turn up you lose the money no matter what whatever fights happen James for reasons being it's all down to the rules all down to what rules you make you could make a fight where and that injury is regardless what it is a hand foot whatever and if that injury happens then you have time for the heal and your money is still with referees but if you make agreements that regardless what happens you don't care if you're hit by a train if you don't turn up a fight you'll lose your money so there's the basic black and white of it it's all down to the rules that you make referees and the actual opponent if you say if there's an injury involved we pull the fight to another date or not that's how it works and you showed up to that fight in crutches that was a while back I remember that one I did I was in crutches but my referee man got that sorted out we didn't lose any money which is not too bad then when was your very last fight what age were you about 36, 37 about 38 years old 38 years old that was the long fight was that what made it your last fight that was my last fight he wasn't a bad kid he was only a kid at the time he was a young man now he could fight he was determined to do it we were both determined we showed it a lot of respect straight after that fight we watched another fight speaking drinking a cup of tea together watching the second fight happen just the sick part of it you know how you can be in there one minute and you want your sight up to try and take someone's head off and then the minute that handshake happens all that anger has gone from you win or lose it's all gone from you when did you decide on the day or was that a long period you know what just decide when you don't want to go to the gym simple as that when you know your body is not able for that training anymore that level of training that you need to do 14 weeks of this and you just don't want to do it because your lifestyle changes you drink more, you eat rubbish food and you've got to give all that up and you've got to get back into the gym then you're doing whatever business you're in you've got to stop that and get back into the gym for all this shit with the chance of losing how did people cheat you what was family members saying that you don't want to fight anyway I'm happy because the great thing about all travelling communities and all travelling clangs is they've always got someone else coming behind them you know, you've always got someone to step into your shoes and you know, I've got cousins, nephews all that capital they're there, sons, they're there if a young man challenged you now they'll say hang on my uncle or my cousins too old I'll take it and that's well matched but then sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't How old are your sons now, James? 34 and 28 Have they been fighters in the past? Yeah, they've had a fight, they've had a fight my youngest son, Ywie his last fight was 2 hours 8 minutes and that was a draw How does it come to the conclusion to be a draw? It's when they're making no progress you know, where one fight there's two ways of doing it the referees will say you know there's a wee bad blood if this ends in a win or a loss or the referees can say it's been going on a while and I think they've done enough and the referees the two fighters will never ask for a draw they'll never say let's shake hands in it it walks out that the referees get involved and they can sense that this has gone in bad for the losing family or they can sense that look at that, shake hands and it's over and it walks out better I like to see the draws I don't like to see wins or loses because it just continues to feuding I like to see draws where people can actually settle down and walk away from the trouble Yeah, does it ever make there's many draws is there ever one very one sided whether the fights you even have been made there's a lot of fights like that there's a lot of fights you know you can think of a lot of fights where mismatches, complete mismatches but there again the young lad has taken up the challenge of lost the fights and do it instead of lifting a gun or a knife to somebody and he just wants it over and do it he knows he's going to lose but he just accepts that situation for this go out there take his beating and walk away How is it watching your sons doing it? Devastating actually to be honest with you I don't want it You know what, that's pretty hypocritical where I say it I hate it, I don't want my sons fighting but then I'm going to fight us but the ones I'm promoting they're doing it for business they're doing it for wages they're like a normal boxers like MMA UFC, boxing glove whatever you want to do it whereas when it's family, your own family even the whole clans I would rather see them put their energy and their experience into more organized ways of doing it and not with each other in the clans but with a within a career Is it very protective then to be seen because you probably know the shit fight know the time try to live up to the reputation It affects everything, it affects your marriage, your relationships it affects your family life it affects your whole lifestyle and it also puts a lot of pressure I've seen my dad cry and I've been told I've been told about him when I was out fighting and he was in the pub or wherever he was waiting for me to come home and he'd be actually crying worried about what's going on that's the sad part of it where you put another people under pressure for your fight so that's what I don't like So what's the point all then if you know the devastation it causes and it never really ends it's just basically down to travel way of life travel way of settling a lot of feuding it's not settling as much feuding as it should when it was years ago years ago it was settling a lot more nowadays it's not settling as much more if it helps to calm the situation but no one wants to lose but it's just a bad way it's a good way of doing it but it's not good for the families that's involved you don't want to see your sons of your brothers fighting on see it's a good way if it's a square go some day once and then shake hands and then if you're done but it seems to be more glorified now it seems because there's so many videos so many camera phones it's so easy James to challenge years ago when I was challenged it was an old VHS video recording made that was sent by someone my referee man 50 miles down the road I had to have a look at that it took me 20 minutes to have a look at that then it took me 3 days to find someone with a camera to get a reply back to them and all that shit nowadays it's a youtube clip or a whatsapp straight away in seconds it's worldwide whereas it's so easy now for a challenge to be sent and accepted whereas prior to that it was sent, it could be negotiated and sent before you even made a reply so easy it caused a feud basically in seconds what do you think of the Tyson family brilliant, brilliant they built mountains for the travelling community absolutely brilliant Young Huey Fury, Tyson Fury absolutely big John lovely people, I really do respect everyone respect what they're doing and how they've done it, how they went about and kept it off the streets and made their name in the boxing ring everyone of them is flying Big John is a class act I'll actually get a live audience with Big John next month I just love the way he speaks with the passion and everything he says comes true about his son's fights he even speaks about money and the fame and the illusion of it and the bullshit I believe it's how he keeps Tyson grounded he knows what he's talking about he knows what he's talking about Tyson is Tyson he is the world world champion the best man in the world at the moment he is brilliant and you've got young Billy Joe Saunders on the other weight world champion flying as well amazing man, very very very good at what he does and it's great to see travellers getting out there doing that I've just seen an Instagram clip on Billy Joe where he's talking about setting up a boxing club for the young travelling kids get them off the streets and get them into the ring and do what he's doing which is well on him they do amazing stuff for the community it's a lot for our homelessness and mental health but people don't want to promote that let's just talk about mental health for a second and suicide 11% of traveller debts result in our suicide that's how big it is all travellers say 100 travellers die God forbid next week 11% of them are suicide so it's a big big thing so let the suicide be connected to mental health but people don't realise those people that God forbid they don't realise that there's help out there they just need to go and speak to someone talk to someone, there's always someone going to listen don't keep it in whatever is in your head and always tell people this don't keep it in if you've got an issue you've got a problem there's someone there belonging to family that you can trust or talk to or seek professional help Do you think there's a lot of pressure on the kids now in the travelling community to be a fighter there's a lot of pressure on travelling kids in general just to be a better person because with social media exploding in the travelling community the girls want to be better than the girls the girls want to have the next bag or the next shoes and a lot of pressure on that then the lads want to be the best fighter and the lads want to have the nicest cars and all that type of stuff it's keeping up with the Jones type team where there's a lot of pressure in general on the young travelling community and then that young travelling pressure on the families and the parents to provide for what they need It's everywhere, it's everywhere it's just worldwide that's the real pandemic I think is a mental health James I've had personal friends of mine that's commit suicide and it's sad to see that happen because God loved them they don't realise what they're doing to their families after that where they leave their families and I always shout out speak to someone, talk to someone don't suffer this alone get out there and let people know you've got a problem and try and solve it before you cross that line it must be difficult as well even though you had to do what you've done back in the day fighting and shit it must have put a lot of mental health pressure on your family as well of course it does and you see it in families not just my family you see the pressure and the stress when those fights are coming when those fights are taking place or when fewding happen you've got to watch it back at all times you've got to be careful you speak to what you do you've got to be careful who your friends are you've got to know who your enemies are some of your closest friends come to your enemies carrying messages and stories about you so you've got to be careful there's a lot of pressure every day so my word is to try and settle your fewding and stop your fighting How did the documentary Noco come about on the making? 12 years the documentary started I met the director in Palmer at a wedding in Dundalk my hometown and he was doing a recording for the wedding and he was introduced to me and if you look at the very beginning of the documentary you'll see me wearing a red shirt tossing some coins and that was the very first footage he ever had of me and from that he just we got speaking and he found out he had an upcoming fight he said may I come to that and he's come to that and then he said what training are you doing and I went to the gyms and from that on he would disappear for three months when he wasn't getting what he needed he didn't need to be around so when he heard of something going on he would come back again and he'd done this for 12 years right to it a whole lot he got the good points, he got the bad points he got embarrassing points he got glory points in a way that it told it told a story on the whole situational feuding and an insight to the travelling community itself I think it gives a fair it has a mixture of everything it's not just all people fighting it's the fucking misery and the pain and then you get the older women like my mum and her cousins speaking in the caravan where they don't want it either they're giving their opinion that it's not right everyone should shake hands and forget about it it's as simple as that but it's not Is that the difficult thing James that the pressure it has on your mum and dad and stuff that's pressure for any young man when he's fighting is why his father or his mother or his uncles think of him what happens if I lose this fight what am I going to be looked at what happens if I win it it's all glory if I lose it someone else got to come back it's all mentally so you got to try it but today you cannot go out to a better knuckle fight unless you're 100% ready you may not be good enough for this guy but you need to be 100% at your top and if that's good enough for you it's good enough for your family why do you think you're another beaten I was just better on the day it doesn't make me a great man it doesn't make me a better man or a best fighter in Ireland or England it makes me just on the day I used a little bit of experience where I had to switch to fighting my favour how do you think you would have failed if you didn't have a loss how would that have affected you it would have been bad because I have family and friends that lost fights and it didn't go down well mentally and physically it didn't go down well and it brought the whole crying down you're not looked upon we never looked upon anyone that lost on ours we never looked upon them as losers we looked upon them as game men that went out there and right fighting men that went out there and had a shot but we didn't look at us in the wind that you're a waste or you're a loser or whatever you want to call yourself we still respected them but that's no good to you if you feel that loss if you feel that hurt and pain after losing and you've got 200 people dancing is there a lot of antagonising if someone gets a loss it's not just a problem it's not just you losing that dance over that gets cast up or thrown into your face every fucking week for years and the next little even if another crying comes along and mountain off and start talking then they'll bring up your past experiences with other crying and you'll be beaten and fight for commitments by job lugs and job lugs beat you, your dad your sister, your brother or whatever it just happens do you think if you had a loss would you be yourself? I don't know mate I would have probably tried to come back and beat the same person I wouldn't want to go on why would I want to go out and fight someone else when I've been beaten by one man I would rather go back to that one man and try and beat him that's the way I'd look at it because you can't move on in life how can you be a fighting man and challenge everybody else so for anybody that's getting called out I know you decided right enough's enough and you didn't the right to retire but for anybody a young kid he gets called out and he doesn't step up to the plate and fight how does that affect his own family and the family in those days it doesn't affect us as much if he doesn't accept the fight because we would only send out when I say we a clang not just our clang but any clang I'll tell you we as travellers will only send out a fighter if we know he's got a chance where previously to this you would get mismatches nowadays it's more like you've got to train you've got to work hard you've got to go out there at the best of your ability and we would not let a fighter out there unless we know he's got a 50-50 chance a lot of travellers a lot of other clangs would say I will challenge him I'll challenge him but I'm not going to beat him some of ours would do the same it would be a good even 50-50 fight what about a little weight because I've seen some of the kids at 20 stone fighting kids at 13 stone just the problem, we don't have weight differences we don't have weight differences in the travelling community obviously we try and your best man was out to their best man winner takes it then you have the seconds the next two class better fighters and the second two could be better than the first it's the one that's got the rep or the name and it moved down the line but I've seen fights where there's 6, 7 stone weight difference 5 stone weight differences and that happens there's no because of what way to put it it's the way we accept fights is if someone insults your family someone insults you someone insults your mother and father it doesn't matter what size he is you have to represent yourself did the police ever come to split up fights or did they ever get inside the information I was refereeing the fight in County Kildare James one day for two lads I was referee for two and there was another two and we couldn't find a spot we couldn't find a spot at all so we kept driving around I drove down a side alley of Lane so I found it lovely at the camp I said get out here and let's do it so we decided anyway one day the other guy said I think we better stop this fight now I said no no no it's going good let him have a look behind you and we were just fighting under a police station and there was about 50 of them looking out the window and they were all recording it and then next minute we just looked up and everybody just makes the run for it and by the time we got down to the end of the lane there was about four police cars and we were all arrested most of them anyway but we were just told off about that and then on the side of the street or in a shopping mall or something so in order to get charged with assault or anything because I seen your documentary you were on the beach and the police came but you said it was sparring actually it was sparring the police came and said what's going on here and we said just sparring for doing a little video for a documentary how did that when your documentary came out how did that affect your life did they get a lot of positive feedback I enjoyed it in a way because I got a lot of tricks around the world I went to I was in the US 11 times for that I was all over the US 11 states, enjoyed LA Santa Monica Memphis, Nashville New York, Boston I was all over, great I enjoyed that and we won there the New York House Film Festival the Los Angeles Film Festival we won the Texas Film Festival the documentary done absolutely brilliant abroad and it came we done really well I didn't win but I did really well in Utah where it was premiered why do you think it was so well accepted in America you see in America everybody's Irish they love the Irish and I'm saying that in a good way everyone's got Irish in them everyone's got Irish in Scots because everyone everyone that's in Ireland or in the US are of Irish or Scots heritage they came over when things were bad over here and they originated and spread out so everyone knows that there's some sort of Ireland in them Irish and it's fighting Irish and there's even football teams over there I think it's what one is called right now I can't think in Boston Boston Celtics I think so yeah, they fight Irish they love the fight game they love being connected to Ireland and the Bernacol boxing and that type of world so it gets well accepted and I enjoy it I think they're a wonderful bunch of people there's a lot more people calling out though after the documentary even though you had retired I've had a few but I decided my dad asked me to leave it up James please and God rest his soul and what would happen if you said that to your sons? I try and advise them and I always will try and advise them not to do it but if they need to do it I have to do it so be it, I respect them for it but I wouldn't like it but who might have told them not to do it when I'd done it but I'd like them not to do it Who was the kid, is it Ben Shamrock? Ken Shamrock Ken Shamrock, he was a wrestler you have seen he was calling you out he wanted to take my head off he wanted to get into the bare knuckle boxing he wanted to get into the bare knuckle boxing and he was going through another promoter at the time over there and the fight was arranged I accepted the fight and I knew it, Ken was but I didn't know that he could fight as well I'm assuming that I ran up with Ken during the wrestling and all entertainment but this guy could fight Are you a UFC champion man? So anyway Boaters got a bit of publicity on it, it was really big and he's a lovely guy spoke to him and he decided then that it didn't actually materialise which I'm happy Oh fuck me, yeah So you would have accepted that fight though I would have accepted that fight because the money that was involved was a substantial purse put up and none of it was mine it was just a wage and that's what I want to try and educate young travelling men and kids is to go out there and do it for that reason not to do it because you hate someone not to do it because you're on the back street and you just want to be better than the next traveller on the road next Colin McGregor from Ireland be the next Tyson Fury, next Billy Joe Sanders be the next Huey Fury go out there and do what they're doing and make a living and get more respect that way first Do you think that's what a lot of travelling kids should do is get into professional boxing? I actually think that's the way it's going there's a lot of young lads there's a lot of good professional boxers coming up now coming out of the amateurs all travellers in Ireland and in the UK and I think it's going to go that direction you'll always get the straight fight no travellers, you'll always get the burn of the boxing because it's in our blood, it's what we do but you'll always, it's now the tide is turning slowly where you get the elite ones are now moving at a young age into professionalism You look at John Fury, he get called down he was going to accept the feat, what was that about? That was just a youth, that was again that was internet, internet bullshit again where Mickey Teal I never met him, I believe he was a nice guy but he was a hound in big John Fury John Fury accepted the fight but my personal opinion, John Fury would have been him John Fury can fight he's not just a big lump of a man John Fury can actually fight everyone in that family can fight you can see where Tyson Fury got it from he is his father's son so you've got to give him respect for that but I think he would have won that fight Do you ever look back and think you could have maybe stock in at boxing and went professional? You know what, who knows what the future holds for anybody at that time I would love to have given it a go I would love to try one or two professional fights way back in the day but it never materialised because we were a travelling family trying to survive moving from area to area never got enough time to settle in one town where we could pursue our boxing careers so we had, it was a Peterborough a Peterborough boxing gym for two months moving forward when we got the late and buzzard in Bedfordshire they entered me into the ABAs I was there for three months and I was into the ABAs and two days later when I was moving again I was gone so that happened a few times but I don't blame my dad or anything for that I blame society in itself because we had to move to survive we had to get in a way where we needed to live my dad knew the best way of doing it was to go where the work was and he took us down See when you're doing your refing now what are the effects do you ever feel as if I can still give them it Oh you always think that you always think that Muhammad Ali probably taught that you always do think that that's their job and best to look to them and best to look to any travelling man out there big and small, young and old I want to do the boxing but I do think they should try anyone that is young enough now and has got the experience try and go down the road of professionalism and get into the ring Who's the biggest travelling families about just now I'll be honest too many dimension there is now, I'll be honest there's too many dimension there's a lot of big travelling out there a lot of big families, a lot of well respected families and if I go talking names I could go on for 20 minutes there is a lot of families out there that are rubbish but there's a lot of good people out there who's got good names and that's where I am I'm in communication with everyone at the moment to thank God I don't have many many enemies I don't have one or two people I don't speak to but the rest of the clangs I respect each and every one of them How was it then for being in a feud for over 20 years It's a terrible thing to where you've got to wake up every morning knowing that this shit has gone on in your life knowing that your brothers, your fathers, your cousins are all involved in trying to kill each other and trying to take each other's heads off and having fights every six weeks so I'm glad and what I try and do now myself James is try and mediate with people try and get families to try and settle arguments instead of having fights around a ring get around a table and try and get them to walk it out in a way that let's leave this off, let's leave that off and forget about it put it to bed because it must have been tiring especially if you've seen it for over 20 years you've seen it the pressure that's caused on your father all the main families in Ireland in England have seen it first hand and I think 90% of them are sick of it now absolutely sick of it and the one I think mostly would like to have a piece of life and try and get them to live as a good life it's the way forward I believe but listen everybody some people love a good scrap that's just life, you don't mind that but when you say if somebody wins it's never ending it must become tiring where you think fuck me just leave it out but then because you've got that blood you can't back down so it must be fucking difficult now you've got some peace and some harmony in your life how's do you mess that no I don't mess that what it is I like being busy I like being involved in boxing I like being involved in the organisation of it now when I say the organisation in a professional level where we're trying to take on promoters from around the world to get them together and unify them under one sanction body then we within BKWR2B is now going to be setting up a sanction body where we've got seven or eight different companies from all over the world coming under the one umbrella using their own titles, using their own company names but fighting for one belts on weight levels and all that it's going to be actually good and that's what I encourage travellers to join forces and join up in organisations like that and make substances amount of money because the amount of money that's going to be involved exceeds all expectations it's going to be substantial so that's what I advise and I do know that there's travelling men out there that would beat 80% of the fight and there's no disrespect to a lot of the good fighters out there at the moment there's travelling men out there that's hitting talents and you don't even see them fighting now they're very very good men to fight and I think they do very well inside the ring so you can make legit money make honest to God 40, 50, 30 grand of fight it's there, the money is there the money will be there in the very near future you're very outspoken about mental health James why is that did you struggle yourself back in the day everyone struggles even James to be honest everyone struggles in mental health everybody and I see friends and family that struggles with it and I've had personal friends as again I'll talk about suicide who's committed suicide through mental health and other reasons why people can from teenage boys to teenage girls to middle aged people why they do this and why they suffer alone it bothers me that they can't just listen to people and get up and talk privately to an uncle, an aunt, a cousin or a brother if they don't want to talk to the mothers and fathers or if they don't want to talk to the brothers and sisters speak to someone about their mental health problems speak to someone about why they feel that they can't go on in life it's just it saddens me that they won't won't seek help and it's there for them within the travelling community it's there for them and within the professionalism of organisations it's there for them and it hurts me that they won't seek that help and mental health is a bad thing and anyone can suffer from it and it just takes seconds to be gone wrong yeah definitely I think it's a big talking point I always kind of touch on it in each podcast and for people watching this thinking yourself the reputation you have big strong man undefeated bear knuckle fighter doesn't matter how much the smile is on your face doesn't matter how much the smile is on your face nobody knows what one person is thinking you know you can be sitting beside a person and he's smiling or she's smiling next minute you hear they're dead why? because they suffered alone speak out do you think exercise helped you through the years? absolutely amazing thing getting into the gym clears your head I don't care what your reasoning in the gym for could be to lose weight could be to fight could be just to look good whatever the gym a little bit of training clears that head and it really helps how are you feeling now? tired fat now I haven't been into the gym but really since the lockdown I haven't been doing anything only been eating a lot and drinking a lot when the gyms reopen I'll probably try and get back in a little bit of weight give us a fit again there was talks of a knuckle tour but I think you knocked it back why you know what one was enough for anybody I remember years ago any part two of a film doesn't be as good as the first one so I don't think anyone another knuckle tour would never be as successful as the first one anyway secondly all wounds lead them to sleep and not open them up and if there's a knuckle tour we've just been involved in more more families, more clangs and more torture for everyone involved so I think it's just the way it is now leave it as it is let it sleep and move on to the next level of trying to take it into the ring because it kind of just gets passed down from generation to generation let it blow up how did you end up getting some not closure on it all but kind of putting a seal over the wind common sense common sense families families got to get a deal this my uncles and a few more of the other clangs spoken and the more time you stay away from each other also it dies down a little bit and then you get extended families and then with the others and talk and then socialising and then it brings it back why don't you talk to Mick, Kevin, Larry, Pat, John and then it starts that way and then some people are not happy because other people are talking to your enemies from your family but your cop on is a ring on it's getting better, there's no fights and no arguing so it works out better where you get people that will take their time out and try and make peace it's just a lot of politics involved it's a lot more than you think it's not just it goes on for days and weeks it really does really you've got to really get to me really of who said what, why, where and who what about Tom and your leaf and our fellow James well the book at the moment has been given to somebody at the moment where he's hoping to he's in talks at the moment to have it done to a 10 part miniseries we're doing a season one I'm sure the names will be changed but based on the book and the documentary we're in big talks with having a 10 part miniseries done for a season on who would you like to play your part oh my god who's ugly enough who the fuck is ugly enough god only knows when I have a clue man I can't think no Danny David a bag Jason Statham oh yes David god only knows who's going to do that god only knows we'd like to see it happen don't see why not the book and the documentary have been mega successful so clearly the names there and the reputations there that even your videos on youtube but were you not calling somebody out just last year or five months ago I was I was called out and I responded I responded but again again I responded too much I listened and let the demons get into my head again and it was quite for a long long time and then my mother said please just ignore those people and I did I ignored them and you know I won't even talk about their names I just don't want to say their names right now because they insulted my dad in a very bad way they insulted his legacy they insulted his image they insulted his name they said what they're doing they dig him out by the graves that's to mean it's hurtful but I let it blow over it's gone if I lowered myself to their standard it would have went on and on and on so my mum said please just leave it go so it's not just a case I call on somebody out for a fight things are getting very personal is that just to when you insult the dead in travellers that's the end all and be all then it goes down to the women and the kids after that and to be honest with you it would make you fight fucking three Muhammad Ali's at a one time but that means you're going to be doing it every day so it's got to be a time when you say no so I'm close I flip the chap to move on in my life of course you can I know you're big with the homeless stuff Jamesy yeah we're doing at the moment we only run it for two weeks maybe three weeks every year we try anyway and I started a food bank challenge on social media and we've reached now we've reached Poland, India USA, Russia Holland and I've got some family friends doing it in Australia today so it's getting out there we've done the amount of videos I just couldn't put them all up but I've got to put them up I think I've got about 180 videos of people that's been donating and more has come in today and a big thank you to you Jamesy for your contribution which will be going on social media today I'll be putting that up later on you know what it is this pandemic is killing everybody literally killing them in one way in the virus itself but financially there's a lot happening there where one family contacted me and I spoke to the parents and they've just got no money money they've got coming in is one day it's heating you can have either heating for the place or food and they try and ration it out and in this day and age I think that's unacceptable so I told them to go down to the food banks you know and I get them around the food banks I get them some details and the food banks don't have any food so they come back tomorrow so this has given me the idea to go and set up a fundraiser a nomination thing where I will nominate four people on social media and then four people have got to nominate four extra and it just spreads like wildfire it's gone and it's very good and the food banks are very happy my local food bank they're fully stocked at the moment and they're very thankful to the travelling community and not just the travelling and selling community involved in that and they've shown their appreciation for that but the most important thing is we need it to spread a little bit further for the next couple of weeks just get the food banks up the level where they should be on a normal day not just through the pandemic just kids out there that are really need food there was kids going to school with no food in the mornings there was kids coming back and the dinner wasn't there for them because it wasn't there it's not down to the parents smoking cigarettes or having a quick drink if the parents even stopped that there still wouldn't be no food because the money is just not there the cost of living, the bills, the expenses and food should be the first food and clothing and heat to me should be the priorities getting involved with it because a lot of people watching want to help out as well so how can people get involved in your organisation basically they should just get up there and we'll nominate them as bkwars.tv and also need to do is get up go to their local supermarket spend £20 get it on video take it down to the food bank post it and nominate four or five of the friends and the word spreads and I'm sure that the people that are nominating will actually do it because there's people that I nominated that said they would do it and they still haven't done it but I'm making sure they do it today so the people they need to nominate should be the people that they know will do it so it needs to spread and spread fast for the next couple of weeks at least it's a good thing that you're doing especially speaking out about mental health and doing the homeless stuff it's good for the soul it is, you know what if you try and do something you can save the world but what you can do if you help one person that person can help someone else and that love will spread and that's where it starts How was it James when your brother got into jail as well? It was very tough very tough on everyone involved anyone who was involved in that whole incident it was very hard to this day it's very tough it's something that a lot of people have got to live with but it's hard it affects everybody as I said it affects everybody in the whole situation to this day people are affected that will never go away though that will never go away it never goes away it's always there it's like my dad died, God rest him he wasn't just my dad he was my best friend literally my best friend we done everything together we were mates the lump comes in the throat you feel the love for somebody and that's where I felt with my dad when did your dad pass? he's just three years now three years he passed away suddenly but he was the type of person that I looked up to loved him like a father but also like a hero do you think your dad kept you on the straight now? 100% 100% I'm nowhere near half as good as my dad right now but only for him I'd be nothing and that's been truthful he was something that I loved looked up to and was glad to try and be like him it would have been proud of you even though everything you've achieved brother you're trying to do good now and put good into the world that's what shows you kind of character you're respected for what you do you've proved your name you've always stood your ground that was it I believe it was probably the words of your dad in your head that's not made you still fighting to this day probably because you know the fucking misery and the pain it causes there's always a ripple effect where it just doesn't affect you it affects everybody around you so it can be difficult so you should be proud especially the documentary the stuff that you've done before your dad passed so you would have been proud of yourself you've got a son yourself you only want to see them do good the scarring on their neck the scarring on their ear that was an injury I was in a nightclub in Dublin where we were socialising in the nightclub we left a party and went to the nightclub and one of our young lads party family friend wasn't connected was being abused on the dance floor over a lady some mixed up with two men on the floor as the men would fight over women and he was surrounded by four or five bigger lads which we didn't realise at the time they were ex-bouncer bouncer on the night off from the club and they actually took into them and gave them that terrible beating one little guy was a bit nine star because they were the guys from the club and they were the big men but they didn't realise that there was a wedding party in the nightclub there was about four of us and it didn't work out well for the four bansers but during that alteration I wanted to put a bottle in my neck well very close to it it was a bad experience a lot of blood and a lot of pain Is that not next to that? Yeah very close when you get this little from the heartbeat that's where it was so you nearly died? I went unconscious I rushed to hospital How old were you? about 18 years ago 32, 33 but the same bansers didn't realise that they taught the one that the kid to give them a bit of a beating and put them outside the door but they got a shock on their lives when the whole nightclub stood up with them they didn't realise that How does that when you look back I'm looking to be alive this is why I try to tell people James it's a stare of trouble walk away from as much as possible don't be the big man if you stand down and just walk away a little bit now and again because at the end of the day you've got a couple of options you've got a prison, you've got to the morgue you've got a hospital you've got to die, you've got to bed why not just take that decision and say I'm going to go home I wake up my own bed but you've lived the experience so when you talk people will listen then well I hope to listen well not listen to everything I say because I do talk a lot of bullshit now I don't real me I do every episode I do talk a lot of bullshit and anyone listen to this will know that but in a series note I think if they just listen to the older generation a little bit more they'll be getting on better in life behind the scenes always a wonderful thing I never listen to my dad because I thought on you everything now looking back that he's not here everything he says was true when you look back now you realise little things coming to your head you say you know what I mean dad told me that years ago and I didn't do it and now you say fuck I should listen to that you know I should listen to it I didn't listen to it it's just that you and your sons you know because you've lived that path try and beat it into your brains as much as possible sometimes it's just in there and out there any plans for James Quinn going forward for the future? My plan this year is to kick start this new reality TV show and bkwars.tv should be up and running by March we are assigning 8 to 10 companies taking them in to a one umbrella under the banner and they'll be promoting themselves but we'll be paying for all expenses we'll be paying for the finances of the fight nights and we will be purchasing the footage for tvwars.tv network What about the reality show? The reality show on the drama will be based on the book and based on the documentary and that should be very interesting because I've sat down with them for hours and hours and I've given them a lot of stories good and bad because you can't tell you can't portray yourself as St. James when you're more like someone down below you've got to tell the truth so I've sat down with people and producers and I've given them the good and bad, the right and wrongs of my life and they're going to put it in whatever way to do it whichever way they tell it so be it because I don't want to be seen to take the good parts out the bad parts out and leave all the good parts out James Quinn is this when he wants to be and I want people to see the type of life I had where the ups and downs are good and bad what I've done wrong and what I'm trying to do right We can only learn from mistakes that no matter how well I do and leave people always dig up your past as if you're shying away from or hiding from it you just want to live for the present moment again to the future I am who I am I just want now to people to understand that I've moved away from certain things I'm trying to better myself and better my family's life and do one or two good days a week for the community that's all that's all you can do is just to try to do the right thing but with human beings we're going to make mistakes we're always going to fuck up and we'll still make them every day that's our nature regardless of what community you're from it's our nature to make mistakes for the rest of our lives but we try and learn from them and move on Would you look back at your life, James in what way? Just if you were to look at it Is there anything you can change? I think, James I hate that question because it's No, to be honest with you I've learned from mistakes I'm still learning from mistakes I don't think so I've lived my life the way I wanted to live it I was my own person I'm looking forward to this year I really am looking forward to this year there's a lot going on there's a lot going on happening and hopefully mentally, physically and financially it'll be a rewarding year Good, that's positive That's all you can ask for in life for coming on in the day brother and telling your story It's a pleasure to be here and it's a pleasure meeting you I genuinely am rooting for you and I can't wait to see what you do for the future I hope the film gets put into place in the many series that's fighting and violent sales through crime sales For anybody watching it's maybe struggling James though it's maybe battling What advice would you give for them? Anyone that's suffering from mental health or suicidal thoughts my honest opinion is speak to a family member speak to anybody speak to a friend go speak to your doctor just seek help because if you suffer it alone it will never be right you need to speak out and let people know what's in your head let people know what's gone wrong and let people help you fix it before it gets too far because you're not just hurting yourself you're hurting your family and your family is your life That's in James for coming on in the day brother and telling your story Thank you very much for having me on I think more of my podcast is on the right and be sure to like share and comment your thoughts on this week's podcast Thank you