Tommy McCarthy has never struggled with his own personal sense of identity. He's black. He's Irish. He's from West Belfast. And he takes equal pride in all aspects of his make-up, a trait that is nakedly visible to the outside world.
The hashtags #blackpride and #irishpride feature in his Instagram bio. His cover photo on Twitter has the words "Black Irish" emblazoned across his profile. He has always made it abundantly clear that he never has and never will turn his back on a multifaceted background.
“That’s what I am,” he tells the Irish Times. “I don’t want to shy away from it.”
This isn't the first time the Belfast boxer, due to defend his European cruiserweight title against Romanian Alexandru Jur in May, has been asked and has thus spoken about his experiences as a black athlete fighting beneath an Irish banner.
It’s a natural talking point, especially given developments across the world over these past 12 months and the unabated growth of the Black Lives Matter movement. He’s happy to talk, to share and to educate – even if he suggests that he hasn’t been a major victim of racism throughout the course of his life and career. He’s been relatively fortunate, he feels.
“It’s something I live with everyday,” he says. “But I don’t get racial abuse every single day. A lot of the kids I’ve met growing up over the years who are mixed race didn’t know who their fathers were. They had Irish mothers and black fathers so they didn’t know the black side. I’m generalising here, obviously, but even their families would be ashamed.
“A couple of people I spoke to said that their aunts and uncles and everybody in the family hated them because they were ashamed. I was different because my mother was black and my father was Irish. And where I lived in Belfast, everybody knew who my father was so everybody knew me. All my Irish family loved me so much. They took so much pride and put me on a pedestal. I grew up with loads of love.”
After travelling between Belfast and London regularly for much of his early childhood, the death of his mother shortly before his eighth birthday saw him arrive in West Belfast on a permanent basis.
If anyone was saying anything to me that was racist, they weren't saying it to my face
Her death changed everything. He remains proud of his Jamaican roots though, understanding that they’re an indelible aspect of the person he has become. He was always different but, as he grew up, he became less immune to racism as those differences became clearer. Boxing, however, offered him a release from the worst of the scourge.
“People began to notice more. That’s when it became apparent that I was different from everybody else and some people would say stupid things.
“When I started boxing then I got more respect among my peers and it went through the roof, especially when I became an Irish champion and I was in the papers and all. If anyone was saying anything to me that was racist, they weren’t saying it to my face.
Worst label
“Obviously they may have had the fear that I would hit them or something because I was a boxer. But because I was becoming popular, people wanted to say that they were my friend. The thing now is, to be called a racist is the worst label anyone could have. Even racists don’t want to be called racists. Nobody wants to be known as a racist.”
Though circumnavigating many of the perils of racism in daily life, the Belfast man’s career route to becoming European champion has remained mazy, to say the least. His development has hardly been a pampered one. He’s become accustomed to smashing through ceilings others have set for him and he’s fought – in both a literal and figurative sense – for everything he’s achieved inside the ropes thus far.
Having been knocked out by Richard Riakporhe, his second career loss, in 2019, the curtains seemed to be beginning to draw on his fistic endeavours, in some eyes at least who were looking on from afar.
He edged his way back though, punch by punch, fight by fight; and when he was ultimately crowned European champion in an empty Wembley Arena last October, it was the apex of a career that saw him indulging the thought of retirement on more than one occasion.
He has always been regarded as a resilient character within the boxing fraternity, though. And as a 30-year-old now with his sights on a world title, retirement, rather ironically, has never seemed further away.
Boxing, and all combat sport, is a fight against yourself
With his recent success increasing his visibility and standing within boxing too, he can now devote all his time to the sport. The majority decision against Bilal Laggoune last autumn opened up doors he previously was unable to envisage. Cards are finally beginning to fall in his favour after years of toil that must at times have felt futile.
Previously, he commuted from Belfast to Dublin on a daily basis for camp. These days, he says goodbye to his wife, Amy, and his four daughters at the end of the weekend before linking up with Pete Taylor back down the M1.
In Ballyfermot his eyes are set solely on his next opponent and not the onerous day-to-day tasks of everyday life.
“I’m in a position I maybe would have liked to have been in a year ago. But I’m here now and I cannot complain. Everything is the way it should be.
“I’ve always believed in God, the universal God. When I say God, I don’t mean the big man in the sky. I believe in the God of everything happening for a reason – everything having a purpose. It gives me more belief that everything does happen for a reason.
“The losses that I have gone through opened the doors to where I am now: a European champion and a win or two away from being a world champion. As long as I work hard, everything else will take care of itself.
World champion
“My goal in this game is to become a world champion. You can’t rest on your laurels; I need to keep on pushing. Winning a European title was a major step and this next defence will be another step towards it [a world title].”
The conditions seem ripe for a final push towards that goal.
He left MTK, the management company with controversial links to gangland crime, due to inactivity in 2017, before joining up with manager and promoter Mark Dunlop.
He’s helped him reach new heights without unnecessary baggage and distractions – such luxuries may not be afforded to those still with MTK, especially in light of recent events. Taylor, too, has been a revelation in the gym since his services were acquired in 2019.
For all the supporting cast in his vicinity though, all of whom are fully paid-up members to the McCarthy journey, he’s under no illusions; he’s doing this for himself, to satisfy his own desire, to steadfastly confirm his own belief that his critics throughout boxing were wrong on all counts.
“I don’t come from a boxing family. I was the first person and I don’t have any brothers or sisters. I went to the gym because I wanted to do it. And I wanted to be a champion. And I want to be a champion. This is all for me.
“And when I have success it benefits my wife and children, but the success is for me, to please me and to fulfil my ambitions that I set for myself.
“Boxing – and all combat sport – is a fight against yourself. There’s only one person to please and that’s yourself.”
