Suits Distributors Ireland Ltd hopes to launch a new range of clothing in honour of legendary Irish boxer and performer Jack Doyle this year.
The range, which will include suits, shirts, ties, overcoats, jackets, and other fashion items, will raise funds for a different charity every year, with the Chernobyl Children’s Project benefiting from the venture this year.
Jack Doyle was born in Cobh, Co Cork, in 1913, and sailed to London aged 19 to make his fortune. His six feet five inches frame and larger than life personality made him a hit with British audiences both in the ring and on the stage, and by 1933 he was drawing crowds of up to 90,000 to watch him fight and making £600 a week as a singer.
He travelled to America in 1934 and soon settled into a lifestyle of gambling, women, and drink. By the age of 30 he had earned and squandered a £250,000 fortune. In his heyday as a heavyweight boxer, singer and playboy, his celebrity rivalled that of the Prince of Wales, and he and his wife —the beautiful Mexican film star and singer Movita, who late married Marlon Brando — were as popular in the thirties and forties as Olivier and Leigh or Burton and Taylor.
When he celebrated his 21st birthday in the Imperial Hotel in Cork city, there were 600 people at the party and 3,000 outside waiting to get a glimpse of the famous Jack Doyle. Jimmy McCarthy wrote a song dedicated to Jack Doyle’s life, ‘The Contender’, which is sung by another Irish legend, Christy Moore.
Jack Doyle died on Saturday December 13 1978. During the latter part of his life he lived rough on the streets of London and when he died his body was not claimed for two weeks. He was due be buried in a pauper’s grave in London, but when his friends in Cobh heard of this they decided to bring him back to Cobh and give him a hero’s funeral.
Suits Distributors hopes to use proceeds from the Jack Doyle brand to build the Jack Doyle House of Hope in Chernobyl in conjunction with Adi Roche’s charity. Forty children from the orphanage will be re-housed in this new facility.
