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Seamus
Dunleavy and Shirley Thompson |
BOOKS
telling of the hardships of a bygone age have certainly won favour
with modern day readers.
Perhaps it's the fact that given the comforts most of us enjoy these
days we are intrigued by how people used to live.
When those reminiscences are personal accounts by the authors themselves
they seem even more compelling.
Many biographies have told of life in Ireland in the last century and
provide a fascinating insight into an era when even the idea of the
Celtic Tiger seemed as unlikely as a man landing on the moon.
Both these things have since come to pass and Ireland has certainly
changed greatly.
While that change has been welcomed by most there is a certain longing
for those days of yore and a desire to find out what life used to be
like in the Emerald Isle.
Books like Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt and It's a Long Way From
Penny Apples by Bill Cullen have achieved bestseller status. Both pull
no punches when it comes to depicting the harsh reality of life in
Ireland in the first half of the last century.
Now a book telling the story of one of the most successful Irishmen
in the Midlands has the shelves.
Finally Meeting Princess Maude tells of the story of Seamus Dunleavy,
who like Bill Cullen and Frank McCourt had a childhood where there
was certainly little in the way of luxury.
Seamus shares much in common with McCourt, both were Irish born but
left their native land to seek fame and fortune in foreign climes.
And both endured hardships in their early life before enjoying considerable
success in the countries they made their home.
"I had a happy childhood but we were extremely poor," said
Seamus, who has gone on to enjoy not just one but two successful careers
- first as a professional wrestler and secondly running an investment
property business.
"We were barefoot for six months of the year but everyone else
in the little town of Charleston in County Mayo was as well."
Seamus's biography, which he wrote in partnership with professional
biographer Shirley Thompson, from Solihull, came about more by accident
than by design.
"One day I was chatting to my daughter Tracey telling some story
about days gone by and she said she had never heard it before. She
said why don't you write it down along with others and do a small book.
I started scribbling and when I had finished I had done about 25 pages.
I hadn't got any further from the point where I was born and thought
'I have still got to grow up, go to school, go to England and get married'.
"All of a sudden I had a book and one day I met Shirley in connection
with the biography of Pat Roache she was writing. From what was a total
joke we have got what I think is quite a good book."
Seamus tells how he did not excel at school in some areas but always
had a talent for 'composition' as it was known back then. If he was
asked to write a page about something - he would actually write two.
Irish people of a certain age will instantly know the significance
of the title of Seamus's book - the Princess Maude being a famous ship
that operated on the Dun Laoghaire/Holyhead route.
What people thought of her generally depended on what direction they
were travelling in.
"If you were going back to Ireland she was a grand old girl but
if you were coming over to England she was a right old so-and-so," said
Seamus.
Seamus, like most young Irish people emigrated to England, following
his sister May who was already settled there.
"We were all prepared for England. Everyone knew they had to emigrate
as there were no jobs in Ireland. It is not the same country it is
now. I left when I was 17 and arrived in Liverpool with £6 in
my pocket, which was a lot of money in those days."
Seamus said he recalls his early days in England as struggling to adjust
to hard work, always feeling hungry - due to his insatiable appetite
rather than any shortage of food - and struggling to find his way around
busy streets that all looked the same.
His brother-in-law found him work and he started as a builder's labourer,
continuing to work in the construction industry, later as a carpenter
like his father.
It was a wily Dubliner by the name of Felix who later told him he was
wasting his time in Liverpool and should head for Birmingham where
there were great job prospects in a booming industrial city.
It was in Birmingham that he first encountered prejudice against the
Irish.
"You used to see signs saying "No Irish Need Apply" which
certainly puts you in your place a bit and you think 'I am not the
top of the tree here'. But if you look at the Irish here in the Midlands
all of them have done splendidly.
"This is the way immigrants have to be. You have to fight that
little bit harder because you are at the bottom of the pile."
Seamus recalls how he went back to Ireland feeling like a king with £400
in his pocket, though he was persuaded to part with the money by his
father who was building a house for someone and had run out of cash
to finish it.
It was after returning to England that Seamus and his brother Mick
took their first step in the property market by buying houses.
"We were in digs with a lad called Mick Reilly and he said to
me and my brother Mickey why don't you buy a house. I didn't even know
how to go about it and thought I would end up back in Ireland but he
said he had a house and had it let out to lodgers."
The brothers bought a house in Wilton Road, Sparkhill, and in no time
had 12 or 13 lads living there and paying rent.
"That is how it started and by the time I got married to my wife
Mary in 1963 we had nine houses," said Seamus.
Seamus started his professional wrestling career while working in Liverpool.
"My sister took me to a wrestling match and I thought I could
do that. I was always very strong, I remember my dad had brought dumbbells
and chest expanders back from England and I'd be using them when the
others were at their books."
A successful amateur wrestling career got underway while Seamus was
living in Liverpool but it progressed further when he was in Birmingham.
A one-time associate Matt Byrne suggested Seamus work the door at the
former Shamrock Club in Hurst Street, allowing him time to pursue his
wrestling career by spending the main part of the week training at
Billy Riley's gym in Wigan.
"They taught me how to fall, how to roll and I was up there for
about nine months. I trained every single day and I was as fit as a
fiddle. I went on the booth for a while where anyone from the crowd
could challenge you. You would never know who would jump up. Most of
the time it was fairly easy but it was also a bit scary and I was always
glad when the night was over."
Seamus admits he made a nervous start to his professional career.
"I got there early and could see a bill up with my name on it.
I thought people have come to see me and I got very very nervous. I
went to a cafe nearby and the owner asked if I was going to the wrestling.
I told him I was in it and he asked for my autograph. I won the match
but forgot everything I had learned in the gym. In the second match
I was a lot better and by the tail end of my career I really knew what
I was doing."
A successful professional career saw Seamus, and his brother Mick,
appear as tag team regulars on ITV's World of Sport for between four
and five years. Seamus even helped to train Pat Roache.
"I enjoyed it very much and miss it to this day. I never had a
serious injury and wrestled everywhere, including the Royal Albert
Hall.
Since 1969 Seamus has lived in Solihull and much of the book is dedicated
to his life in the leafy suburb south of Birmingham. He has lived in
several houses in the area and his current home is characterised by
what could only be described as palatial splendour compared to his
modest origins in Charleston.
Other aspects of Finally Meeting Princess Maude tell of Seamus's time
as a club owner - he owned a number of clubs along the way - as well
as how he survived an attempt on his life.
Seamus is still busy working for the family's property business, though
these days he leaves much of the day to day business to his children
- Russell, Seamus and Tracey.
"I am busier than ever now, though it is something I enjoy doing.
I have got a nice family, a lovely wife, I have got four grandchildren
now and life is good."
*Finally Meeting Princess Maude is available from bookstores around
the Midlands.
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