Jack Doyle was the real thing: a heavyweight boxer from the mean streets of Cobh; blessed with the looks of Rudolph Valentino, the voice of Count John McCormack and the right hand of Jack Dempsey.
‘The Gorgeous Gael’ hung around with Clark Gable in Hollywood; married movie stars; sold out concert halls with tearful renditions of ‘Mother Macree’; and made a fortune. In the depressed and impoverished Ireland of the 30s and 40s, Jack Doyle was the worlds most famous Irishman.
Yet forty years on Jack’s story had become a cautionary tale of wasted talent and squandered millions. Another forgotten Irish man dying penniless on the streets of London - though saved from a pauper’s grave by the kindness of strangers.
So where did it all go wrong for the Gorgeous Gael…