Boxing event helps disadvantaged youths from Northern Ireland, D.C.

Bernard Cairns was all of 17 when he climbed the scaffolding inside Holy Cross Church in Belfast and hanged himself. Earlier that day in 2003, Cairns had attended the funeral of a close friend, another suicide victim, at the same Catholic chapel where he chose to end his life, becoming the latest in an alarming trend in Northern Ireland’s capital.

That’s also the day Eanes Keenan, Charlie Quinn and others from the rough-and-tumble Ardoyne neighborhood of Belfast resolved to do something about it by founding the Ardoyne Holy Cross boxing club in the church basement. Both men had learned plenty about fighting during the height of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland known as The Troubles, and they figured boxing could provide reassurance for youth who in many cases had little for which to live.

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(Jahi Chikwendiu/WASHINGTON POST) - Jasmine Marcellus, left, and Taylor Jones, 6, watch Michael Peoples, 15, R, guzzle water as he trains at Tony's Gym in Anacostia for Saturday's bout against a team of boxers, disadvantaged kids from Northern Ireland and England.

Earlier this week, Keenan, Quinn and other adult chaperones brought a group of those teens and young men to the nation’s capital to participate in the fourth annual Belfast-Beltway Boxing Classic on Saturday at The Westin Grand ballroom. The event matches the foreign-born fighters against 10 District opponents of similar age and skill level, all of whom train out of gyms located in some of the city’s more disadvantaged neighborhoods.

The dearth of hope in Belfast was especially profuse, Keenan said, in the years after the Good Friday agreement in 1998 that signaled the de-escalation of violence between the British and Irish governments. Rampant crime, drug and alcohol use, and unemployment, among other ills, coupled with the constant threat of more insurgency often was too much for many young men to bear, thus leading to a rise in suicides particularly among that demographic, according to a recent study by the Public Health Agency in Northern Ireland.

“So we decided we had to try and get these kids off the streets,” said Keenan, who serves as the head trainer for AHC. “Thank god we started the boxing club, and from there, things have calmed down. There’s still suicides, and there’s still the drug issue and things, but we know we’re helping a lot of kids.”

‘The same problems’

Quinn’s son Manny got the inspiration to launch the Belfast-Beltway Boxing Classic after attending another charity boxing event roughly five years ago. Manny Quinn spent his early years in Belfast where “there was always a boxing club” but moved to the United States when he was 15, and his vision, along with contributions from donors, has facilitated cultural exchange between young adults with dissimilar ethnic backgrounds but who share a love of the sweet science.

The vast majority of the money raised by Manny Quinn’s D.C.-based nonprofit called the Belfast-Beltway Boxing Project goes toward the athletic exchange program, including airline tickets and hotel accommodations for the visiting contingent as well as the cost of the event itself and equipment for all participants. BBBP also has purchased equipment for area gyms and donated other necessities to fighters who train there.

Among the local beneficiaries of the project was Shaka Williams, a 14-year-old D.C. resident who is completing the eighth grade at Meridian Public Charter School in Northwest. The BBBP last year provided boxing shoes for Williams, who last month won the super heavyweight title at the Silver Gloves national amateur tournament in Kansas City, Mo.