THERE WERE celebrations on the streets of John Joe Nevin’s home town of Mullingar yesterday, but there were also bitter allegations made during the day by some members of the boxer’s family about their treatment.
Their complaints centred on the circumstances in which Nevin’s mother, Winnie, and other close relatives of the family left Mullingar to watch the fight in a pub on the outskirts of the town following a dispute at a public house in Mullingar.
Large crowds gathered at Mullingar’s Market Square to watch on big screens as Nevin won his Olympic semi-final against Cuban world bantamweight champion Lazaro Alvarez Estrada. He now meets Britain’s Luke Campbell in today’s final.
While a parade has been organised to welcome Nevin home next week, his mother said he had requested all pubs to shut during the homecoming.
Ms Nevin said the family, who are members of the Traveller community, had arranged to watch yesterday’s fight at Danny Byrne’s pub, where she believed between 50 and 60 relatives were guaranteed entry.
However, on arriving at the pub yesterday morning, she claimed they were told they would be strictly limited to 10 male and 10 female family members. “It’s a disgrace. Not the people of Mullingar – I was watching it on television and there was a queer atmosphere in Mullingar at the Market Square, and fair play to the Mullingar people, but not the pubs, the pubs are a disgrace,” she said.
Management at Danny Byrne’s denied imposing a limit or having an arrangement with the Nevins. “No prior arrangements whatsoever were made and there was nobody told that they were limited,” a spokesman said.
“One of the guys threatened a barman and he was asked to leave and they all left,” he said. “We would like to congratulate John Joe Nevin on his wonderful success and wish him all the best.”
Ms Nevin and dozens of other family members watched the fight at the Covert Bar and Restaurant in Multyfarnham a few miles from Mullingar. She thanked management at the Covert but remained upset with Mullingar’s publicans.
“It’s embarrassing now what they done today . . . they are using us to get the publicity . . . fair play to the Mullingar crowd though, and the council, I have nothing bad to say about them,” Ms Nevin remarked.
John Joe Nevin’s cousin, Paddy Nevin, praised Danny Byrne’s. “Danny Byrne is probably the fairest guy in Mullingar because he did let us in last week. We done nothing for us not to get in,” he said. “He let 25 or 30 in this morning and they wanted more in. The rest of the pubs wouldn’t even let one in,” Mr Nevin said.
“They left because there was about 40 or 50 guys and he’s being fair enough, he done his share, if everybody let five or 10 or 12 in, there wouldn’t be a problem,” Mr Nevin said.
He claimed he would be refused a drink at almost every pub in town. “Other pubs won’t even give you a glass of water in town. It’s discrimination,” he remarked.
“It’s not the town, it’s the publicans in the town and the council that are dirt. They didn’t get behind John Joe.”
While upset about what had happened in Mullingar, Ms Nevin was delighted by her son’s win. “I’m over the moon. I reckon he’s going to win now, win the gold,” she said. “I was expecting him to lose, I’ll tell you the truth . . . I said it to him this morning, I said ‘will you go in and fight for fun’. John’s thought on it was ‘I have nothing to lose’, but in my mind I thought he’d lose,” she admitted.
As his mother, she said the fights are difficult to look at. “I don’t watch them. I watch about a minute and cover my head with a hat. I was trying to get out today but I couldn’t get out because they were all holding me in,” she said.
Ms Nevin said: “London was great, you could go into any pub . . . they were great in London. If we went to Cavan at this minute we would get into any pub in Cavan, we would have no problem at all in Cavan.”
Despite the problems during the day, Ms Nevin said: “I’m glad of Mullingar, what they done for John Joe . . . I was talking to him just after the fight. He is doing this parade for the people of Mullingar, for the council of Mullingar, but he’d appreciate, he told us, if the pubs closed from 5.30 to 10 o’clock till the parade is over.”