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The Irish Tearaway
John Shelvey got the ball rolling in the Talk Wrestling Forum……
Like all Heritage members I’m thoroughly enjoying Ron’s Belle Vue series. I particularly like looking at the bills/posters and especially if I see a name I don’t recognise. One such name that appeared on several of Ron’s posters along with one of Main Mask’s posters was Mike O’Sullivan.
I first see Mike O’Sullivan in 1934, but judging by the quality of his opposition he must have started before then. His matches, dotted around from London to Hull and Bradford, see Mike (along the way he’ll be Mick, Micky and Michael) do battle against the likes of Francis St. Clair Gregory, Douglas Clark, Black Eagle and Iron Duke.
In 1935 he’s a regular at the Lanes clubs, Kilburn and Blackfriars and other London venues, also meeting Van Dutz at Belle Vue, Ray St. Bernard in Ealing, Butcher Johnson in Plymouth and Anaconda in St. Leonards at Sea.
1936, Mike is back on the London scene v St Clair Gregory, Tony Baer, Jim Burnett, Steve Casey and Tiger De Lisle.
I found little in 1937, but he did meet the likes of Phil Siki, Mike De Mitre, George Pencheff and Tommy Nilan.
1938 and Mike is once more all over the London scene, sharing the ring with the likes of Karl Reginsky, Harry Brooks, Karol Nowina, Mike Brendel and Whipper Billy Watson, who like Mike’s former opponent Steve Casey, will end up spending time as a World Champion.
1939 / 1940 I found a few matches, but later found a reference accorded to him as ‘Bombardier Army’ so I’m assuming Mike is in the services and almost probably based in Newcastle as he becomes a semi regular in Newcastle, from 1941 to 1943, with the odd foray into Blackburn, meeting Dave Armstrong, Farmers Boy and Bert Mansfield among others. It seems he’s based in Newcastle and wrestling when he’s on leave from the Army.
1944, 1945, 1946, I’ve drawn a blank, almost as there’s a match listed against Cliff Parker in Hanley in 1947.
1948 / 49 and Mike makes appearances in Hanley, Willenhall and Bury and a few others. Man Mountain Benny, Harry Pye, Mighty Inch, Don Mendoza and Con Blassis were some of his dance partners.
Okay, so it’s here I threw in the towel. However I also wanted to give Mike his dues. Said to be between 15 to 16 stone, he was a genuine heavyweight, who met the quick, the skilled and the strong, more often than not, in the main event.
So John had thrown out a challenge to see if we could add more to his discoveries. Truth is, not a lot, though we can confirm John’s findings.
Our earliest documented sighting of Mike O’Sullivan was in January, 1934, when he substituted for Vic Coleman at the Brunswick Stadium in Huddersfield when he was outclassed by Douglas Clark, losing by two falls to nil. We did, though, find two unverified matches in 1933, both in London, which might be significant as an unconfirmed newspaper report said that he was born in the capital. A later unconfirmed report gives Manchester as his place of residence. At some point he married a girl from Sunderland and was stationed in the North East after being called up to the Army during World War Two and billed as a Sergeant in 1941.
Reports are of a powerful heavyweight with little regard to the rules and more than his share of disqualification losses. Reports in 1934 and 1935 often verge towards the unflattering and suggest an out of condition overweight man with a lot of strength. In later years reports become more positive with wins over some good heavyweights and a draw against Douglas Clark in Newcastle in 1941, though he did lose the return match three weeks later. Regular wartime appearances end in 1943.
We did find a single documented sighting in 1952, half a dozen Manchester appearances in 1956 and one final outing, in 1960, at the Levenshulme Sporting Club against Henri Pierlot.
Mike Hallinan then rallied to the call.
From memory when I researched him many years ago, he was born in Cork, Ireland and grew up on the family farm, where the hard work, and long hours built his physique into a powerful muscular young man, he first tried boxing like most young Irish men, before being introduced to All-In wrestling.
He was billed as the Irish heavyweight champion like Danno Mahoney, Steve, Jim, and Paddy Casey, Mike Byrnes, and Paddy O`Rourke which looked good on the wrestling posters.
He wrestled the length and breadth of England, and met all the top wrestlers including Champion Douglas Clark, George Clark, Bill Garnon, Sam Rabin, King Curtis, Tom Whalley, Monteverdi, Karl Reginsky, Al Hamilton, Harry Brooks, Legs Langevin, Joe Devalto, Tommy Nilan, Count Nowina, Johnny Dallas, Mike Brendel, Ranjah Ranji, etc, etc…..
He also took part in a tag team match at The Ring, Blackfriars in Sept 1937
Mike Sullivan and Monteverdi Vs Jim Burnett and Pat Flanagan.
Wrestlers are judged by the number of times they challenge for the British championship, and if they win it, the number of years they hold the title. In Mike`s case I have only found one challenge for the British and Empire titles held by Bert Assirati in Aug 1939 at the Dome, Brighton, Assirati retained his titles, and they met again in Feb 1940 at the Winter Gardens, Clapham, and again Assirati was the winner.
He was also one of eight wrestlers that appeared in the “All-In” wrestling film in 1939 directed by Ralph Lynn and starring George Formby.
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