Adrian Logan meets Barney Eastwood, an embodiment of a classic story of a local boy makes good. Born in Cookstown, Co Tyrone to a family of eight children, Eastwood is best known for bringing big-time boxing back to Belfast, as well as his successful betting business.
In this interview, Barney looks back at his childhood and growing up in the 1930’s Cookstown. He remembers how he first got interested in boxing through the weekly boxing tournaments at a nearby US air base and kept coming back to his lifelong passions. His unwavering interest in boxing is clear, from amateur action at school in Cookstown, through a fight-promoter spell in Belfast’s Ulster Hall during the 1960’s; then into the McGuigan era, and ending after IBF World Flyweight king McAuley lost his crown in 1992.
In the early 50’s, he got married and together with Frances run a local public house in Carrickfergus. Shortly after, they got into the betting business, setting up a chain of successful bookies called Eastwood’s.