Book Tour Summary in Photographs

Ireland exceeded my expectations with its beauty. So I decided to summarize my unconventional book tour with Deirdre Gogarty in photographs. I hope readers of the book will enjoy seeing many of the people and places in scenes and chapters set in Ireland of My Call to the Ring: A Memoir of a Girl Who Yearns to Box. Click on the first photo to enlarge and scroll through the rest.

Deirdre’s father’s dental surgery on Laurence Street. (She was only 3 when she rapped on the door after her first day of school at the Loreto Convent.)

Standing in front of Saint Laurence Gate in Drogheda, Ireland, on my birthday.

On the banks of the River Boyne

Deirdre’s mum is still fashionable and witty at 86.

Deirdre’s sister Katherine tucked a hot water bottle between my sheets to keep me warm.

Sisters: Sheena, Katherine, and Deirdre (seated) in Sheena’s kitchen.

Deirdre’s sister Adrienne in the kitchen of her beautiful farmhouse.

We spent a lovely day with Deirdre’s brother Brian, who stopped speaking at the age of four due to autism.

Saint Peter’s Church in Drogheda (where Deirdre used to pray for her brother Brian to be able to speak).

Backstreet in Drogheda

The River Boyne in Drogheda, Ireland

Drogheda Borough Co

Chapter 6: Dyer Street Dreams

Street that led to the old Drogheda Amateur Boxing Club

When Deirdre’s father moved his dental surgery to Dyer Street, she’d sit at the window above the door, stare at the boxing club, and daydream.

One of Deirdre’s father’s sculptures (now hanging on an outside wall of her sister Adrienne’s farmhouse).

Hubert Murphy, Joe Leonard, and Deirdre Gogarty. Joe Leonard is the first person to invite Deirdre to visit (and then train) in a boxing gym.

With Hubert Murphy of the Drogheda Independent. He is a journalist I admire for defying convention and supporting Deirdre’s boxing career from the beginning.

Drogheda Independent

Chapter 10: Deirdre moves from Drogheda to Dublin

Deirdre’s new gym in Dublin, Saint Saviours, in the old, brick fire station with a bell tower.

Deirdre’s coach at Saint Savoirs, Pat McCormack, died before we published the book. But I was delighted to meet his brother John.

Deirdre (in the middle) with many friends at Saint Saviours Gym

Deirdre with Jimmy Halpin, one of the coaches in the book’s dedication. Halpin taught Deirdre her famous left hook.

Loved meeting Chapter 18: Declan English (right) from Dee’s Teenage Mutant Ninga Turtle days with his partner Breandán.

The Dart train often mentioned in the book (and enjoyed by me on my last day in Ireland as I rumbled down the east coast from Dublin to Greystones).

Greystones, a town fitting of its name

Saint Stephen’s Green, a gorgeous park in the heart of Dublin.

The red and white smokestacks where Deirdre used to run along the strand in Sandymount

Epilogue: The Bridge of Peace

Epilogue: The Bridge of Peace