Barry Keoghan wrapped the bandages tight, covering a small scar on his right hand, the larger one in his heart.
He was in Paschal Collins’ gym, working on the pads, energised by the environment.
Yet this boxing fight was easy compared to the one he came through as a child, dealing with his mother’s death as a 12-year-old, remembering the teenage years spent in care.
Staring into his eyes Collins spotted something he’d seen before.
Conor McGregor had that same look when he first walked into his city centre gym. Older brother and former world middleweight champion, Steve, had it too.
“You sense it straight away when someone steps into a ring,” Collins says, “you pick up on a person's character within seconds.
“With Barry, you could see he was trying to do everything right. I’ve no doubt that follows through in his acting, the quality he seeks to produce, the consistency. There’s something special about him. Call it star quality.”
Dublin’s north inner city has had no shortage of those.
While so much about the place has felt regressive recently, an alternative image shines out of the Five Lamps, the area’s most notable landmark.
Each lamp points in a different direction, left towards Ballybough, the estate Irish internationals Curtis Fleming and Jack Byrne grew up in; while another light shines towards the North Strand where Keith Andrews, a veteran of 35 Irish caps, spent the first 10 years of his life.
A third lamp is directed towards Sherriff Street, home to Keith Treacy, a Premier League debutant at 19; singers Stephen Gately and Luke Kelly; director Jim Sheridan.
Lamp number four shines on Portland Row, Kellie Harrington’s street.
A few houses up from the Olympic champion is Wes Hoolahan’s home and directly across the road from Hoolahan’s red brick terraced house is Portland Place, Stephen Elliott’s birthplace.
And just over the wall from Elliott’s old home is Troy Parrott’s.
But it is the fifth lamp that has the brightest bulb. Its glare takes in the flats in Summerhill where Keoghan - who has been nominated for an Oscar at this week’s Academy awards - grew up.
“There has always been so much talent,” says Collins of the north inner city. “Whatever you did, whatever you wanted to achieve, you were doing it for your life.
“Someone like Barry couldn’t benefit from the old saying, it is who you know. That wasn’t applicable to him, nor to Kellie Harrington or anyone from the inner city.
“They did it the hard way, and did it the right way. And that is why they have had longevity in their careers. Nothing was ever handed to them. It was talent married with hard work that got them to the top.”
Yet there is an even deeper aspect to these unexpected success stories.
Long before Enda McNulty became the country’s leading performance consultant, working with companies as diverse as Amazon and the Irish rugby team, he was an All-Ireland winner with Armagh.
So, he has a fair idea how a protege matures into a champion.
And he appreciates the irony that an area that has been called underprivileged is anything but when it comes to developing creative geniuses, actors like Keoghan, singers like Kelly, boxers like Kellie, footballers like Hoolahan and Parrott.
“I love the place,” McNulty says.
“The day that Kellie Harrington came back into Dublin from the Tokyo Olympics, I walked in and around Portland Row, doubling back on myself to retrace my steps.
"People were probably asking, ‘what’s going on with this guy?’
“But I wanted to get a sense of what this girl has achieved, and what her achievements meant for the north inner city. You could feel it in the environment, you could feel it in the ecosystem.
“Armagh coming home with the All-Ireland was special but Kellie’s homecoming had the wow factor. It was like a once in a lifetime moment.”
Except if Keoghan, brought up merely metres from Harrington’s home, wins his Oscar, then once in a lifetime will have a box-office sequel.
They know each other, Keoghan attending the launch of McNulty’s new book, Commit 2 Lead , last week.
“Talk about star quality,” McNulty says, “the moment Barry walked into the room, people weren’t walking towards him, they ran. You could feel the energy change in the room.”
He experiences that feeling every time he visits the north inner city, fascinated and inspired by the work that goes on there, the intelligent educators in local schools, youth clubs, football and boxing clubs.
“Walk down these streets and you’ll see kids kicking a ball around; you’ll see them walk with gloves around their neck on their way to a boxing gym,” McNulty says.
"That's the ecosystem that breeds champions.
“Go into the schools. The teachers are inspirational.
“The ethos is not to just focus on the child but on the child and the parent.
“I was there the day Santa came to one of the schools. The teachers sat on the floor with the children, making this the best Santa experience any child could hope to get. It was stunningly impressive.
“You talk about role models; this area is full of them. In Father Peter McVerry (the priest who works to assist the homeless) you are talking about a Saint, a walking Saint.
“The shoots, as they call the flats, the sense of community there is unbelievably intact. Yes, there are drugs being dealt on the streets, there is no doubt about that, but those people look after each other.
“I met a man, Pat Courtney, five years ago, three days before Christmas. He told me about 50 families who might not get a visit from Santa. His job was to help those families. I walked with him as he shopped for presents.
“He’s as inspirational a person as any I’ve met because he treats everyone with respect, whether their daddy is a drug addict or a bank manager.
“Pat and so many educators and community workers like him are now creating a movement in the north inner city through schools, drug addiction centres, sports and drama clubs.
"It is electric to be in there and experience it. When you feel that connectivity, that authenticity, I’ll be honest with you, it just completely grounds you.
“It makes you say ‘oh fuck, why am I fucking worried about A, B or C'. These people, they represent the best of us, the best of Ireland.”
This coming Tuesday Keoghan from Summerhill will represent Ireland at the Oscars. Later this month Parrott from neighbouring Buckingham Street hopes to help Ireland launch their Euro 2024 bid against World Cup finalists, France.
Portland Row’s Harrington, meanwhile, is in training, aiming to defend her Olympic title next year while her neighbour, Hoolahan, reflects on a 21-year career as a footballer that only ended last year after he celebrated his 40th birthday.
This is the picture that shamefully isn’t painted by any of us when we report on the north inner city’s position at the top of the crime league.
We’re too quick to mention the forgotten and the lost, the pale-faced skeletal figures shivering with cold on these streets, too swift to speak about crime rates when we need to look beyond the statistics.
That is what John D'Alessandro did.
A fellow actor and a personal trainer, he shared a stage with Keoghan in a short film, Night Wing, and shared a ring with him in Collins’ Celtic Warriors gym.
He knows the streets around Summerhill intimately and knows the two paths Keoghan could have walked down.
“What I always respect about Barry, the situation he was in, going through Foster Care, is that he went down the right road,” D’Alessandro says.
“His self-belief is incredible. Every script he reads, he believes in that character. It is not luck that has got him where he is. His talent is what made him.
“He is so dedicated to his craft and understands each of his characters so well. He is the best actor to come out of Ireland and his rise in the US is like Conor McGregor’s in a sense, the way he has exploded into Hollywood. It’s amazing. I love him.”
Most of all he loves his story.
“What he has achieved is amazing for the inner city. There is a lot of crime in there.
"But Barry is a reference point to the kids in Summerhill. It does not matter where you are from. You can defy the odds. The kid that thinks he has no hope, that is in a foster home, he or she can look up to Barry.
“They can look up to the actors from the area, the sports stars, see they have made it.
“They can say, ‘well, if they have been a success, why can’t I?’ I love that about Barry, about Kellie. We should cherish these people. They’ve shown us what can be done.”
Most of all they have shown us that there isn’t just fear on these streets. If you open your eyes, you can see hope and heroes, too.
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