‘Irish Thunder’
While watching the Gator Bowl and now Rose Bowl on TV and occasionally checking Breaking News on the Sun site and the home page of boston.com, I’ve been reading “Irish Thunder’ by Bob Halloran, a vivid account of Micky Ward’s struggles and success. Parts of the book describing life in Lowell in the 1970s and 80s read like today’s tragic reality on Grand Street—the crime and social corrosion that degrades and destroys lives. There’s a lot of pain in the Ward story, and the book is grittier than the film—pain that’s absorbed by some and handed out to others, not only boxers. There’s plenty about the business side of the fight game, too, and the type of characters who work in the spotlight and shadows of a profession that falls between sport and entertainment. “Hard Life and Times” is a fitting subtitle. I’ve encountered some familiar names that I didn’t expect to find—I’m 2/3rds into the book.
I saw the moving today…I was a bit disappointed, I wanted to see more of Lowell…isn’t Lowell a character in this saga?? I have to say though,,,they got the accent…Christian Bale is Dickie more than Dickie is Dickie…and the actor who plays Alice, Ward’s mother has all the mannerisms. Maybe I want too much….why can’t someone do a movie of Lowell and tell the story of the many immigrants who came here over the last 200 years and created good…and still good…
Go see The Fighter if you haven’t….. but understand it’s not about Lowell…..it’s about a family.