John Sheppard, bigot ?

dlofnep

Normally I'd keep politics out of the boxing forum, but John Shep's bigotry and anti-Irish sentiments are really going too far. I've already seen BigEars post on the said thread on Boxrec, so I'm sure he's aware of the situation.

John Duddy, who's nationality is Irish under the Good Friday agreement is listed as United Kingdom for nationality. Not only is this inaccurate, but spiteful. For those unaware, John's uncle was the first person killed by British troops on Bloody Sunday at the age of 17, and he rejects any British symbol and wishes to identify himself as Irish and Irish only - hence the Ireland's John Duddy moniker.

We have raised this issue with John Sheppard, time and time again on Boxrec. They changed it to Irish on one or two occasions by he immediately changed it back to British, and now since the site revamp - to United Kingdom.

I think it's childish that the biggest boxing website in the world can't address a legitimate concern. We cited all our sources, listing John's legal birthright to his Irish nationality under the Good Friday Agreement, but they just swept all our arguments under the carpet, deleting alot of my posts which were heavily referenced and logical. I could understand if John wanted to be listed as British, it would not be a problem - but he doesn't.

Furthermore - they didn't have a problem listing Andy Lee as Irish, even though he was born in England. But as soon as the North is involved, John Sheppard pushes his weight about with the whole "not giving into terrorists" fiasco.

John Sheppard is spiteful and a bigot.

cowzerp

What an ignorant muppet-:mad:

dlofnep

He messaged me and said because John is from the United Kingdom, then that is his nationality. Conveniently avoiding the Good Friday Agreement, or the fact that Andy Lee was born in England but is listed as Irish. If the Birthplace was the case, then surely Andy Lee would be listed as United Kingdom too?

He's hiding the his obvious attempts at trying to IRK Irish Nationalists. It's really childish.

Bernard Hopkins

You are absolutely right,...... Im sure he travels on an Irish passport too.

We must also remember Barry "the brit" Mc Guigan, who was irish when he fought for the belt, and was all of a sudden Brittish when he won it !!!
He defended under the union jack.

the thing about mc Guigan was that he was from Monaghan , which we all know was never one of the 6 counties !!

he thought he'd m,ake more money for himself being Brittish , and got what he deserved.

Now, these days, it much more profitable to be Irish on the world stage.
A hell of a lot of marketable appeal in the states...

Just my 2cents.

Bernard Hopkins

also Wayne mc Cullogh ,....came back from the olympic games waving a union jack,.......
There is no morals or loyalty when it comes to money matters...... tis the way things go im afraid.

dlofnep

It doesn't bother me much about what an individual personally wants to do or who they want to wave a flag for.. But John Duddy opted to be Irish and John Sheppard is not respecting that and it is clearly out of spite.

Giving the fact that Boxrec is the biggest boxing database in the world, he should have more class.

Dub13

What a jerk,if he wants to be anal about it then the UK is wrong as well the official name is United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Nunu

Bernard Hopkins wrote:

also Wayne mc Cullogh ,....came back from the olympic games waving a union jack,.......
There is no morals or loyalty when it comes to money matters...... tis the way things go im afraid.

Did that really happen?!

menoscemo

I don't remember mccullough coming back waving the Union Jack, he fought for Ireland and stood to the Irish flag, In fact if meory serves me right he actually carried the Irish flag in the opening ceremony in the 1988 Olympics???. Being from the north, I remember the huge controversy it all creted, when he went back to belfast the unionist mayor refused to recieve him in the city hall for having stood to the and carried the Irish flag (Wayne is actually a protestant from the Shankhill road, so you can imagine the feeling in the late 80's)

cowzerp

menoscemo wrote:

(Wayne is actually a protestant from the Shankhill road, so you can imagine the feeling in the late 80's)

when he won the silver in the olympics was in 1992! wayne is irish of british ancestory-thats a fact..

menoscemo

cowzerp wrote:

the olympics was in 1992! wayne is irish of british ancestory-thats a fact..

I thought that too, I checked on google to be sure and got 1988 http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/low/northern_ireland/921824.stm
On reflection you are 100%, it was deffo 1992 in Barcelona, maybe we should start a campaign against the BBC to get this changed?

Dodge

McCullough absolutely DID carry the Irish flag at the opening ceremony of the 1988 Olympics. He won his medal in the 1992 games but he carried the flag in 1988

walshb

That's disgraceful concerning Duddy. Duddy is IRISH and should be paraded as such wherever he goes. Wayne is from the Shankhil and is protestant but to me he always seemed as Irish as anyone else. I think he has a genuine love of Ireland.

Barry is Irish and loves being Irish, but he has a great fondness for Britain as he was adored there. He's simply a very likeable fellow with star quality. That's why he was such hot property and successfull. I don't think anyone should be dissing him
because he made it in both Britain and Ireland....

megadodge

Bernard Hopkins, your two posts re. McGuigan and McCullough smack of complete and utter IGNORANCE ! And I mean that in all senses of the word.

The McCullough issue has been dealt with in the previous few posts and they are correct in saying there was huge controversy (in Protestant circles, as Wayne is Protestant) created in Belfast by his carrying of the Irish flag [it was 1988] . Wayne never came back from the Olympics "waving a Union Jack" and never go involved in politics.

As for the nonsense about Barry "defending under the Union Jack", he went out of his way to be apolitical. He was a Southern Catholic (on the border) married to a Protestant. He carried a peace flag into the ring and always had a dove on his shorts. There were no anthems sung, just 'Danny Boy'. Because of this he had fans from both sides of the divide who didn't care of his background/religion. They recognised a great boxer and a very decent person and to think you come on here politicising a man who made absolutely sure there was no political bullsh!t surrounding him is nothing short of disgraceful.

I love your line "he thought he'd m,ake more money for himself being Brittish , and got what he deserved". What was that exactly ? A world title, plenty of money, respect from people all over the world, a lucrative TV career....

walshb

megadodge wrote:

Bernard Hopkins, your two posts re. McGuigan and McCullough smack of complete and utter IGNORANCE ! And I mean that in all senses of the word.

The McCullough issue has been dealt with in the previous few posts and they are correct in saying there was huge controversy (in Protestant circles, as Wayne is Protestant) created in Belfast by his carrying of the Irish flag [it was 1988] . Wayne never came back from the Olympics "waving a Union Jack" and never go involved in politics.

As for the nonsense about Barry "defending under the Union Jack", he went out of his way to be apolitical. He was a Southern Catholic (on the border) married to a Protestant. He carried a peace flag into the ring and always had a dove on his shorts. There were no anthems sung, just 'Danny Boy'. Because of this he had fans from both sides of the divide who didn't care of his background/religion. They recognised a great boxer and a very decent person and to think you come on here politicising a man who made absolutely sure there was no political bullsh!t surrounding him is nothing short of disgraceful.

I love your line "he thought he'd m,ake more money for himself being Brittish , and got what he deserved". What was that exactly ? A world title, plenty of money, respect from people all over the world, a lucrative TV career....

Bravo!!!!

menoscemo

I agree with most of the posts above.
Politics should be kept out of boxing as much as possible, and I have no gripes, in fact I have nothing but respect for Wayne McCullough and Barry McGuigan.
The whole Duddy Incident has been made into a political issue by Boxrec and John Shepphard. I just read a few of the boxrec forums on the issue. It seems that Duddy's management have been onto boxrec asking the to list him by his true nationality, Irish, and they refuse to do so. As I have said I am from the north but live in Dublin and travel under an irish Passport as my parents have done for years before me, and I would take offence at being called British, not because I hate the British but because it is wrong.

I mean how can someones nickname be 'Irelands John Duddy' (as listed on Boxrec) and nationality be 'British'? Patheitc......

dlofnep

menoscemo wrote:

I mean how can someones nickname be 'Irelands John Duddy' (as listed on Boxrec) and nationality be 'British'? Patheitc......

Exactly! It's not as if his nationality is under dispute. John Sheppard fully well knows that John has an Irish passport and his nationality is Irish. If the place of Birth was a problem, then surely Andy Lee would be listed as British too!

John is conveniently looking past the Good Friday agreement and it's without a doubt, just a pop at the Irish fans. I have a petition rolling around if anybody wants to sign it:

http://www.petitiononline.com/duddy123

menoscemo

Just to add fuel to the fire, On a dispute to Juan Diaz' Nationality http://www.boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=68438
John Shep uses the following argument to defend listing Diaz as mexican despite being born and bred in houston texas:

JohnShep
Joined: 29 Dec 2001
Posts: 2311
Location: Yorkshire, England

PostPosted: Sun Aug 26, 2007 7:04 am Post subject: Reply with quote
Mexican law states that people born to a Mexican father or mother are entitled to Mexican nationality. Also Mexicans by birth who renounced their citizenship and became citizens of another country can regain their Mexican citizenship by requesting it. This is another can of worms


Does this ring any bells? Sound a bit hypocritical??

menoscemo

dlofnep wrote:

Exactly! It's not as if his nationality is under dispute. John Sheppard fully well knows that John has an Irish passport and his nationality is Irish. If the place of Birth was a problem, then surely Andy Lee would be listed as British too!

John is conveniently looking past the Good Friday agreement and it's without a doubt, just a pop at the Irish fans. I have a petition rolling around if anybody wants to sign it:

http://www.petitiononline.com/duddy123

Just signed it, hope we can get this changed, it is a disgrace and the more of Boxrec I read the more I see that sheppard is an ignorant biggot. Must have had someone belonging to him serving in the troops in the north. It seems personal with him, cos everytime soemone changes it he changes it back.

BTW it has nothing to do with the good friday agreement. It has always been the right of people born in Northern ireland to claim Irish nationality under the Irish Constitution. The GFA just reinforced this right.

BTW BTW if Mary Mcaleese was a fighter, she would be listed as British too lol!!!

dlofnep

Well spotted on the Diaz nationality!! I'll keep that in mind when I present my case.

walshb

Well if boxrec cannot do the right thing here and list Duddy as Irish, they have IMO lost a lot of credibility and affection. Something I have told them just now...Who is this Sheppard and how can one person wield so much power on a site. BOXREC need to get mature and serious about this....

Big Ears

walshb wrote:

Well if boxrec cannot do the right thing here and list Duddy as Irish, they have IMO lost a lot of credibility and affection. Something I have told them just now...Who is this Sheppard and how can one person wield so much power on a site. BOXREC need to get mature and serious about this....

John is the owner of the site , and he does indeed to have some anti-Irish feelings .

The British thing really annoyed me as it was factually incorrect ,whatever about having John down as from the United Kingdom like they have now as he was technically born there .

I'm tired of arguing with this issue though...........already tryed long and hard on boxrec but to no avail . Yet if it was some African/Russian fighter that moved to Austrailia 2 months ago and claimed to be Austrailian he would oblige and change them to Aussie .

walshb

As far as I am concerned, no one man owns any site. He may officially, but he needs people and if he insists on irritating the very people that have made his site successful, he will find out that his site may well be heading to the gutter......

dlofnep

Everyone get involved, I have presented my case.

http://www.boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=924807#924807

I highly doubt he has the balls to attempt to argue it. But please post, before he conveniently removes it.

dlofnep

Everyone get involved, I have presented my case.

http://www.boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=924807#924807

I highly doubt he has the balls to attempt to argue it. But please post, before he conveniently removes it.

dlofnep

lol he deleted it.

dlofnep

Attempt 2: http://www.boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=924811#924811

Big Ears

They've already deleted 3 previous threads on the topic so I assume your posts will be deleted constantly aswell if it annoys them in any way .

If it's not too much trouble could you post it here as I'd like a read of it .

dlofnep

info is up on bernarddunne.net - will revise it when i get home, in work at the moment so don't have time.

yomchi

Bernard Hopkins wrote:

also Wayne mc Cullogh ,....came back from the olympic games waving a union jack,.......
There is no morals or loyalty when it comes to money matters...... tis the way things go im afraid.

McCullough always classed himself as British, or Northern Irish at least. He's from a loyalist area just off the Shankill road. Waving a tricolour would have started a lot of trouble for him and his folks!

Dodge

Jon wrote:

McCullough always classed himself as British, or Northern Irish at least. He's from a loyalist area just off the Shankill road. Waving a tricolour would have started a lot of trouble for him and his folks!

He didn't class himself as anything. Thats the ****ing point! He was offered the chance to carry our flag and did.

He's quite proud to be from belfast, but he has pointedly refused to talk about politics or beliefs throughout his career. Why are people trying to make an issue out of this, when it obviously isn't an issue to him.

The Duddy incident is obviously different

Dyr

dlofnep wrote:

He messaged me and said because John is from the United Kingdom, then that is his nationality. Conveniently avoiding the Good Friday Agreement,

The guys passport would have nothing to do with the good friday agreement surely? Anyone from the north has always been entitled to irish citizenship, I thought.

Dodge

Bambi wrote:

The guys passport would have nothing to do with the good friday agreement surely? Anyone from the north has always been entitled to irish citizenship, I thought.

They had to have had a parent or grandparent born in NI (or ROI) before 1921. For practically everybody who wanted a passport this wasn't a problem. The GFA opened it up to anyone born in the 32 counties...

menoscemo

dlofnep wrote:

info is up on bernarddunne.net - will revise it when i get home, in work at the moment so don't have time.

Have you tried to get a quote from the Duddy camp? You could then try to get it up as an article on one of the big boxing websites like eastsideboxing.com That would really shake things up!!! You could at least post about your petition in other websites forums to get more signatures......

dlofnep

menoscemo wrote:

Have you tried to get a quote from the Duddy camp? You could then try to get it up as an article on one of the big boxing websites like eastsideboxing.com That would really shake things up!!! You could at least post about your petition in other websites forums to get more signatures......

I'll get in contact with Brian Peters promotions and see if they can get me a contact with John.

Dodge

http://www.irishropes.com/contact.html

Contact the US management directly

dlofnep

Dodge wrote:

http://www.irishropes.com/contact.html

Contact the US management directly

E-mail sent.

dlofnep

The Duddy can replied to me - confirming the importance of this issue to John, re-affirming his appreciation for fans on both sides of the border, regardless of their background and also confirmed that he has indeed opted for an Irish passport, via the GFA.

menoscemo

dlofnep wrote:

The Duddy can replied to me - confirming the importance of this issue to John, re-affirming his appreciation for fans on both sides of the border, regardless of their background and also confirmed that he has indeed opted for an Irish passport, via the GFA.

Great stuff, I am sure a rival boxing website would be prepared to publish a story on this, then you would get thousands of signatures and sheppard would be made to look like an idiot/change nationality.

walshb

dlofnep wrote:

The Duddy can replied to me - confirming the importance of this issue to John, re-affirming his appreciation for fans on both sides of the border, regardless of their background and also confirmed that he has indeed opted for an Irish passport, via the GFA.

I might POST this to the CBZ. It's a very well respected site in America and maybe it will help our case. I have left the BOXREC site as I will not be part of a site that has zero respect for the very people who give it a lifeline. I said goodbye to the site in a respectful way and the EDITOR replied quite immaturely and rudely. That's an EDITOR, you would expect a little more manners and respect from an editor would you NOT....

dlofnep

menoscemo wrote:

Great stuff, I am sure a rival boxing website would be prepared to publish a story on this, then you would get thousands of signatures and sheppard would be made to look like an idiot/change nationality.

I've e-mailed Eastsideboxing to see if they will run the story. I gave them a brief background on the situation. I will post if they respond.

walshb wrote:

I might POST this to the CBZ. It's a very well respected site in America and maybe it will help our case. I have left the BOXREC site as I will not be part of a site that has zero respect for the very people who give it a lifeline. I said goodbye to the site in a respectful way and the EDITOR replied quite immaturely and rudely. That's an EDITOR, you would expect a little more manners and respect from an editor would you NOT....

Yeah, I saw that post - They seem to be happy to be rid of having to dispute it. I've signed up on that Cyber Boxing Zone website.

walshb

dlofnep wrote:

I've e-mailed Eastsideboxing to see if they will run the story. I gave them a brief background on the situation. I will post if they respond.



Yeah, I saw that post - They seem to be happy to be rid of having to dispute it. I've signed up on that Cyber Boxing Zone website.

See below the mail the chief at the CBZ sent me.....


Originally Posted by walshb
Gor, hello to you. I hope you are having a nice day.
I would be grateful if you could take a look at the link below
and tell me if you as one of the senior men on the CBZ, would allow it as a thread on this site,. I wanted to run it by you
first...

http://www.petitiononline.com/duddy123/petition.html

Walsh it would be a lot simpler to contact my partner Mike DeLisa who is also an editor over at boxrec & he can fix the situation.

His e-mail is Mike@cyberboxingzone.com. He's in Venezuela & doesn't check his e-mail every day. If you don't hear back from him, let me know & I'll contact somebody over there & see what I can do.

regards,

GoprDoom




"Email this Mike DeLisa and see what he has to say about it. I'm sure he will
be a lot better in dealing with the issue than the ignorant twats there"...

dlofnep

The problem is Walshb, that even if he does change it - John Sheppard will just change it back. He calls the shots. Do you know this Mike DeLisa guy?

walshb

dlofnep wrote:

The problem is Walshb, that even if he does change it - John Sheppard will just change it back. He calls the shots. Do you know this Mike DeLisa guy?

I've been on the CBZ for years. But Mike I do not know and once I may have inadvertently insulted him. So me emailing him would NOT get results I feel.

I think if we get enough pressure and 'bad publicity' over the issue, then the BIGOT will have to do something. I say email this Mike guy and see what happens. If Like Gordoom says, that Mike does NOT get back to you soon, then Gordoom will do something...

dlofnep

Ok, I'll pop him a friendly e-mail and see what we can do. Cheers

dlofnep

Ok, I've dropped him an e-mail. I'll update you when I receive a response.

sligobhoy67

I've emailed with Jim Borzell who works with Clan Duddy who told me that they called Shepard to tell them that Duddy was Irish and held an Irish passport - his reply was to say that he "wouldnt be changing it to satisfy a bunch of terrorist"

the guy is a nazi BNP supporting scumbag - thats true

dlofnep

Yeah I think it was Jim Borzell who Irish Ropes got to e-mail me.

sligobhoy67

dlofnep wrote:

Yeah I think it was Jim Borzell who Irish Ropes got to e-mail me.

Jims a good guy - he's done all he can to get it changed but Shep is a bigot and wont.

Shepard is trying to get Boxrec recognised by some organisation in America - thats how we can hurt him, by ****ing up his application to have Boxrec recognised

dlofnep

Do you know which organisation?

alanceltic

Lads,

This story done the rounds over 12 months ago and i was p_issed off with it back then and it still irritates the hell out of me now.

I agree that sport & politics shouldnt intertwine but on occassion they do (Like it or not) and I can point to the latest row over the rugby flag & anthem used at away games as a very good example. This issue over Duddys right to claim nationality and the subsequent slurs & double standards from John Shephard are an insult not just to Duddy but to Irish people at large. Some good ideas have been bandied about but we could be a lot smarter, dont think that Shepherd is going to change his mind with a couple of dozen emails or attempts to put posts up because it failed the last time. I like the idea of other "credible" boxing websites carrying the story but would question wether any of them would be up for it. In the meantime we could list off a number of websites/forums where the issue could be highlighted and the petition could be marketed, it could be wrapped up in a guise of "Boxrec.com and its bigoted war on Irish nationality" as soon as the petition numbers snowball other media sites/outlets will take an interest so I think the key is to get the petition numbers increased then it becomes an easy sell to other sites/media, it is these other people who will influence what decisions Sheperd has to make and nothing would satisfy myself and others if the b_ollox had to eat humble pie. I would propose any ideas from others on where we could highlight the petition online....

www.irishabroad.com
www.emigrant.ie