What's the history of pro wrestling in Ireland?

https://www.broadsheet.ie/2019/11/21/wrestlemania-1932/

A guy on here done up this it seems! First wrestling event in Ireland

I’m currently researching the history of pro wrestling in Ireland so I can fill in some blanks. The first events began in the 1930s with promoters like William Willis and Gerard Egan running shows. Willis focused on smaller venues with talent from Britain and was trying to develop a scene. Egan ran fewer shows but promoted at larger venues, including Dalymount, and brought in household names like Dan O’Mahony and Steve Casey

In the 1930s, both Dan and Steve had successful careers in America and both had title runs and wins over some big names. They actually contested a title match in Ireland when Casey was champion, where he retained it on that occasion. Numerous others travelled to America and elsewhere but none reached the heights of Danno and Crusher.


The outbreak of WW2 interrupted wrestling here in the late 1930s and most of the 1940s. From then on it was primarily outside promoters running events in Ireland until the early 2000s. Promoters such as Orig Williams (Joint Promotions) were running events in Ireland for decades from the 1960s onwards. Despite the boom in British wrestling, due to prominence on TV, the domestic scene here never emerged.

Nonetheless, there were times during the 1960s when more regular shows occurred. These weekly or monthly events used the same talent and were often the same venues. You could consider this period the second attempt at developing a domestic scene but it didn’t really succeed. Places like the Mansion House or the Clare Manor Hotel played host to these shows.

In the 1980s there were sporadic touring shows featuring talent like Giant Haystacks (whose parents were from Mayo). WWF/E and WCW toured here in the early 1990s and with their growth was the emergence of other touring shows here using fake/tribute talent. During this period Irish wrestlers such as Finlay and Velvet Mcintyre wrestled in WCW/WWF.

There were individuals like the Finlays training people and running some shows in Northern Ireland but it wasn’t really until 2002 the Irish scene kicked off with the emergence of Irish Whip Wrestling and NWA Ireland and their training schools. Since then there have been events every year from domestic promotions with their own talent. The scene has had its up and downs since 2002 but appears to be doing well currently

There are lots of interesting stories from the 1930s to now like Cork council banning female wrestlers in the 1960s, RTE being offered a wrestling show in the 1970s and much more. As highlighted by a previous poster I put together an article on the first events and plan to publish on other content.

You can check out the Irish Wrestling History page on Facebook for regular posts from my archives.

www.facebook.com/irishwrestlinghistory

Random Orig fact. He tried to book female wrestlers in Cork in the 1960s but the city council banned women from participating.