Jim Coffey

Jim Coffey was born in Tully, Roscommon, on January 27, 1890, the fifth of John and Anne Quinn Coffey’s eleven children. His father had been a well-known faction fighter known as “The Conqueror” (“faction fights” were semi-organized brawls between groups of men armed with cudgels).

Jim emigrated from Ireland to the United States, arriving in Boston on April 14, 1910. He made his way to New York, and was soon said to have been involved in an incident that would prove to be a turning point in his life. Overhearing a group of policemen passing a sarcastic remark about his Irish parentage, Jim sorted out the situation in a manner that would have made his father proud.

The story quickly got around and Jim was signed up to the New York Polo Club, where he was paid $15 a week as a sparring partner to Carl Morris, a heavyweight boxer with whom Jim would fight professionally four years later, on April 7, 1915, and win.

Jim's first fight as a professional came on August 11, 1911, in Brooklyn, New York, where he fought and knocked out Young Bernard in the second round. Jim was a formidable boxer, weighing 210 lb., standing 6ft. 3in. tall with a massive reach of 82 in., and a knock-out punch in each hand. His manager was Billy Gibson.

Jim went on to fight 140 matches and more than 100 exhibition fights. Out of 69 recorded fights he won 40 (37 by knockout), with 23 draws and 6 losses, an impressive record. No wonder he was called 'the Roscommon Giant' and sometimes 'the Dublin Giant', often inspiring articles in newspapers in America as well as England and Ireland.

Jim's last fight in the United States was on November 18, 1921, in New Orleans. His opponent was Martin Burke. Jim lost, which probably prompted his final return to Ireland.

In 1923, Jim married Kate Kenny, a teacher from the local school of Gorthaganny in Roscommon. The couple went on to have four children: Paul, Kathleen, Patrick and James, and lived at Glebe House Farm near Tully. Jim died on December 20, 1959, Kate died on February 2, 1975, and their daughter, Kathleen on September 21, 1980. All three are buried in the family grave at Cuiltyboe Cemetery, Loughglynn.

The story doesn’t end there, however. At least one British periodical has published the suggestion that Jim was the inspiration for the fictional character of Sean Thornton in the short story and classic film The Quiet Man. Its author, Maurice Walsh, lived in County Roscommon when Coffey’s career was just taking off, and most certainly his success would have been the talk of the county. So it is that, in a sense, the Roscommon Giant lives on.

-Based very closely upon excerpts from The Roscommon Giant, by Michael Frain, in the June 2010 issue of “Your Family History”, as corrected (see Documents).