Toeing the Line

Scrawl O’Dule dragged the chalk along the paving stones. Stripped bare to the waist lumbered Fin Joyce 235 pound of muscles staring straight into the black eyes of Shawn O’Mally the undisputed champion of Northern Dublin. “Gentleman on the line and begin” O’Dule bellow to the crowd that filled the streets. Each man toed the line and throw a blind number of blows in the first minute of encounter. Upper cuts, follies of gabs, hooks. Blood and sweat spattered the closest on-lookers. Despite the force of those hits each foot remain firm on the line till O’Mally hit the pavement.