Barney “BJ” Eastwood has made a name for himself in five spheres of operation: Gaelic football, boxing, property, greyhound racing and bookmaking.
But despite his many successes in different fields, the 75-year-old Irishman will always be remembered for the bitter legal dispute with Barry McGuigan, one of five boxers who achieved world titles under his care.
The spat arose over McGuigan’s third defence of the WBA featherweight crown in Las Vegas in 1986. When the Argentinian Fernando Sosa withdrew at a late stage because of injury, the Irish boxer found himself up against an unheralded plumber from Fort Worth called Stevie Cruz.
Amid temperatures touching 110 degrees, McGuigan surprisingly lost to the apparent no-hoper and he subsequently severed his connections with Mr Eastwood. Four years later, the promoter won substantial damages after suing the boxer for libel over the contents of his autobiography and a fight video.
Dermot Morgan, the Irish actor who played the title role in Father Ted, the hit TV comedy, subsequently composed a comic song, Thank you very much, Mr Eastwood, based on the relationship between McGuigan and his manager. It made it to No1 in the Irish charts.
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Mr Eastwood, who in the 1940s was a junior All Ireland champion in Gaelic football, founded Eastwood Bookmakers in 1954 from a shop in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim and over the years expanded it into
Northern Ireland’s biggest operator. Although times were tough during the Troubles, when robberies became common, the scrapping of betting tax in 2001 saw the business boom.
His interest in gambling extended to ownership of several top greyhounds in the 1980s. His business interests also include commercial property and supermarkets. He also owned the Russell Court in Belfast.
Although no longer involved in the day-to-day running of the business, Mr Eastwood is expected to pocket the lion’s share of the proceeds of more than £100 million from yesterday’s sale of the business to Ladbrokes. He and his wife Frances’s four sons have all been involved in the business.
Speaking from one of his shops in South Belfast yesterday, he said: “I am very sad that it is going but I just think that it is the right thing to do, to move on.”