Boxing legend Barry McGuigan has revealed he is secretly related to the family of one of the other I'm A Celebrity campmates and it's... Coleen Rooney.
The former world champ's grandfather on his mother's side is a Rooney - and Barry is convinced that Coleen's football ace husband Wayne is a relative of his. He said: "My mother’s family, the Rooneys, originally came from Lisnaskea in County Fermanagh. They date back there to the 1800s.
"All the Rooneys came from South Fermanagh, from Lisnaskea, Newtownbutler, Magheraveely and Roslea. It is from the Rooneys from Roslea, I believe, that the footballer Wayne Rooney is descended. If you traced our family histories far enough back, he and I are probably distantly related. Which is remarkable when you think about it."
Barry traced his family roots when he was telling his life story in his autobiography Cyclone. He was nicknamed the 'Clones Cyclone' when he was a boxer as he grew up in Clones, Co Monaghan. Featherweight champion Barry, 63, said: "My mother ran the grocery business with her father, Johnny Rooney.
"They took the shop over in 1963, and my grandfather worked there right up to his death 20 years later. He was there every day when I was a kid. He would turn up every morning at half-past nine and would leave about half-four or five o’clock. Mum would have her mother or my father’s mother in when they were particularly busy and they would cook the dinners. It was a great life, a very happy life.
"It was always busy, though, I remember that. Always loads of people around, even as a kid. I loved the fact that it was always busy and Mum would pull out the twin tub for doing the washing a couple of days during the week, and Granny was always there, either Granny McGuigan or Granny Rooney, or sometimes both of them together.
"Papa Rooney was always around, working the slicer at the back of the shop. There were always lots of family there. I would come home from school and if I saw my grandfather at the cash register, I knew that Mum and Dad were away to the cash-and-carry in Cavan or Monaghan or even down to Dublin. I would walk into the shop, see Papa Rooney, and ask, ‘Have Mum and Dad gone to the cash-and-carry?’ He would nod and I would then say, ‘Don’t tell me,’ because I could smell from what was cooking which grandmother was there.
"I’d sniff, and go, ‘Granny McGuigan is here.’ Granny McGuigan would always make Irish stew and Granny Rooney would always make boiled bacon with parsley sauce and cabbage and mashed potato. I never got it wrong once, and Papa Rooney would ask, ‘How do you know that?’ It was great. I always loved his reaction.
"It was Papa Rooney’s grandfather who came over to County Monaghan: I would say he came over the border from the North to the South, but that was before there was a border. They came across many years ago. My great-grandfather on the Rooney side signed up and fought for the British Army in the First World War. He was captured and imprisoned as a prisoner of war for four years in Germany.
"He died of TB two years after he returned in 1919, leaving his wife and seven children. My great-grandmother became the first lady caretaker of the post office in Clones and she reared her seven children on her own.
"My grandfather Johnny was one of a big family again: I think there were seven boys in his family. He married a girl called Josephine McCall who, would you believe, came from a family of 12 children. They lived in Scotshouse, which is about five miles outside of Clones. Johnny and Josephine married, and they had a big family too: seven or eight of them, of which my mum was the second eldest."
Barry will be alongside Coleen around the campfire so could bring up the connection. Asked if he’d refuse to do any of the famous Trials, Barry was quick to reject the suggestion. He said: “I couldn’t refuse to do it. Once you’ve made the decision to get into I’m A Celebrity, you have to be willing to do everything.
“It might be disgusting and you might be tired, but being a fighter and being dedicated and committed to training and getting ready for fights... you have to go through hell, physically as well as psychologically. So, I know what I’m letting myself in for.” He laughs, “Listen, it might be very funny, me going, ‘Oh no, go on, you do it!’ There might be all of that. But at the end of the day I’m not going to refuse.”
Known throughout his career as The Clones Cyclone, the thought of potentially being able to take part in the Celebrity Cyclone is a welcome one. Barry said: “I should be able to embrace it fairly well! Because of the way I fought, I fought relentlessly, I just used to track my opponents so I was called The Clones Cyclone. It’s something that’s stuck with me. I hope it helps me with this.”
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