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Biography

Deirdre Gogarty is a native of Drogheda, Ireland, who moved to the U.S. to pursue her dream of becoming a champion boxer. Her journey led her from illegally boxing with men in Drogheda and Dublin boxing clubs to training in a shack in Louisiana. Eventually, she was crowned Women’s International Boxing Federation featherweight champion. Gogarty is a successful graphic artist and coaches at the Ragin’ Cajun Boxing Club. She lives with her husband near Lafayette.

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My Call to the Ring: A Memoir of a Girl Who Yearns to Box

Although in the late 1980s boxing is socially frowned upon and illegal for women in Ireland, a girl named Deirdre Gogarty has one dream: to be the first Irish woman to become world champion. Unable to fit in at school and in the midst of her parents’ unraveling marriage, she plans her suicide. Death hovers in the back of her mind but boxing beckons as Gogarty defies the odds and finds a gym and coach willing to train her. Her fierce determination leads to underground bouts in Ireland and Britain.

But how can a shy, young misfit become a professional boxer in a country that bans women from the sport?

Gogarty follows her calling to compete and journeys from the Irish Sea to the Gulf of Mexico, from outcast to center ring, from the depths of depression to the championship fight of her life.