John McGrath: Episode 389

An Irishman Abroad

Jarlath Regan

Society & Culture, News, Health & Fitness, Society & Culture:personal Journals, Personal Journals, Politics

4.8 • 834 Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2020

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

John McGrath’s story has to be heard to be believed. A gold medal winner for Ireland in rowing, his career cut short by a horrendous back injury. For most that would be the end for John it was just the beginning. He went on a pilgrimage studying self-mastery and the power of the mind, learning how to harness the mind to push the body through the most extreme physical barriers. Under Bruce Lee’s teacher DoJuNum Ji, John earned his black belt in Hapkido and returned to compete for Ireland again as a martial artist. Again, for most people that would be enough. But John McGrath has never conformed. For years he travelled the world again as a strong man literally bending steel with his mouth, tearing up phone books with his bare hands. On his return he established one of the most respected gyms in the country only for the crash to take it all away. Defeat isn’t in this man’s vocabulary. He upped sticks for South Africa where today he has built a life and business consulting, advising and coaching the everyone from Olympic athletes, the Spring Boks and CEOs to their best performances. This is just a taster. To hear this episode in full and to gain access to the entire back-catalogue of over 350 Irishman Abroad episodes that are not available on iTunes for just the price of a pint every month visit www.patreon.com/irishmanabroad. Supplementary research provided by John Meagher. Our charity partner is jigsawonline.ie. In these tricky times, Jigsaw provides a range of resources, advice and care for your people to help them strengthen their mental health and the skills needed to navigate life. Please visit their website and consider making a donation. For updates on future episodes and live shows follow @jarlath on Twitter, visit www.jigser.com or email the show directly on [email protected]. Disclaimer: All materials contained within this podcast are copyright protected. Third party reuse and/or quotation in whole or in part is prohibited unless direct credit and/or hyperlink to the Irishman Abroad podcast is clearly and accurately provided.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello there and welcome. How are you doing? What's the crack? Here we are. Another episode of an Irish man abroad on a Sunday. I hope this finds you well.
0:10.6	Boy, oh boy, do we have an episode for you today. Where do you start with someone like John McGrath? Any and all of this story is absurd. It's unbelievable, it's more inspirational at the same time.
0:24.8	He was a gold medalist for Ireland in rowing and unfortunately had his career cut short through a back injury.
0:32.0	Now for many people and many people who have appeared on this show, that would be enough.
0:37.0	Well, that was only the
0:38.2	beginning for John. He then went on this sort of pilgrimage to the east, studying self-mastery
0:44.3	and the power of the mind and learning how to harness the mind to push the body through the most
0:48.9	extreme physical barriers, including the pain that he was suffering himself. Under Bruce Lee's teacher,
0:55.6	Doju Numji, yeah, the man who taught Bruce Lee, John earned his black belt in Hapeedo,
1:02.6	and would return to compete for Ireland again as a martial artist. Again, for most people,
1:09.9	that would be enough. That's your story. But John's story
1:13.2	has more twists and turns than a Netflix crime series. I'm telling you, he traveled the world
1:17.5	again as a strong man, literally bending steel, tearing up phone books and decks of cards,
1:23.6	and returned to establish one of the most respected gyms in the country, only for the crash to wipe it all out.
1:32.9	Defeat just isn't in this man's vocabulary.
1:35.9	He upsticks again, goes to South Africa, where today he's built a life and a business, consulting, advising and coaching.
1:43.2	Olympic athletes, the Springboks,
1:44.9	you name it. He is bringing the best performances out of all of his clients. It's phenomenal,
1:52.0	and I told you, I didn't know where to start, but I think I've done a good enough job summarizing
1:56.2	it there. I sat down with him back in June to talk about the journey, Bruce Lee, losing it all, starting again.
2:03.9	And this is just a taster.
2:06.5	Of course, you can hear the full conversation.
	...

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