Eamon McAuley's love of writing was born out of scribbling random stories on tattered notebooks, a form of therapy for the 56-year-old..
He then started recounting his family history, from growing up as a boy in Troubles-torn Ardoyne, to the legend of his late father Patsy 'Coco' McAuley, one of the "hardest men to ever come out of Belfast".
Inside the ring, Eamon was a standout amateur before signing for legendary promoter Barney Eastwood.
But after only 12 professional fights, the curtain came down on the lightweight's career.
Now a doorman of 30 years, Eamon has written a book charting his journey from the North Belfast streets to the bright lights of professional boxing.
It is a raw and unfiltered story punctuated by highs, lows, family tragedy, hope and finding God.
"Why didn't I realise my potential in boxing? I became vegetarian. I lost my strength and power. This was 1986, and I was on a one-man crusade to be a vegetarian in Ardoyne," Eamon said.
"I was buying magazines and trying my best, but I was losing nutrients and vitamins. When I boxed I was a banger. I was strong, but all of a sudden I was very weak.
"I dropped a couple of weight divisions and it affected my confidence. Barney dropped me from the big Dave 'Boy' McAuley v Fidel Bassa rematch in February 1988. I went away and sulked for a few years.
"I came back, but I was skinny and gaunt. I wasn't subsiding what I was missing out on being a vegetarian. I was losing protein, calcium, iron from not eating meat.
"But I don't regret being vegetarian or vegan. At the time my da told me I should be eating meat if I wanted to be strong. But I didn't listen."
Eamon turned professional "in a blaze of publicity" in 1986, signing a deal with the late, great Barney Eastwood.
His pro career would span eight years and see the North Belfast boxer finish with a record of 11 wins and one defeat.
That sole loss came against Andrew Furlong, after Eamon was forced to retire with an ankle injury.
"I had the guy down in the previous round. I twisted my ankle. I'm not making excuses, but that's how it happened," Eamon said.
"But I had a good boxing career for Barney Eastwood.
"I turned pro in a blaze of publicity with Barney Eastwood. He gave me a great deal. I got £6,000 for signing on and £1,000 for each of my first eight fights.
"Barry McGuigan, Dave 'Boy' McAuley and Paul Hodkinson didn't get a signing on fee, it shows you how highly Barney Eastwood thought of me.
"But I didn't reach my potential."
Eamon was always destined to enter the ring.
He came from good fighting stock.
His uncle was Rinty Monaghan, Belfast's first-ever world boxing champion, and a man now immortalised by a 10ft-high bronze sculpture erected in Cathedral Gardens, close to where he grew up.
His grandfather was Harry McAuley, a former professional champion, while his father Patsy won Ulster and Irish titles.
"My uncle Rinty Monaghan was world flyweight champion. My grandfather Harry McAuley was a professional champion. He beat Billy Donnelly over 15 rounds to win the Northern Ireland title," Eamon added.
"So boxing is well engrained in my family. My uncle Sean McAuley is a coach up in Ligoniel, and has been for 50-odd years.
"I boxed for Sacred Heart in Ardyone and then I went to Manchester in 1982, and that's when I really came to the fore.
"I was knocking people out with one punch, and the Manchester press started labelling me the 'Belfast Bomber'. But there were bombs going off over there, and all over England, causing death and destruction.
"So me and my Uncle Gerard had to go down to the Manchester Evening News and ask the editor would they stop calling me the 'Belfast Bomber'.
"I went to Manchester to get away from all that."
He added: "Barney Eastwood took us to LA, Panama, Colombia. We were in some of the toughest gyms in the world.
"We sparred world champions. I was down to spar Julio Cesar Chavez, but he never came to the gym that day. For bragging rights, I wish I had sparred him.
"Barney took us all over, and that was probably the highlight."
Eamon added: "I went to London and won a few national titles including the ABA lightweight title in 1985. It was a massive story back then (when I won it), and when I came home I was in the papers and on TV.
"Then I signed pro with Barney Eastwood who told everyone I hit harder than Barry McGuigan, which probably didn't help me. Let me walk before I can run.
"But I sparred Barry a few times, and Dave 'Boy' McAuley. They were world champions. Paul Hodkinson, Eamon Loughran, a lot of the top boxers back then.
"I won 29 of my last 30 fights, amateur or pro."
Eamon was raised in Ardoyne during the Troubles in the 1970s.
He was the son of Patrick (Patsy) 'Coco' McAuley, once described in a newspaper tribute as a "compassionate man with fists of stone".
It was an era when 'hard men' were exactly that, when fighting and bravery counted for a lot on the streets of Belfast.
"It was a tough upbringing in Ardoyne in the 1970s," Eamon says.
"My da was shot three times and blown up by a big car bomb. I don't know how he walked away from it.
"It was the first loyalist bomb to go off at a republican funeral. My dad wasn't even at the funeral, he was in that area to go to a house up the street.
"He was involved in street fights. He is a North Belfast legend, but I want people further afield to hear about him.
"There is one story when the British Army couldn't get a Para to beat him, so they flew over a regimental champion from Germany to challenge him.
"The Troubles were ever-present growing up in Ardoyne. You had a gun pointed at you daily. You were stopped, searched and questioned. Or asked to be an informer.
"Two of our favourite games growing up were chasing rubber bullets, and hopping lorries. That's just the way it was back then. That was normality."
A doorman for 30 years, Eamon says he has no regrets about his life and boxing career, despite never reaching his full potential in the ring.
He admits to struggling with low self-esteem all his life, while he also touches on his brother's suicide in the book - a devastating event that he struggles to speak about to this day.
"I was born in 1966 and I have suffered with low self-esteem all my life, and I always will," he said.
"I am doing okay now, I am a bit of a chatterbox. There are other times when it is an awful ordeal. And it randomly happens.
"But it has plagued me all my life, even when I was boxing and on top of the world.
"In the ring I was comfortable, but outside the ring I wasn't.
"My brother's suicide (in 2012) is deeply personal, and it is in the book.
"His name was Paul. He was three years younger than me and left six kids. They are all doing okay now.
"We never saw it coming."
Eamon added: "I had always had some faith, and I always went to the rosary with my granny when I was young.
"Then I did a thing called Cursillo, a guy from Spain brought it to the world. It is massive in South America and the Pope did it.
"It is a thing when you go on a retreat with no TV, mobile phones etc. You are away for three or four days and you listen to a lot of testimonies.
"It is one of the most emotional things I have done, and it blew me away. I now serve God, and I have done about 20 of them.
"I have seen young lads who got caught up in drugs or drink, thinking they are hard men. They don't go to mass or have God in their life, and they insist they're not interested in God.
"But then a few days later they are hugging me and crying, and praising the Lord."
Eamon's book is released on Amazon today (February 3), and there will be a special launch this Sunday (Feb 6) at Crumlin Star in Ardoyne, starting at 3pm.
It is hoped a number of former boxers including Martin Rogan, Neil Sinclair and Dave 'Boy' McAuley will be in attendance.
Eamon admits writing the book came about by chance, but he found the experience both rewarding and cathartic.
"I love writing. I find it very comforting and therapeutic. And it helped me through a very critical time in my life," he said.
"A lot of what I used to write would be nonsense. Top 10 tennis players; Top 10 middleweight boxers. Random things. And then I would have ripped them up and thrown them out.
"But I loved the writing, and I started doing some stuff for the magazine here in Ardoyne, called Horizon.
"And then I started writing stories about growing up in Ardoyne, about my da who was one of the hardest men to ever come out of Belfast.
"Then I wrote about boxing, my faith, my brother's suicide. And it was all in a notebook, and then one day I went to the library and there was a fella Trevor Gordon who was very helpful. He put it all on a computer for me, and that's when I got really into it and I started adding a wee bit more.
"It was actually Trevor who sent it away to the publishers. He sent the first three chapters.
"We were planning to release it, and then the book came out from Eamonn Magee which we weren't aware of at the time. So we put my book on hold.
"You would have had two books about two boxers called Eamon and both from Ardoyne. Too many coincidences.
"I wasn't even sure I was going to do it, but the staff at the library encouraged me and we got a great response from the publishers.
"A guy from Orpen Press, from Derry, rang me one day and he had read the first three chapters. He said it reminded him of growing up in Derry, and he said he couldn't wait to read the rest of it.
"So I went with Orpen and the book is out on Thursday, with Barry McGuigan writing the foreword for me.
"There is a lot of humour in it, too. And sadness."
Eamon continues to work on the doors, and helping out with coaching at St John Bosco amateur boxing club.
"I still work on the doors today. I keep saying 'that's me done' but I keep going on," Eamon joked.
"I have worked in soup kitchens and with the homeless, and I enjoy doing that. I need something better than working the doors. I am getting too old for that.
"I also do some boxing coaching at St John Bosco. I have been there a few years. I don't go to fights, but I am at the gym all the time helping the kids.
"You are not just a boxing coach. You are a social worker, helping these kids who have issues outside the club.
"So I enjoy that. I am glad when these young people come to talk to us.
"And we do it for the love or boxing, and the love of our community."
Eamon's book, 'Fighting to Find Peace: A Belfast Boxer’s Journey', is available now on Amazon and other book stores.
