An Cosantóir May 2018 www.dfmagazine.ie
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By PtE PARAIC SuLLIvAn PhotoS By CPL LEE CoyLE & CPL John JoyCE
T
ragedy is something that nobody has the power to avert.
At some stage in our lives, it will ascend from nowhere
and grasp you in its clutches. Life, and people, are mea-
sured on how we react to tragedy. It is a true test to a person's
character - when the going gets tough, to stand up and fight,
for whatever you are fighting for. Symbolically, the image of
a punching bag being hit, is a way of off-loading stress and
pain. For Cpl John Joyce, this is exactly what he did.
After the sudden death of his brother in 2009, Joyce turned
to boxing as a reprieve from the pain he was immersed in. This
was his way of coping, learning and trying to understand. A
member of the Defence forces for the last eleven years, Cpl
Joyce is based in B Coy, 7th Inf Bn and is the training NCO for the
company. With a rich history of boxing in his family, his father
was a competitive boxer who fought at all-army level in the
1970's and has several medals to his name.
Cpl Joyce, who is married to wife Anita, holds down an
extremely taxing but worthwhile job as a training NCO, but
