Well knock me down ... Muhammed [Ali] has Irish roots

Irish Independent ^ | February 8, 2002 | Gordon Deegan

[aculeus]

A SEARCH by genealogists has confirmed the unlikely Irish heritage of boxing legend Muhammed Ali.

Staff at the Clare Heritage Centre at Corofin have discovered that the three-times world boxing champion's great grandfather was Abe Grady who was born in the town Ennis in the 1840s.

According to genealogist Antoinette O'Brien, Abe - who hailed from the Turnpike area of Ennis - emigrated to the US in the 1860s from Cappa Harbour, near Kilrush in west Clare.

Some time after arriving in the US, Abe Grady settled in Kentucky, where he married an African-American woman. It is understood that their son also married an African-American woman and one of their daughters was Ali's mother, Odessa Lee Grady.

In the 1930s, Odessa married Cassius Clay Snr and they settled in Louisville, Kentucky before their son Cassius Clay Jnr was born in 1942.

The Heritage Centre carried out the research as part of a programme on Ali's Irish links for TG4.

© Irish Independent

[justshutupandtakeit]

Too bad he rejected the name he held, Cassius Clay, that of a great fighter against slavery and adopted the name of many of the greatest slavers.

[codebreaker]

Shiver me timbers!

[Redbob]

And here I thought my grandfather was kidding when he referred to Clay as a "sun-burned Irishman."

[RichInOC]

"Michael who? Ahhhh ammmm the Lord of the Dance."

[sinclair]

Muhammed [Ali] has Irish roots

Does that mean he dyes his red hair black?

[TomB]

At a previous Olympics, an Irishman suprised everyone by winning a gold medal (I'm too lazy to do the research as to which one). In an interview afterwards he was asked why the Irish don't win more boxing gold medals. He looked around the empty ring and said "Well normally we're used to fighting in a place with more barstools".

[JesusIsLord]

Is there any doubt that Abe Grady kissed the blarney stone and the gift of the gab rubbed off on all his descendents.

[fish hawk]

Yeah and Mike Tyson is part Eskimo ( from the root word Eskimantic= eaters of raw flesh)

[Big Bunyip]

You never heard of black irish?

[Red Jones]

wow, it's not surprising though.

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

Sure'n I be the greatest, laddy...

[tallhappy]

Staff at the Clare Heritage Centre at Corofin have discovered that the three-times world boxing champion's great grandfather was Abe Grady who was born in the town Ennis in the 1840s.

That would be more than just a great grandfather. It'd be great great I'd think.

Ali probably knows this.

What this shows is another example of millions that Americans are not Europeans, Americans are not Africans, Americans are not Asians and on and on and on.

Americans are Americans.

[Dr._Joseph_Warren]

>>Staff at the Clare Heritage Centre at Corofin have discovered that the three-times world boxing champion's great grandfather was Abe Grady who was born in the town Ennis in the 1840s.

That would be more than just a great grandfather. It'd be great great I'd think.

Actually, it could be okay. Humor these hypothetical dates:

IF Ennis (Great-Grandfather) was born in 1848;

IF Ali's grandfather was born in 1880 (Ennis would be 32 yrs old)

IF Ali's father born was in 1910 (g-father would be 30 yrs old)

Ali was born in 1942 (father would be 32 yrs old)

This is reasonable.

[tallhappy]

Yes.

[RichInOC]

"Rumble, boyo, rumble...ahhhhhhggggghhhhh!"

[John H K]

For all practical purposes, there's almost no such thing as an African-American that isn't part white.

Interestingly, it's estimated that about 25% of American Southerners who consider themselves white are partially of African descent.

[Outrance]

When the subject of "Reparations" comes up I always thought that the people who want reparations are probably the grandchildren of both slave and master. My caucasian ancestors came here long after slavery was over.