Irish determined to find family link to 'The Greatest'
Related Articles
A HERITAGE centre is being inundated with calls from Irish people trying to establish if they have links to boxing legend Muhammad Ali.
The three-time world boxing champion is due to visit his ancestral home of Ennis early next month from where his great-grandfather, Abe Grady, left for the US in the 1860s.
Yesterday, genealogist at the Clare Heritage Centre in Corofin, Antoinette O'Brien, said: "The phone has not stopped ringing with people saying that their grandmothers, their grandfathers and great-grandparents were Gradys from the Turnpike in Ennis."
There is only one John Grady listed as living in the Turnpike in the 1860s, and he was Abe's father. She added: "It is incredible to think that someone left this county immediately after the Famine period and went on to have a great-grandson who became a world icon.
"The descendants of those people who did emigrate carry within them the desire to come back and reconnect with the lands of their ancestors."
One possible relative is Imelda O'Grady, who lives today in a house only 100 metres from the Turnpike.
She said yesterday: "My father was Charles O'Grady from the Turnpike and his father was Pat O'Grady who also came from the Turnpike. "I'm trying to go further back, but there has to be connections. "
- Gordon Deegan
