Muhammad Ali in Ireland

Muhammad Ali (1942-2016), the most iconic athlete of the twentieth century possessed Irish ancestry and visited Ireland on three occasions during his lifetime. Accompanied by his fourth wife Lonnie, Ali’s final visit to Ireland occurred in 2009. After attending a fundraising dinner at the Ballsbridge Court Hotel in Dublin, he travelled westwards to Clare and received the honour of becoming the first Freeman of Ennis during a civic reception held at Waterpark House, Drumbiggle.

In Ennis, the birthplace of his maternal great-grandfather Abe Grady, Ali unveiled a monument at Turnpike Road commemorating his visit and the recent launch of the ‘Alltech Muhammad Ali Center Global Education and Charitable Fund’, and attended another fundraising event held at Dromoland Castle.

Ali’s previous visit to Ireland had occurred during the summer of 2003, when he was among the special guests in attendance at Croke Park for the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics World Summer Games, the first time that this event was held outside the United States. Ali won a Gold Medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome when aged only eighteen, and in a moving spectacle overcame his Parkinson’s syndrome to light the Olympic Flame during the opening ceremony of the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta. While in Dublin for a second time, Ali enthusiastically mingled with Special Olympics athletes across the city and met former South African President Nelson Mandela at the Four Seasons Hotel in Ballsbridge the morning after the event’s opening ceremony.

Famously, Ali’s first Irish trip took place in the summer of 1972 when he fought at Croke Park against Alvin ‘Blue’ Lewis, a tough and powerful yet limited fighter from Detroit. Touched by the friendliness and sincerity of the Irish people, Ali was also exasperated at the almost total whiteness of the local populace and isolation of his hotel on the outskirts of south county Dublin, where he stayed for nine nights. The fight, which occurred on 19 July 1972, was a one-sided yet spirited affair in which Ali dominated his game opponent while rarely getting out of second gear, perhaps due to a head-cold he had caught a couple of days earlier.

Ali dropped the Michigan fighter with a chopping right hand near the end of the fifth round, but a slow count of fifteen seconds and the sounding of the bell allowed Lewis to get off the canvas and continue. The referee later stopped the fight in the eleventh round, awarding Ali a technical knockout victory.

Blogpost by: Dr. James Curry, Historian in Residence, North West Area.