Clare roots of Muhammad Ali

[pwaldron]

Last night, I listened to a debate on Clare FM radio about the veracity of the claim that Muhammad Ali's great-grandfather Abe Grady was from Ennis. The participants were Ennis councillor Brian Meaney, supporting the claim, and author Sean Spellissy, arguing against it. Neither cited much in the way of facts to support his argument.

This claim has been widely reported in the media, for example in The Irish Times at http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/bre ... king52.htm
Most of the media reports attribute the claim to the Clare Heritage Centre. A google search of that Centre's own website at http://www.clareroots.com/ turns up only one mention of the name Grady, in a brochure from Lynch Hotels at http://www.clareroots.com/trace_clare_roots.pdf which merely says:

it has uncovered the roots of
such people as Muhammad Ali;
whose great-grandfather Abe Grady
was from County Clare.

The only sample report on the Clare Heritage Centre website at http://www.clareroots.com/report3and4.htm is advertised as FICTITIOUS.

The report in The Irish Times also states that Abe Grady emigrated to the US in the 1860s from Cappa Harbour, near Kilrush in west Clare.

Can anyone on this list provide a pointer to the detailed report by the Clare Heritage Centre on this family? It must have been published somewhere in order to generate so much media coverage, since I understand that the first lesson in all journalism courses is `check your sources'.

And can anyone on this list provide any other evidence of transatlantic ships calling at Cappa at any time?

\pw

[mcreed]

There was an article in the Guardian in 2002 (called "Stings like a bee, talks like an Irishman"), which says:

...The link emerged after an Irish TV station began researching Ali's 1972 visit to Ireland for a documentary and discovered that he had mentioned a family connection. "There is no doubt that Abe Grady was Ali's great grandfather," said Antoinette O'Brien, a genealogist at the County Clare Heritage Centre. "We found that Ali's great-great grandfather, John Grady, the father of Abe, rented a house and a small garden in Ennis with a rateable value of 15 shillings (75p) in 1855." http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/feb/0 ... s.research

[smcarberry]

I have been chipping away at this knotty problem of Ali's parentage. The last solid link on his paternal side is John L.
Grady b. 1887. Census research has yet to show John in his birth family. I may found his mother Catherine Walker and will be
working on confirming this by locating a death record for her. I hesitate to say more than that in this public place, but, if I
have the right person as his mother, then there were two men in her line named Abraham. I see nothing to indicate that
John L. Grady's paternal line had anyone named anything like Abe. I have two possibilities for his father, one of whom was
a John who died in an accident in 1903. If that John is correct, then I have that John's father, who was Thomas. I can't find
any reference online to anyone's having found documentation of any Grady prior to John L. Grady. BTW the "L" in John L.
Grady was assumed by John and was not his original middle name. So, there is a lot going on in this family's history, which
needs and deserves careful documentation.

I have no idea where the CHC of Corrofin obtained its material. I also have not known prior to your posting that Cappa harbor
may be involved. I have posted previously about emigrant sailings from Kilrush in the mid-1800s.

Sharon Carberry
USA

[pwaldron]

Fame and fortune in the Irish media awaits anyone who can come up with the facts about this one. I look forward to seeing Sharon's work making the front pages.

It's highly suspicious that the Guardian article gives such detail of the Griffith's Valuation record, but no details at all of the apparent 1842 Ennis baptismal record for Abe Grady son of John, like the date, the name of his mother and the names of the baptismal sponsors.

\pw

[pwaldron]

The Irish edition of the Sunday Times newspaper today laid out the arguments of all sides to this debate. Apparently the evidence that Abe Grady was born in Ennis was found not in Ennis but in America. See http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 017717.ece

\pw