IRISH AMERICANS

 This is the last in my series on Irish Americans.   This one is not quite so lesser known.

  This is dedicated to lesser known Irish Americans.  Everyone is aware of John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie (her mother was from County Clare).  Sure Ronald Regan was Irish as was Maureen O'Hara and Bruce Springsteen has a bit of the "green" in his heritage.  Walt Disney's father was Anglo-Irish.  Bareknuckle boxing champion, John L. Sullivan's parents were both Irish immigrants.  Henry Ford's father was born in County Cork.  Both of Eugene O'Neill's parents were Irish immigrants.  Of course, you know that he won the Nobel Prize for literature and also his plays won four Pulitzer Prizes for drama.

Have you heard of Cassius Clay?  

Yes, that Cassius Clay.  The black man from Louisville who professed to be Muslim and changed his name to Muhammad Ali.  The one who won Olympic Gold for the U.S.; who was the Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World; who spoke in basic poetry and belittled many opponents.  His style was described as "float like a butterfly and sting like a bee."  Yes, the one who refused to be drafted into military service and was stripped of his title. Still, the one who many called "the greatest".  Yes, the one who was known and honored around the world.  The one who was befelled by Parkinsons Syndrome.  

Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was born to Odessa Grady Clay.  His great-grandfather was Abe Grady, originally of Ennis in County Clare, Ireland.  Abe left Ireland during the Great Famine and settled in Louisville.  There he married a freed African-American slave just after the Civil War.  

I loved the guy as an athlete.  It didn't bother me that he refused to joint the army and risk going to Vietnam.  I never knew he was Irish until recently.