Stings Like a Bee, Talks Like an Irishman

Researchers say they have the explanation for legendary boxer Muhammad Ali's gift of the gab - he is Irish.

Genealogists have unearthed documents which prove his great grandfather came from Ennis, in south west Ireland.

Abe Grady, born 160 years ago in County Clare, emigrated to the US in the 1860s and settled in Kentucky, where he married an African-American. Ali's mother, Odessa Lee Grady, was their granddaughter.

She married Cassius Clay, senior, and their son took his father's name on his birth in 1942. He changed it to Muhammad Ali when he converted to Islam after becoming heavyweight champion of the world.

The link emerged after an Irish TV station began researching Ali's 1972 visit to Ire land 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.

"In the last six months we have discovered a James Hickey, who was born in 1835 just five miles from Ennis, who became the great grandfather of John F Kennedy. These two men must have gone to America at around the same time."

Ms O'Brien added that the news explained their descendants' charm and articulacy.

"They must have kissed the Blarney Stone before they left."

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