While Muhammad Ali's biographer, Thomas Hauser, established some years ago that Ali's great-grandfather was Abe Grady from County Clare, the Heritage Centre in Corofin, County Clare, has now established that Grady was an Ennis man. Born in the 1840s, Grady settled in Kentucky and married an African-American woman. Their son also married an African-American woman and the … [Read more...] about Ali’s Irish Roots
Hitching in Ireland with Mom
In this land of fiercely independent people, who value their poets as highly as their warriors, our strategy was to be road warriors by day and elegant country houseguests in the evening... In 1922, my grandfather, James O'Sullivan, a captain in the fight for Ireland's independence, emigrated from Ireland to the United States via Canada -- one year after the partition of … [Read more...] about Hitching in Ireland with Mom
Against the Tide
Bringing salmon skins into the fashion world and proving the skeptics wrong. ℘℘℘ Among the many gifts he has received from appearances around the world, Mikhail Gorbachev left Dublin in January with a particularly unusual memento. In a standard diplomatic exchange of gifts, Irish President Mary McAleese presented the former Soviet premier with a leather wallet made from Irish … [Read more...] about Against the Tide
Putting the Glitter into Gardening
Gardening isn't all gumboots and green fly. At the gala preview of this year's Cincinnati Flower Show, Mary Margaret Rochford, President of the Cincinnati Horticultural Society, looked more like a fashion doyenne than a gardener, and even the brightest blossoms were temporarily eclipsed by the city's glitterati, out in force (and considerable style) at Cincinnati's Ault Park, … [Read more...] about Putting the Glitter into Gardening
The Cop and the Jailer
Two Dubliners at the Milosevic Trial. ℘℘℘ When Slobodan Milosevic was escorted into the War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague last February it seemed the world was waiting. TV satellite vans were lined bumper-to-bumper with hundreds of reporters and photographers jousting for position. Milosevic being the first head of state to be indicted as a war criminal while in office, the … [Read more...] about The Cop and the Jailer