Muhammad Ali to visit Irish ancestral home

ENNIS, Ireland, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- U.S. boxing great Muhammad Ali has accepted an invitation to visit the Irish town his great-grandfather left almost 150 years ago.

The town council of Ennis, in County Clare on the west coast of Ireland, invited Ali. His representatives and local officials agreed Saturday he will be in Ennis on the afternoon of Sept. 1.

Abe Grady emigrated from Ireland in the 1860s to Kentucky, where he married a black woman. A granddaughter, Odessa Lee Grady, married Cassius Clay Sr. and moved to Louisville, where their son was born in 1942 and named after his father.

Cassius Clay Jr. later converted to Islam and changed his name.

"This is a very exciting event for the people of Ennis and County Clare, who will get to see the boxing legend when he embarks on a drive throughout the town and the birthplace of his great-grandfather," Mayor Frankie Neylon said.

Neylon said he would propose Ali receive a civil reception, the town's highest honor, and that the boxer be named the first "honorary freeman of Ennis Town."