''When Ali Came to Ireland'' is a 2012 Irish documentary film directed by Ross Whitaker. It tells the story of how

Killorglin Killorglin () is a town in County Kerry, Ireland. As of the 2016 CSO census, the town's population was 2,199. Killorglin is on the Ring of Kerry tourist route, and annual events include the August Puck Fair festival, which starts with the crow ...

-born circus

strongman In the 19th century, the term strongman referred to an exhibitor of strength or similar circus performers who performed feats of strength. More recently, strength athletics, also known as strongman competitions, have grown in popularity. Thes ...

and

publican In antiquity, publicans ( Greek τελώνης ''telōnēs'' (singular); Latin ''publicanus'' (singular); ''publicani'' (plural)) were public contractors, in whose official capacity they often supplied the Roman legions and military, managed th ...

, Michael "Butty" Sugrue, put up £300,000 and persuaded the renowned American boxing champion Muhammad Ali to make his first visit to

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

to fight against Alvin Lewis in Croke Park on 19 July 1972. Ali went to Ireland with an entourage on 11 July 1972 to spend time training for the fight. While there, he was interviewed for

RTÉ Television RTÉ Television is a department of Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), the Republic of Ireland's state controlled national broadcaster. Its first channel was Teilifís Éireann, which began broadcasting on 31 December 1961. Since the 1960s, RT ...

Cathal O'Shannon Cathal O'Shannon (9 June 1890 – 4 October 1969) was an Irish politician, trade unionist and journalist. Early years Charles Francis Shannon was born in Randalstown, County Antrim, he was the third child of Charles and Alice Shannon. As a chi ...

and was taught the rudiments of hurling by

Eddie Keher Edward Peter Keher (; born 14 October 1941) is an Irish former hurler who played as a centre-forward at senior level for the Kilkenny county team. Born in Inistioge, County Kilkenny, Keher first played competitive hurling whilst at school in ...

. He revealed to the media that, apart from winning the fight, his main ambition in Ireland was to meet the Northern Irish member of parliament,

Bernadette Devlin Josephine Bernadette McAliskey (née Devlin; born 23 April 1947), usually known as Bernadette Devlin or Bernadette McAliskey, is an Irish civil rights leader, and former politician. She served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Ulster in North ...

, whom he admired. He wanted to talk about her politics, philosophy, and aims in public life. Devlin visited Ali's camp and had dinner with him. He won the Lewis fight with a

technical knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving strikin ...

in the 11th round, and Sugrue lost a lot of money bankrolling it. The documentary was first broadcast on

RTÉ One RTÉ One ( ga, RTÉ a hAon) is an Irish free-to-air flagship television channel owned and operated by Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). It is the most-popular and most-watched television channel in the country and was launched as ''Telefís ...

on 1 January 2013.New documentary focuses on "When Ali Came to Ireland" - VIDEO
Irish Central, 2012-12-18. Ali returned to Ireland twice in later years. He took part in the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics in Dublin in 2003, and he visited the birthplace of his great-grandfather, Abe Grady, in Ennis in 2009, where he was made an Honorary Freeman of the town.Ennis honours Muhammad Ali
RTÉ News, 2009-09-02.

Cast

* Muhammad Ali * Butty Sugrue * Alvin Lewis *

Jimmy Magee Jimmy Magee (31 January 1935 – 20 September 2017) was an Irish sports broadcaster, known as The Memory Man, he spent over half a century in sports broadcasting, and presented radio and television coverage of the Olympic Games since 1968 and the ...

* Rock Brynner *

* Dave Hannigan * George Kimball

Awards

''When Ali Came to Ireland'' won the ''Best Sports Programme'' award at the

10th Irish Film & Television Awards The 10th Irish Film & Television Awards took place on Saturday 9 February 2013 at the Convention Centre Dublin (CCD) honouring Irish film and television released in 2012. It was hosted by Irish actor Simon Delaney and attracted an audience of 1.2 ...

References

External links

Official website
* * *
Photographs of the Ali–Lewis fight
{{DEFAULTSORT:When Ali Came to Ireland 2012 films 2013 television films 2013 films Biographical films about sportspeople Documentary films about boxing Documentary films about historical events Films set in the 1970s Films shot in the Republic of Ireland Irish documentary films Irish television films Films about Muhammad Ali Sports films based on actual events 2012 documentary films Films set in Dublin (city) 2010s English-language films 2010s American films

Cast

Awards

See also

References

External links