THIS YEAR WILL go down as one that claimed an inordinate number of stars from our orbit.
There was David Bowie, Alan Rickman and Leonard Cohen to mention but a few. But for the Taoiseach, there was one high-profile death that caught him off-guard the most. Enda Kenny told TheJournal.ie that he was most affected by the death of one of world’s greatest boxers in 2016.
I would say [I was most affected] when the Louisville Lip went home. Muhammad Ali was an iconic figure for me in world sport for so many years and I met him two or three times over quite a number of years ago.
An extraordinary man and you know, were he in the height of his powers now, with his peace-loving attitude and his capacity to bring people with him, there might be a different result in a lot of other countries’ attitudes.
He came into the Dail and he signed autographs for some of the Deputies that were around on that day. One of those was a gentleman called Joseph R Lenihan of Belmullet, Co Mayo, who could talk equally as comfortably as Muhammad, but maybe not as fast.
The champ signed his autograph for him on a piece of notepaper, and Joe said to him, “But Muhammad, this is no good to me, I have fourteen children.” And Ali replied, “Well, here’s my pen – write all you like.
On another occasion, Kenny met Ali in New York with his wife a few years ago.
He was unable to respond, but you could see the light in his eyes. I asked him a question about some of the fights he had, and he didn’t fully understand that question. So I asked his wife, and she said to Ali that I had mentioned Joe Frazier. His eyes lit up.
Kenny also said he respects Ireland’s leading UFC fighter, Conor McGregor. Last month, the Taoiseach rejected the idea that he was not a fan of the fighter after he failed to congratulate the UFC star following his history making win in New York. When asked if he thought McGregor was a worthy winner of the sports personality of the year award, Kenny said:
Conor McGregor is a fabulous athlete. He is no-nonsense man, obviously and he is a worthy winner of the sports personality of the year. Sometimes when you see the fights in the cage you might say its brought boxing or fighting to a new dimension. McGregor is world superstar.
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