The Grady part of his heritage in fact contained a more complex history than he knew at the time. Abe Grady was not a slave owner. He had married an emancipated African-American woman in Kentucky. And, while the insistence of journalists on asking him questions about his Irish roots threatened to ignite Ali’s anger, he defused a possible row with a graceful dismissal: ‘You can never tell. There was a lot of sneakin’ around in them days.’
