Muhammad Ali 1942 - 2016

I met Muhammad Ali just once at a strange place: Blackwell's bookshop in Oxford in June 1992. It was exam time and I should have been revising like mad but there was no way I was passing up the chance to meet Muhammad Ali. He was, of course, a shadow of his former self by then, suffering from various early onset Parkinson's symptoms that were almost certainly brought on by boxing, especially that last terrible competitive fight against Larry Holmes where Ali's brain took a pummelling. Boxing it must always be remembered is an awful sport if it can even be called a sport at all. But Muhammad Ali was from 1962 - 1974 the greatest fighter in the world, maybe the greatest boxer there has ever been. That period '62 - '74 can pretty much be summed up as the era of Muhammad Ali, George Best and the Beatles. All six had Irish roots. Best was born in Belfast and the Beatles were all 2nd generation Micks from Liverpool. Muhammad Ali's original name was Clay but his maternal family were Gradys from Co Clare. Grady comes from the Irish Grádaigh, meaning "noble". Ali visited Ireland many times over the years, to fight at Croagh Park, to appear on the Gay Byrne show and on his last visit to tour the home of his ancestral grand parents in Ennis, Co Clare.
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That day in Blackwells was pretty emotional. Ali was touring a book and many of the hardbitten hacks in the British tabloids hadn't seen him for over a decade, not since he was the lippy, skinny, sarky promoter of his own fights, always by far, the wittiest man in the room. In 1992 he looked old, gaunt, grey. Some of the hacks in the front row were even starting to well up as Ali stood there holding his book, shaking and saying nothing. "You're the greatest, champ!" one reporter said as tears rolled down his face. Ali smiled and started fumbling in his tracksuit pocket. He took out a ten pound note, reached across the stage and gave it to the man. Then he winked and said into the microphone "I told him to say that." Everyone laughed. The Champ, brought low by disease and time, still bloody had it. 
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I wanted to take the emotion of that little encounter with Ali and do something with it in my writing. I imagined a slightly younger Muhammad Ali coming to Belfast during the Troubles. He never did come to Belfast during the Troubles but I write fiction for a living so it wasn't difficult coming up with a scenario about what might have happened that day. Here's me reading Chapter 1 of Rain Dogs - the complete Muhammad Ali bit... Or if you're not into the whole youtube thing, you can read the entire thing here, too. RIP, Champ. 

President Obama's Guide To Belfast

President Obama is coming to Belfast next month. They'll probably drag him to the usual tourist spots, but if I were him I'd try and see some more interesting sides of the city instead. These are the top 10 places I'd go to: 

1. The Crown Bar: yes it is a bit of a tourist trap, but it's still worth visiting. A pub owned and run by the National Trust, lit by gas lamps and with its original Victorian fittings. A visit here really is like stepping back in time. My name is carved under the table in one of the snugs.
2. The Titanic Museum: My dad and sister used to work at Harland and Wolff shipyard and I wish the company were still making ships rather than memorialising their least successful vessel ever...I was opposed to the whole concept of this place but a lot of people seem to like it so why not check it out. 
3. The Game of Thrones set: Since you're already at the Harland and Wolff shipyard why not visit the Game of Thrones set in the old Paint Hall. Castle Black, bits of forest, The Wall...it's all here.
4. Carrickfergus Castle: 12th century Norman Castle only 10 minutes from the centre of Belfast. This place has got quite a history having been attacked by the French, the Scots, the Irish, the Americans and even the Nazis. The castle is built on the rock where King Fergus Mor Mac Erc's ship ran aground in the seventh century which, naturally, gave Carrickfergus its name. The castle is only a few hundred yards from where I grew up but don't let that put you off. And if you're hungry while you're in Carrick do check out my sister's pub The Joymount Arms, a literal stone's throw away from the front gate, where they do a fabulous Irish Stew and the best pulled pint of Guinness in the town. 
5. Milltown Cemetery Belfast: Although a little macabre it's very interesting to walk around the gravestones of the Republican Plot.
6. Belfast City Hall: actually the city hall isn't that exciting but it's a well proportioned building in Baroque Revival style made with clean Portland stone. Stir up some controversy on your visit by asking why there are no flags flying...
7. Queens University: the alma mater of Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon, Ciaran Carson and their circle and the place where Philip Larkin lived and worked. A nice oasis of calm in the middle of the city.
8. No Alibis Bookshop: best bookshop in Ireland if you ask me. Easy to find on Botanic Avenue. Mention my name to the bald guy and you'll guy a 10% discount. Either that or you'll be unceremoniously booted out. 
9. HMS Caroline: the only surviving warship from the Battle of Jutland in 1916 which, remarkably, is still floating on an obscure pier in Belfast. Well worth a visit. 
10. Cyprus Avenue: about a 10 minute walk from the centre of Belfast, just off the Upper Newtownards Road, visit the street that helped inspire two of Van Morrison's most famous songs: Cyprus Avenue and Madame George.
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One thing that may be hard to resist is to take a Black Taxi Tour of the major paramilitary murals and scenes of violent incidents during the Troubles, but resist it you should; many tourists do this on their trip to Belfast but personally I find the whole idea a little bit vulgar.  

Sinead Morrissey

The Saturday before last I was in Belfast doing a bit of book promo business. It was a strange day to be in the city: there were riots in East Belfast and there were a few paramilitary manned road-blocks preventing people travelling into the city centre. The place was deserted. So deserted in fact that at one point I was the only person in the Marks & Spencer's Food Hall (a sight more eerie than any post apocalyptic Will Smith movie). The reason for all this was the continued protests on the part of Loyalists over the non flying of the Union Flag at Belfast City Hall. I don't want to get into the whole flag issue here, politics ain't my bag, and the New York Times does a very good job of unpacking the issue here. (Basically the issue isn't really the flag - it's demography). (I also don't want to write about the riots because the Friday night before I went out for a run in Carrickfergus and literally ran into the centre of a riot on The Albert Road, which is a kind of comic story and deserves a blogpost all of its own some day.)

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Anyway I was in Belfast paying a visit to my old pal Dave Torrans of No Alibis bookshop and as I was coming in he was on his way out. He said he was going to a poetry reading and would I like to come. He must have noted the suspicious look on my face because he quickly added "don't worry, mate, it's right up your ally - it's Sinead Morrissey." 

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We walked down to the Ulster Museum and despite the road blocks and the trouble 150 people had shown up to hear Morrissey read a dozen of her new poems. Ireland is one of the places in the world where poetry is still taken very seriously, where many people still memorize poems for pleasure, where people write poetry and read it, and where the poetry section of bookshops is bigger than, say, the self help section. Perhaps because of the bardic tradition poets in Ireland have always garnered respect, more so, I believe, than in America or even England where the job of poet can be seen as something slightly dodgy.

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I've blogged about Sinead Morrissey before although I'd never been to one of her readings until last week. She doesn't read as a matter of fact - all her poems are in her head and the words tumble from her memory easily in a flow like a song. My favourite of her new poems was one about the film A Matter Of Life And Death which was playing on BBC 2 as she was going into labour...A truly beautiful piece of verse which I haven't been able to find online but which - I assume - will be in her new collection out later this year. 

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It was nice of Dave Torrans to introduce me to Sinead and I hope I didn't make a complete fool of myself, being such a big fan of her work for years. Anyway here's a little youtube of Sinead talking about her work in 2012 and do look for her collection when it comes out in the Spring...

The Irish Connection To Game Of Thrones

I was pretty excited to learn that the brand new HBO series Game of Thrones was largely filmed in Northern Ireland. Until the last decade or so no films were made in Ulster because production companies couldn't get the insurance to do so. All those cheesy movies about the Troubles were usually filmed in Manchester, but all that has changed since the Good Friday Agreement and the influx of Hollywood money has been part of the peace dividend.

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The interiors for Game of Thrones were shot at Paint Hall studios in the Belfast docklands but I was even more interested to learn that many of the exterior shots were filmed in rural Northern Ireland. Filming locations included Carncastle, Shane's Castle, Magheramorne and Tollymore Forest. Carncastle is a wild mountainscape overlooking the Atlantic, it's an area I know extremely well having camped and hiked there. Shane's Castle is a working castle still inhabited by a minor member of the royal family - I've visited Shane's Castle on several occasions. Tollymore Forest I've been to hundreds of times. I even made a Super 8 swordfighting movie there with my little brother. (Hopefully the production values for Game of Thrones are slightly better.) Magheramorne is maybe the most surprising filming location for me. My dad was from Magheramorne and its basically just a village with barely more than a dozen houses in it. I assume they filmed not in Magheramorne village itself but in the abandoned quarry nearby which juts into Larne Lough in pretty spectacular fashion. 

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If Game of Thrones is a hit maybe HBO will do more of George RR Martin's books and perhaps they'll use Carrickfergus Castle next time (above). I literally was born and grew up a stone's throw from Carrick Castle which is the best preserved Norman structure in Ireland. The keep is over 800 years old and the outer walls date from the thirteenth century. It's an amazing place. When I was a kid I was in the local archery club and once a week we would set up the targets in the middle ward and shoot our composite bows in there - yes it was as cool as it sounds. 

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I haven't seen Game of Thrones yet (I have read the books) so if anyone has seen a preview copy or the actual show I'd love to read your review in the comments below.

Belfast Man (of course) Discovers Evidence of Time Travel in Charlie Chaplin Film

Watch it now before agents from the future go back in time and erase all this from ever happening.