Earlier this month I finished work on an exciting new documentary called “When Ali Came to Ireland”.
In 1972 Ali came to Dublin to fight Alvin “Blue” Lewis in Croke Park. This documentary is about that fight, where Ali was in his career, the colourful past of Blue Lewis and the extraordinary story of the Kerry circus strongman who somehow made it all happen.
I cannot describe how exciting it is to work something like this, Boxing is always a great subject and to work on something about Muhammad Ali is a real privilege. It is so hard to take your eyes off him, his magnetic personality is astounding and we got access to some greta archive material of him in Ireland that I think people will love.
The film will screen over the christmas on RTE 1 but there is a special preview screening this Sunday at 1pm in the IFI with a Q&A with filmmakers Ross Whitaker and Aideen O’Sullivan of True Films afterwards. Tickets are still available here and you can read the Irish Times article about the film here or indeed the larger piece that appeared on the journal.ie here
John Murphy 