Life of Muhammad Ali is Errol Garner's "April in Paris"

Since early Saturday, June 4th 2016, I have read, watched and listened to tributes, remembrances and analyses from ink-slingers, talking heads and tweedy fops that contort the life of Muhammad Ali, the father-in-law of my friend Mike Joyce, in pretzel logic so his life and his passing from this life makes their own pet theories somehow important.

Muhammad Ali was a one of the greatest athletes in human history and a genius.

He was an Adonis for most of his seventy four years here with us and man of wit and grace.  

You can not explain the life of Muhammad Ali by making him into a Black Joe Hill, a muscular Howard Zinn, a testicular Gloria Steinem, or a good humored Donald Trump.

I understand Muhammad Ali by listening to Errol Garner's April in Paris from Concert by the Sea

Its is all here -humor, power, love, artistry, joy, righteous anger, gratitude, humilty and grace in the hands of two man blessed by God. 

The Bravest Easter Bunny Ever!

On Nov 16th 2012 our lives were completely changed forever, our 4 yr old daughter AVA was diagnosed with stage 3 neuroblastoma high risk, this is our journey with her... Ava's Family on Facebook
This Holy Saturday, the day when Christ Harrowed Hell, this old sob-sister was treated to a heroic little girl. Ava!

Ava was the inspiration of us south siders who attended the recent St. Baldrick's Fight for the Cure at Bourbon Street on Saturday, March 9th.

Ava had another surgery after the Fight Night and took her first step on the road back with the help of her Dad and Mom.

Tell me marriage does not matter.

Christ Jesus, Victor! This makes me happy!

Get Your St. Baldrick's On and Get Your Hair Off at the Same Time!

  
This happy gent went from Buster Browne curls to Buster Douglas Badazz at last year's St. Baldrick's Fight for the Cure!

Be there and be Bald!

Catch some world class boxing from the Celtic, McGarry's and Leo Boxing Clubs! Meet Tommy Z!

Buy me Lunch!

By Phone: (888) 899‑2253Download Donation Form

EVENT DATE

Mar 9, 2013

START TIME

3:00 pm

LOCATION

Fight For A Cure 2013

115 Bourbon Street
3359 W 115th Street
Merrionette Park, IL US

VOLUNTEER EVENT ORGANIZERS

Mike J Joyce

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Mr. John M O'Sullivan

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Muhammad Ali Lights Up London!

The nattily attired young gentleman with his mug facing his Grandpa is Master Jake Joyce of Chicago, IL.  Jake is the son of Jamilah and Mike Joyce.  
Mike's father-in-law, The Toast of London and the World, gave him sound counsel on marriage, boxing, and fatherhood -


Young Master Joyce did not accompany Gramps to London.

Muhammad Ali is so hot that following his last birthday celebration the site of that fete - the fabled Franconello's at 102nd & Western here in Chicago - was closed due to fire.  CFD officials determined the cause of fire to be caused by a gas leak, but this attendee feels the cause may have more to do with the boxing luminaries collateral effect upon the environment.

Muhammad Ali lit up London last night -The handout photo provied (sic) by Beyond Sport shows soccer player David Beckham, right, and former boxer Muhammad Ali, center, together at the Beyond Sport Summit in London to present the inaugural Generation Ali Beyond Sport Award. The boxing legend and the former England captain presented the award, which recognizes Service, Leadership, and Action in the community, to Matiullah Haidar at The Grange Hotel, London. (AP Photo/Action Images for Beyond Sport

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/07/25/3722367/column-in-olympic-london-muhammad.html#storylink=cpy

LONDON -- Muhammad Ali moving people to tears by starring again, however briefly, at the Olympic opening ceremony - this time in London? That really would be something.
Only ceremony director Danny Boyle and a few well-informed others will know for certain if British newspapers are wrong with their speculation that Ali could play a role on Friday night.
He surely won't, as he did at the Atlanta Games, light the Olympic cauldron. Ali, 70 and imprisoned by Parkinson's disease, seems far too frail for that now. And one imagines that Boyle, an Oscar-winning filmmaker, is clever enough to realize that it would be foolish and crass to try to recreate that Atlanta moment as poignant and powerful as anything that happened on the Olympic fields of play in 1996.
But even a glimpse of Ali in London's Olympic Stadium would be, well, just wow. The former heavyweight champion's presence this week in London - he attended an award ceremony on Tuesday - seemed to lend credence to the notion that he might somehow be involved on Friday.

Young Master Joyce is seen here with the late Angelo Dundee who mentored and trained Grandpa - a surrogate Great Grandpa Angelo.
Jake's Dad runs the Leo Boxing club and Celtic Boxing*.
here on the south side of Chicago and is responsible for mentoring a score of Golden Gloves Champions, Pro Boxer Thomas Hayes, Team USA Boxing Captain Lamar Fenner, U.S. Army Boxing Captain, Iraq and Afghanistan combat veteran Sgt. Marvin Carey and beautiful mother and sisters run both Jake and Dad - as intended.

God Bless this family and every family.

*

Celtic Boxing Club Gallery

The Celtic Boxing Club of Chicago had it's beginnings on the city's South Side in 1993. Due to the success of the program, Coach Mike Joyce started a youth outreach program at his alma mater Leo High School to help troubled teens get on the right path in life.

The Leo High School Boxing club was formed in 1996 and has evolved over the years into one of the finest boxing programs in the US. Here we have collected images of the both of the clubs. The first gallery is at Leo High School. The next two pertain to Coach Mike Joyce and Chicago's Celtic Boxing Club.

Click on the image to enter the galleries.

 http://www.celticboxing.com/Chicago-celtic-boxing-club-gallery.php

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/07/25/3722367/column-in-olympic-london-muhammad.html#storylink=cpyhttp://www.kansascity.com/2012/07/25/3722367/column-in-olympic-london-muhammad.htmlhttp://www.kansascity.com/2012/07/25/3722367/column-in-olympic-london-muhammad.htmlhttp://www.kansascity.com/2012/07/25/3722367/column-in-olympic-london-muhammad.htmlY

Epithalamion - For Jamillah and Mike: May 15, 2010

Our mortal path only becomes solid and sure footed when another person bonds to us - marriage. Man was meant to travel with a woman; set a path for children. Each of us finds the chemistry sparked by another's love to be the only real purpose that the parade of experiences that strings behind our steps allowed to somehow ignite. I believe that it is God's hand and delicate fingers that crafted this event. Let no man put asunder.

In 16th Century, Ireland an English civil servant met and bonded with the daughter of an aboriginal Irish chieftan - Edmund Spenser and Elizabeth Boyle. All around them the Irish and English were slaughtering one another - yet, marriage elevated the world's most beautiul poetry above the prosaic.

Here are Spenser's beautiful words for tomorrow's bride and groom - my friends Jamillah Ali and Mike Joyce*.

My love is now awake out of her dreame,
And her fayre eyes, like stars that dimmed were
With darksome cloud, now shew theyr goodly beams
More bright then Hesperus his head doth rere.
Come now, ye damzels, daughters of delight,
Helpe quickly her to dight.
But first come ye, fayre Houres, which were begot,
In Joves sweet paradice, of Day and Night,
Which doe the seasons of the year allot,
And al that ever in this world is fayre
Do make and still repayre.
And ye three handmayds of the Cyprian Queene,
The which doe still adorne her beauties pride,
Helpe to addorne my beautifullest bride:
And as ye her array, still throw betweene
Some graces to be seene:
And as ye use to Venus, to her sing,
The whiles the woods shal answer, and your eccho ring.

Now is my love all ready forth to come:
Let all the virgins therefore well awayt,
And ye fresh boyes, that tend upon her groome,
Prepare your selves, for he is comming strayt.
Set all your things in seemely good aray,
Fit for so joyfull day,
That joyfulst day that ever sunne did see.
Faire Sun, shew forth thy favourable ray,
And let thy lifull heat not fervent be,
For feare of burning her sunshyny face,
Her beauty to disgrace.
O fayrest Phoebus, father of the Muse,
If ever I did honour thee aright,
Or sing the thing that mote thy mind delight,
Doe not thy servants simple boone refuse,
But let this day, let this one day be myne,

From The Western People - Ballina County Mayo

MAKING the right impression on your prospective father-in-law is always a daunting task, but when the woman of your dreams is a daughter of boxing legend Muhammad Ali it must seem like the bar is set extra high.

Nevertheless, Chicago man Mike Joyce proved himself a heavy-weight in the romance stakes when he whisked Jamillah Ali to Ballina during her trip to Ireland with her father last week where he had co-ordinated a surprise marriage proposal.


Mike, whose grandmother Mary Carey (nee Higgins) hailed from Swinford, had commissioned a stunning white gold diamond Claddagh-themed engagement ring as a surprise for Jamillah, from Ballina jeweller, Joseph Winters, of The Hazel jewellery shop.


Joseph became acquainted with Mike Joyce some years ago through mutual friends in the USA. Mike is a partner in Chicago’s Celtic Boxing Club along with Rossport native Terry Cox. Muhammad Ali also has an interest in the club and Mike has known his daughter, Jamillah, for many years. He always told Joseph Winters that he would one day buy a ring for Jamillah from him. Last week the Ali family travelled to Ireland where Muhammad was made honorary freeman of his ancestral homeplace, Ennis. For Mike it was the perfect opportunity for a marriage proposal. He had been liaising with Joseph for some time in advance of the trip about a ring and Joseph suggested the Claddagh theme because of its Irish associations and the fact that it is the emblem of the Celtic Boxing Club.


Jamilla knew nothing of the conspiracy until Mike brought her to Ballina where they made a very low-key visit to Joseph in The Hazel on Wednesday afternoon, last.


Following some general chit-chat with Joseph, Mike told Jamillah that he wanted to show her something nice whereupon the ring was produced, with Jamillah immediately consenting to be engaged.


Afterwards the happy couple posed for exclusive photographs by photographer Henry Wills for the Western People and met with some of Joseph’s acquaintances in Ballina. The Hazel Jewellers on Tone Street in Ballina is probably the oldest jewellers in the west of Ireland, having been established in 1938 by Joseph’s parents, William and Mary Winters.


Now, Joseph has been joined by his son William who represents the third generation of the family involved in the business.