I think 'people worship' is kind of unhealthy because if you decide to follow everything someone says or does you will often find yourself in dark corners. Nobody is perfect and in fact, I think it's the imperfections that make people inspirational because everybody has their flaws. I doubt that without these flaws we would have music or the art that we do . . . musicians write songs because of their flaws and painters paint for the same reason.

For me, a hero is someone who can 'show the way'; someone who is totally committed to what they do and by doing it they make the lives of other people better and in that context I choose Muhammad Ali.

I first came across Ali as a kid. It was really impossible to miss him, he was such a star. I would watch his fights on television, read about him in magazines and he was often a guest on TV talk shows. I thought he was incredible . . . as a young, white and skinny kid he was a tremendously, perfect specimen. He was witty, clearly very intelligent and deeply principled.

He was totally committed to boxing from a very young age. As a teenager, he never worked. He boxed and trained and it paid off because he won two National Golden Gloves championships and two National AAU titles before he was 18 years, old not to mention the Olympic Gold Medal in 1960, just a few months after his 18th birthday.

My interest in Muhammed Ali also helped forge some common ground between my father and I. As a teenager, it was often difficult to find similar interests but Ali did that for a lot of people. I would sit up late with my father watching his fights on our grainy, black and white television and it was thrilling and kind of eerie too, it was exciting. He invented the 'Ali Shuffle'; a kind of dance, a foot manoeuvre where he would elevate himself, shuffle his feet in a dazzling blur, and sometimes deliver a blow while 'dancing'.

I loved how he would predict how he was going to beat his opponents . . . not if but how and he seemed to always do it. I always remember him saying that he was "so pretty" in other words, that his face had never been marked; an open invitation for his opponent to try and break his nose.

The Rumble in the Jungle was one of his biggest and most memorable fights. I think I was at primary school and I had been allowed to stay up to watch Ali. It was tremendously exciting because it looked as though he was being hammered, he was lying over the ropes and it seemed like he was going to lose. Then he suddenly bounced back . . . he was heroic.

Ali was also a very articulate and outspoken black man from the segregated southern states of the USA. He was incredibly principled and as a young person I was very impressed by his stance over the Vietnam War. In 1967, as the conflict was escalating, he was called up and he refused on the grounds of religious beliefs. I remember being struck by his now infamous quote, "I ain't got no quarrel with them Vietcong."

He came to Dublin once but I never got the opportunity to meet him. I know people who did though, it was often the case of rounding a corner in Croke Park or an elevator door opening and there he was. If I the chance to meet him, well, I just don't Iknow what I would have done. I know I would have wanted to hug him or something like that.

As a teenager I was impressed by his looks and charisma and now I am inspired by the dignity with which he conducted himself. As a black man in the '60s and '70s there were plenty of people ready to knock him down. He overcame a lot; prejudice, poverty and look what he achieved.

I was a fan of boxing when I was young but as I got older my enthusiasm began to wane because I began to see it as a sport which had become corrupt. I think a lot of people moved away from the sport because it seemed to be a bit of a murky business. I can't really take much pleasure in it now.

Ali made a few wrong career moves. He "came back" a few too many times and fought too many fights. I don't know much about his personal life other than the fact that he became involved with the Nation of Islam. I don't know how he 'lived' or how his religious faith affected his private life so although I still think of him as an inspirational person, I can't accept everything he says or believes in as such. I suppose this is the problem with heroes.