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Frank McCourt, Whose Irish Childhood Illuminated His Prose, Is Dead at 78
New York Times ^ | July 19, 2009 | William Grimes

Posted on 07/20/2009 9:18:39 AM PDT by Albion Wilde

Frank McCourt, a former New York City schoolteacher who turned his miserable childhood in Limerick, Ireland, into a phenomenally popular, Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, Angela’s Ashes, died in Manhattan on Sunday.....

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: angelasashes; frankmccourt; irish; mccourt; obituary
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To: Albion Wilde

I’m of Irish extraction and I see him as just being an ungrateful, whiny liberal. I enjoyed the book but I questioned why his parents’ families did not help them. The Irish that I know believed that charity begins at home.


21 posted on 07/20/2009 9:42:44 AM PDT by diefree
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To: Allegra
Angela’s Ashes was a very good read. Very dark, but yes, a good book. I read his others as well, 'Tis and Teacher Man. In contrast, bis brother Malachy's book, A Monk Swimming was full of inteersting and off-beat characters.

Yes, I read all 5 as well. Frank's books were head and shoulders above Malachy's, which were amusing but much more egocentric. Angela's Ashes was a literary classic.

22 posted on 07/20/2009 9:43:30 AM PDT by Albion Wilde ( Jim Thompson for President.)
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To: Cicero

The most vehement anti-Catholics tend to be former Catholics. Its a faith that arouses strong passions both positive AND negative. Remember the old saying that in Italy, everyone follows the Church: one half with a candle, the other half with a club.


23 posted on 07/20/2009 9:44:06 AM PDT by Clemenza (Remember our Korean War Veterans)
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To: PghBaldy

“It was the Great Depression. Just about everyone was hungry.”

Indeed, my mother, born in 1923 in south Georgia, spent most of her childhood hungry. She attributes her thin legs and arms to malnourshment as a child. However, McCourt’s childhood was horrifying, much worse than my mother’s. McCourt was a good writer, and “Angela’s Ashes” is well worth reading.


24 posted on 07/20/2009 9:44:55 AM PDT by Stevenc131
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To: diefree

The ones I know that immigrated to this country over the past 30 years are flaming lefties, even if they are still churchgoers.


25 posted on 07/20/2009 9:45:49 AM PDT by Clemenza (Remember our Korean War Veterans)
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To: Allegra

His brother has a bit of the malarkey in him. The actorbr
Richard Harris grew up down the street from them. He stated
that they didn’t have it as bad as depicted in the book.
Supposedly,McCourt changed the book from a memoir to a
rememberance.


26 posted on 07/20/2009 9:46:05 AM PDT by Dr. Ursus
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To: Clemenza

My daughter went to Trinity College. The whole country is made up of leftists. I’ve had some of her schoolmates visiting here and all they did was knock America.


27 posted on 07/20/2009 9:50:03 AM PDT by diefree
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To: Dr. Ursus

If 3 of your siblings die from diseases associated with malnutrition, I’d think he had it pretty bad. The other families, if I recall correctly, had dad’s that worked at least part of the time and would send money home via bicycle courier. McCourts dad drank all their money.


28 posted on 07/20/2009 9:51:55 AM PDT by ozarkgirl
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To: Dr. Ursus
He autographed a copy that I dedicated to my Irish grandparents.I said that the his writing reminded me of my favorite author.I said that I hoped he didn’t mind being compared to an Englishman-Charles Dickens.He just laughed and said in that case no.

I stood in line after one of his university lectures attended by perhaps 650 people, and he autographed well into the night. During his talk he had railed a bit against the entrenched Catholic hierarchy of his home town and what he felt was callous and demeaning treatment of the poor. Naturally, his comments were generalized outward by many critics and his countrymen (and I'm sure they will be on this thread as well) to an all-fronts assault on Catholicism per se, but I didn't read them that way; his writing was very precise. He resented the indignities visited on his mother when she tried to get help from the local parish, but he also simply but movingly described a priest who heard his confession (he stole food) as an adolescent and simply forgave him.

In the moment when I came up to him in line, I had marked some pages and pointed out to him that he had redeemed himself with the Catholic Church by writing of the priests who were kind to him. What a surprised look he gave me!

29 posted on 07/20/2009 9:54:00 AM PDT by Albion Wilde ( Jim Thompson for President.)
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To: diefree

Didn’t catch that in the article - but I did skim it rather quickly. (I’m at work, after all.) :-)


30 posted on 07/20/2009 9:56:35 AM PDT by knittnmom ("...only dead fish 'go with the flow'". - Sarah Palin 7/09)
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To: knittnmom; diefree
In the article, it says he stole bread and milk to survive, and a public college accepted him in spite of his meager education to that point.

Yes, a public university in New York City, after he emigrated alone to America and had served in the U.S. military during Korea. I think many Americans cannot imagine the poverty Irish Catholics in poor parts of Ireland experienced, right up until about 20 years ago when the European Union started pumping development money into the Republic of Ireland. His childhood was comparble to the desperation we heard of in the U.S. in the Appalachians during the Depression.

31 posted on 07/20/2009 9:58:02 AM PDT by Albion Wilde ( Jim Thompson for President.)
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To: PghBaldy

great find. Thank you for posting. I knew Frank and am saddened by his death. Yet having read this short article, I feel I missed out tremendously by his flat drawn character-his mother Angela. I will give him a pass however as it was his first book. Frank was a man that loved to talk and talk he did with everyone. He may have loved talking more than writing. He loved being around people and having an audience. May he rest in peace.


32 posted on 07/20/2009 9:58:14 AM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: knittnmom

It’s in his book.


33 posted on 07/20/2009 10:00:01 AM PDT by diefree
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To: Albion Wilde

An 8th grade education in a Catholic school in Ireland at that time would be equal to an Associate’s Degree today from a Community College here.


34 posted on 07/20/2009 10:02:01 AM PDT by diefree
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To: Cicero
See post 29. I realize he was criticized for criticizing the Church as he found it; but I do believe he painted a realistic picture of the particularly Irish working-class or poverty-class situation. I grew up with an Irish orphan grandparent who went to work at age 7. If you have not experienced the verbal abuse and shaming behavior that haunts those families, including members of the lower class who became priests and continued to blame the poor for their poverty, it's hard imagine how he lived.
35 posted on 07/20/2009 10:03:04 AM PDT by Albion Wilde ( Jim Thompson for President.)
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To: PghBaldy
Very interesting post -- thanks -- an article by the real Angela's neighbor. And yes, it is difficult to say whether he transmogrified his actual mother's experiences into a larger metaphor for the suffering of the Irish poor during the Depression, along with the ever-present alcoholism and martyrdom to a strict moral code. At the same time, I must say, there are many sides to my life that my offspring will never have any idea of. Or at least, no proof! His story is one that was seen through his eyes as a desperately hungry and needy child. His later life would be a testament to his sheer will to overcome.

Here is the final passage of the article to which you linked, which rings true:

For finally, it is possible that the Angela of Angela's Ashes and [the] Mrs. McCourt [that I knew] are one and the same person, nothing fictive about her - simply a new woman once she got Frank out of the house. Indeed, my children's clearest memory of Mrs. McCourt is seeing the formidable woman wreathed in a cloud of cigarette smoke. The ashes are nonfiction - or so it seems.

36 posted on 07/20/2009 10:12:59 AM PDT by Albion Wilde ( Jim Thompson for President.)
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To: PghBaldy

Have you read the book? Your comments seem to indicate that you have not. If you have not, would you mind reading it before arguing? Or are you Irish yourself? In which case, arguing is as natural as breathing in and breathing out....


37 posted on 07/20/2009 10:14:58 AM PDT by Albion Wilde ( Jim Thompson for President.)
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To: Albion Wilde

That’s one thing I never did understand, his mothers affinity for “fags” (cigarettes). I know it was a stressful life and that would help but if you’re that poor and your children are that hungry, seems like there are priorities and “fags” aren’t one.


38 posted on 07/20/2009 10:21:58 AM PDT by ozarkgirl
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To: Albion Wilde

There once was an author from limerick...


39 posted on 07/20/2009 10:23:54 AM PDT by SlowBoat407 (Achtung. preparen zie fur die obamahopenchangen.)
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To: diefree
My daughter went to Trinity College. The whole country is made up of leftists. I’ve had some of her schoolmates visiting here and all they did was knock America.

When my family were traveling in Ireland a few years ago, my grown son and I stopped into the lobby of a tiny hotel in the town of Kells to ask for directions. We were set upon by the owner, who lectured me angrily and at great length about George Bush. My son and I were rolling our eyes. What were we supposed to do with her comments? We are a couple of private citizens in a country of 300 million people -- almost 10 times as many as in Ireland.

When she paused for an instant to take a breath, I said, "As soon as I return home, I'll be sure to get over to the White House and tell him how you feel."

40 posted on 07/20/2009 10:24:25 AM PDT by Albion Wilde ( Jim Thompson for President.)
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