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Frank McCourt remembered in story and song at NYC Irish memorial

By
CAHIR O'DOHERTY
,
IrishCentral.com

Published Wednesday, October 7, 2009, 10:30 AM
Updated Wednesday, October 7, 2009, 12:41 PM

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Frank McCourt remembered in story and song at NYC Irish memorial | Entertainment in Ireland and Around the World | IrishCentral




Read more: Frank McCourt, Peter Quinn, Malachy McCourt, Books and Literature, Media, James Joyce, Manhattan, Pulitzer Prize Committee, County Limerick, New York City
A memorial service was held for beloved Irish writer Frank McCourt in Manhattan
A memorial service was held for beloved Irish writer Frank McCourt in Manhattan

An unmistakably Irish memorial service was held in upper Manhattan on Tuesday night when the life and work of the incomparable Frank McCourt, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Irish-American writer, was commemorated in story and song.

McCourt, who passed away July 19 at age 78, was remembered at a spirited gathering at Symphony Space, where the author himself had passed many memorable evenings performing passages from James Joyce’s “Ulysses” each year at “Bloomsday on Broadway.”

McCourt, who taught in New York City’s school system for nearly 30 years, is best known for his unforgettable memoir “Angela’s Ashes,” his late in life masterpiece about growing up in poor and near destitute Limerick.

“When an Irishman’s book is favorably reviewed in The New York Times they usually say it is charming and lyrical,” McCourt’s younger brother Alphie told the audience. “Well, Frank give a good kick in the arse to charming and lyrical.”

Alphie McCourt added that neither he nor surviving brothers Malachy and Michael were there to ostentatiously mourn or celebrate their brother’s life. “Frank did a pretty good job of it himself,” Alphie said. “There’s lots I could say but it might just give way to an ocean of tears.”

Malachy McCourt, 76, the brother closest to Frank’s own age, recalled how he had warned his older brother to tell the truth and spare nothing during the writing of “Angela’s Ashes.” “There will be no spine in your book unless you tell the truth,” Malachy counseled, adding that its unexpected success had changed his life too. “I’m writing a new work now. It’s called, ‘I Read Your Brothers Book.’”

Malachy also remembered his mother Angela’s response to the two brothers’ first creative attempts to tell the story of their family and the hardships they’d endured. When she watched the brothers performing in the two-man show they wrote called “A Couple Of Blackguards” she stood up and shouted at them in the theatre.

“It’s all a pack of lies!” she told the audience, “It wasn’t that way at all!” When Frank and Malachy invited her up to the stage to give her version she declined, saying, “I will not. I have a reputation to uphold.”

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Frank McCourt remembered in story and song at NYC Irish memorial | Entertainment in Ireland and Around the World | IrishCentral


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