When I look back on my childhood, I wonder how my brothers and I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood. The happy childhood is hardly worth telling. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood. And worse still is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood (Angela’s Ashes, 1996)
An Irish-American teacher and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, best known as the author of Angela’s Ashes, an award-winning, tragicomic memoir of the misery and squalor of his childhood.
Born in Brooklyn, Frank McCourt lived in New York with his parents and four younger siblings who all returned to Limerick in 1934, where they sank even deeper into poverty . McCourt’s father was often without work, and drank whatever little money he did earn eventually abandoning the family. Frank’s school education ended at age 14 and scraped a living until he emigrated to New York . Using his GI Bill from the US Army, Frank talked his way into NYU graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in English and spending many tears teaching in New York schools. He received the Pulitzer Prize in 1997 for his memoir Angela’s Ashes, which details his impoverished childhood. The Frank McCourt Museum was officially opened by in 2011 in Limerick.
Retrace McCourt’s steps in Limerick and stay at nearby hotels The Savoy, Adare Manor and Dunraven Arms Hotel.
