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| | Based on the autobiography by Frank McCourt, this drama tells the story of Frank's life as a child growing up in Limerick in the 1930s.
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Here's what our members thought of this title. 5 stars = very good, 1 star = poor.
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In 1935, when it was more common for Irish families to leave their
famine-stricken country for America, the impoverished McCourt family do the
reverse. Following the sudden death of her 7-week-old daughter, Angela and her
unemployable, alcoholic husband, Malachy Sr. set sail from New York Harbour to
Cork with their 4 children- Frank, Malachy Jr. and twins Eugene and Oliver.
A cold greeting awaits them in Limerick by Angela's Catholic family. Her
mother, sister and brother have never accepted Angela's marriage to a
Protestant from Belfast. Grandma lends them some money for a small place and
any hope of their luck changing soon disappears with Dad not being able to find
employment and Oliver dying from malnourishment and the damp. Within months,
Eugene dies from the same conditions, and Dad's spirits sink lower and lower -
he not only drowns his sorrows in a pint of stout he cannot afford but
shamelessly uses his son's coffin as a table in the pub.
Angela pleads with the charitable St. Vincent de Paul Society to provide them
with furniture and a new mattress, as she is cross-questioned about her
husband's job prospects, Frank looks on at her enduring such humiliation to
protect and care for her family.
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A move to Roden Lane raises
hopes of living in a better place, but as always, they are soon dashed. The
lavatory for the entire street is outside their front door, and the ground
floor, nicknamed "Ireland," is so wet the family can only live on the
top floor, nicknamed "Italy," for most of the year.
Frank and Malachy attend Leamy's National School and are subjected to teasing
by the other boys. Frank is introduced to the leather strap on his first day
following a playground fight, and they are both taunted further for wearing
shoes badly repaired by Dad with a bicycle tire. Dad eventually gets a job at
the Limerick Cement Factory. It lasts one day as he wastes his pay at the pub,
comes home drunk and oversleeps the next day.
With the arrival of another boy, Alphie, comes five pounds from Dad's family.
Dad wastes no time in making a trip to the pub with the money. A stint in the
hospital with typhoid brings Frank some unexpected new pleasures. Hot baths, a
bed without fleas, his own lavatory and reading, particularly Shakespeare.
Fresh optimism comes along with Dad getting a job in England. Angela and her
family are left on their own with the promise of a weekly telegram with a
postal order. Nothing arrives and Angela is forced to beg for food, Frank is
now old enough to seek work, but his first job as a coal-boy is short-lived as
he gets conjunctivitis from the coal dust. Christmas
comes with promise of Dad's return. Consistent in his unreliability, Dad turns
up a day later than expected, empty-handed and bruised from a brawl. The family
makes do with a sheep's head for their Christmas dinner, and Dad departs the
following day, this time forever.
Telegrams arrive sporadically, but not enough to stop Angela having to beg.
Frank begins to focus on America for his better future but things take a
further downward turn when the McCourts are evicted, Grandma dies and the
family has to move in with their abusive cousin, Laman Griffin, who uses them
all as slaves and expects sexual favors from Angela. Frank's schooldays end and
he can take no more of Laman's behavior, fearful he will kill him if he stays
he moves in with Uncle Pat.
Frank gets a job as a telegram boy and proudly goes to work in clothes kindly
bought for him by Aunt Aggie. His new job leads him to the home of Theresa
Carmody, a beautiful girl and he falls in love. Sadly, Theresa dies and Frank
is wracked with guilt, convinced that her death is a punishment from God for
their sexual acts. A stroke
of luck leads Frank to Mrs. Finucane, the local moneylender. She gives him
extra money to write threatening letters to her debtors and one day, he arrives
at her home to find her dead and does not hesitate in taking enough money for
his passage to New York and the ledger containing the records of her debtors,
which he throws into the river.
When he returns from the pub one night in a drunken state and hits his mother,
he is frightened that he could end up like his father and knows that if he
stays in Ireland this may happen...
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