I've heard a lot from Irish in NYC about the McCourts aside from anything Harris said, so maybe there is something in it.
Anyway, Angela's Ashes is supposed to be a Memoir....in other words, as Frank "remembers it". Heh. One tale told is that he was in hock to the mob and had to get something on the bookshelves quick.
Anyway, here is a snippet from one of Richard Harris' interviews on McCourt.
"I was in discussion about Limerick to Malachy when
Frank raised his fist and hit me a terrible belt on the
nose. Like a hare running from a hound he raced
towards the exit door and ran out of the pub.," claimed
Richard Harris.
"I have never yet been confronted by a Limerickman
who ran way from a fight. We don't do that in Limerick
we stand our ground and we fight. To run from a fight
is not part of the Limerick character at all," said the
Limerick actor.
Speaking from the New York, this Thursday, Frank
McCourt strongly denied claims by Harris that he and
his brother Malachy in fact lost his mothers ashes
when bringing them to Ireland.
"That is not true. We brought the ashes and spread
them in Mungret graveyard," said Frank McCourt.
He said that along with friends and family members
they spread her ashes on the historic cemetery near
Mungret village.
He was annoyed to hear of other comments made by
the Limerick actor in an interview with Gerry Hannan on
RLO radio.
Richard Harris claimed in the radio interview that Frank
and Malachy McCourt refused to pay the extra coffin
charge when bringing their mother back to Limerick.
He alleged: "They decided to cremate their mother and
bring her ashes back in their overnight bags.
"Now I know Angela was a very devout Catholic and
she would not have wanted to be cremated. Being
cremated was something that she couldn't
countenance at all and she wanted to be buried,"
claimed Harris.
He also alleged that the McCourts lost their mothers
ashes and it was a "commonly held opinion amongst
the Irish in New York that Angela's Ashes, are in fact,
buried away in some far distant remote lost property
corner of Kennedy Airport in New York."
limerick.com
As I recall, Harris later said he was joking about the ashes being in the lost and found at JFK, but it makes for a better story than the book. |
