Author McCourt’s family maintain bedside vigil

AUTHOR Frank McCourt’s wife Ellen and other family members were maintaining a bedside vigil last night at a hospice where he is dying from cancer.

The Angela’s Ashes author had been in remission with a skin cancer melanoma, but recently contracted meningitis.

His actor brother, Malachy, said: “He’s not too good at the moment. He was doing fine but he got meningitis two weeks ago and it turned the whole thing topsy-turvy.”

Doctors have told the family Mr McCourt could die within days. He would turn 79 next month.

Malachy McCourt said doctors had told them his brother could have another year or two but for the meningitis.

He said: “Other than that we would have had more time with him. Of all people he didn’t deserve that.”

He said he had broken a leg recently and Mr McCourt had called to visit him a number of times.

The top New York literary journal The Southampton Review plans to dedicate its entire next edition on July 24 to Mr McCourt.

The State University of New York had also planned to honour Mr McCourt at a major gala on the same date.

Mr McCourt has been the main speaker each year at the university’s writers conference.

Over the past year, Mr McCourt had been receiving treatment for his cancer at the world-famous Memorial Sloan-Kettering hospital in New York, which specialises in cancer care.

He was due to return to Limerick last April to open an art school and gallery at the old Leamy’s school building in Har-stonge Street where he went to primary school.

In one interview some years ago, Mr McCourt said he would not like to die of a slow disease.

He said: “I don’t want to be beholden to anyone or have anyone wiping my mouth if I’m drooling. I’d just like to go. I don’t want funeral services or memorials. Let them scatter my ashes over the Shannon and pollute the river.”