Even on deathbed, Limerick never far from Frank’s mind

EVEN on his deathbed, Limerick was never far away from the thoughts of Frank McCourt.

According to his brother Malachy, who had recently spent many weeks by his brother’s bedside, Frank still had some “unfinished emotional business with Limerick”. “He was in good spirits despite his medical condition. He was quite funny at times and you could see his eyes lighting up when he said something whimsical,” his 77-year-old brother said.

“He mentioned Limerick in recent days and said he would have liked to have spent more time there as he had some unfinished emotional business with Limerick. He was joking that he would have liked to annoy a few people.”

Malachy said doctors felt Frank, who was due to turn 79 this year, could have lived another year or two with his melanoma, if he had not succumbed to meningitis.

“We would have had more time with him. Of all people he didn’t deserve that,” he added.

The Pulitzer Prize winning author paid his last visit to Limerick last August when he accompanied a group of friends from New York on the Angela’s Ashes tour with Mike O’Donnell.

Mike said: “It was the first time Frank came out with me and he remarked how it was a pity that the Franciscan and Jesuit churches had closed.”

During that visit, Frank McCourt spoke about his feelings on mortality.

He said in one interview: “I wouldn’t like to be incapacitated or handicapped or die of a slow disease. 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. If you live past 65 you’re responsible to the rest of humanity to pass on your insights, that’s why you’re allowed to live a little longer. So if I’m here, there’s a reason I’m here.”

Mr O’Donnell, who has taken thousands of visitors on the Angela’s Ashes tour walk, paid tribute to the author.

“Frank has done so much for Limerick. People who accompany me on the walk often carry the book with them. I have brought people from all parts of the world on the walk and they are really delighted to be able to see places and buildings which appear in the book. We always drop off at South’s pub for a coffee or a drink as it was there Frank took his first drink with his alcoholic father. Many members of the diplomatic corps in Dublin have come on the walk. We have had lots of ambassadors. I don’t think the city has done enough to honour him, to be honest, and it would be very fitting if a bronze statue was erected of Frank McCourt in Bedford Row alongside the Richard Harris statue. It would enable Limerick show visitors how proud we are of our famous sons,” Mr O’Donnell said.

David Hickey of Souths bar became a personal friend of the author and his wife Ellen over the years.

“Frank and Ellen always called in when they were in Limerick. He loved meeting the locals, some of whom he knew from his childhood as he only lived up the street. We got some very nice photographs of him behind the bar pulling pints. He loved that. Frank was an unassuming man,” Mr Hickey said.