Limerick Leader January 22nd 2000

PULITZER prize winner Frank McCourt admitted this week that he struck fellow Limerickman Richard Harris in a New York pub.

"He provoked me. But we reconciled a long time ago. What is he bringing it all up for now," he asked this week during an interview with the Limerick Leader.

However, there seems to be little by-gones from Richard Harris this week when he made an extraordinary attack on Frank McCourt.

Harris told how he was with Frank and Malachy McCourt and discussing Limerick in a pub called "Himself" in New York when the incident happened.

He claimed that Frank McCourt was derogative and derisive in his attitude and remarks about Limerick.

"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."

Frank McCourt strongly denied this story saying that there was no question but that they honoured their mothers wishes and had her ashes brought back to her native Limerick.

"My relationship with Limerick, expect for a few cranks is very warm," he added.

"I always want to go to Limerick and to visit Souths and meet Dave Hickey and the lads and I hope to get their soon to hang out there," he added.

He denied insinuations from Harris that he was not committed to Limerick and expressed his delight that up to one thousand turned up at O'Mahony's for his book launch of 'Tis.

"I don't know if you read the piece in the Irish Times about the economic benefits to Limerick as a result of the book," he said in reference to the tourism boost his novel has brought about in the city.

He also revealed: "Although I have not been bragging about it - that I have helped initiate a new scholarship at the University of Limerick to help students from less well off areas take third level education."

The scholarship will not be the McCourt scholarship but instead be called after the great Irish musician Paddy Clancy.