WHAT is it with Frank McCourt? He is still making millions out of Limerick and he has hardly a good word to say about the city of his youth. It is not entirely surprising, therefore, if even liberal people in Limerick are now beginning to turn against him.
So what? His first book, Angela's Ashes, has been a phenomenal success, artistically as well as financially. His second, 'Tis, has already boosted his bank balance considerably. And now the film of Angela's Ashes is about to be released.
Yet anyone watching Frank on The South Bank Show--the star of which was not the brilliant Melvyn Bragg but the bould Gerard Hannan of Radio Limerick One--could be forgiven for thinking that, though one of life's victors, he is one of it victims too. He may well have libelled Old Limerick--just as his film director Alan Parker libelled New Limerick in Sunday's programme--but there can be no doubt that, due to his father's alcoholism and lesser factors, McCourt had a miserable childhood.
To his credit, he survived but he must have suffered psychological wounds. Nor was his manhood in America always a healing process. Two marriages broke down and there were tensions between him and his mother and brothers.
He again experienced social exclusion. And for all his money and fame he remains in a sense an outsider: an Irishman in America and an American in Ireland. Limerick is no exception.
Limerick, despite its reputation for clannishness, has to be one of the most welcoming cities in the world, although to listen to McCourt you would never guess. But Limerick, with the exception of a certain elite, has not welcomed him back to its bosom. That, in view of his continuing bitterness, is not unnatural.
Yet is his failure to understand Limerick then or now sufficient reason to cold-shoulder him? If Limerick is to remain true to its wonderful tradition of loyalty to its own, native and blow-in alike, it will try to understand him. Whatever the cause, he is one of her wounded sons, and he is still hurting.
Come home soon, Frank. All is forgiven.
