Irish author Frank McCourt has died in New York City at the age of 78.

He was best known for the million-selling 'Angela’s Ashes', a memoir about his childhood.

The memoir was published in 1996 and won a Pulitzer Prize.

His brother Malachy McCourt said Frank died on Sunday at a Manhattan hospice.

Frank McCourt had been gravely ill with meningitis and recently was treated for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.

Meanwhile Mayor of Limerick, Cllr Kevin Kiely, has said,"Frank McCourt,the author who put Limerick city on the map", should posthumously receive the Freedom of the City of Limerick.

It has also been proposed that a bronze statue of the famous author should be erected on Bedford Row - alongside the statue of the late actor Richard Harris, whom McCourt famously fought with in a New York bar.

The Mayor was speaking at the signing of a book of condolences in memory of the late Angela's Ashes author.

Mayor Kiely said it his one of his regrets that Frank McCourt and actor Richard Harris never received the Freedom of the City.

"It's unfortunate that we have to wait until some people pass away before they're recognised with the Freedom of the City," he said.

Mayor Kiely led the tributes in the book of condolences to the Pulitzer Prize winning author, which will remain open for a number of weeks at City Hall, Merchant's Quay.

Frank McCourt

A protocol meeting on the issue of granting the Freedom of the City is now expected to be held in early September after Mayor Kiely raised the issue this week with city manager Tom Mackey.

All city councillors will have to unanimously agree to grant the Freedom of the City on its only Pulitzer Prize winning author.

But Malachy McCourt has appealed to Limerick City Council not to erect a statue of his brother in the city.

Instead, Mr McCourt said his brother would have preferred that any money spent in his memory be directed towards a scholarship for a pupil from one of Limerick's disadvantaged estates. "It is a meaningless, expensive kind of thing," he said of the proposed statue or bust of his Pulitzer Prize winning brother.

"What he would have wanted would be a scholarship for a poor kid, named after him. It would mean something if you educated someone in the spirit of Frank McCourt.

But please, no statues," said Mr McCourt, who added that he discussed the matter with Frank's widow, Ellen.