May 12. 2024
It's Mothers' Day. Facebook is full of tributes and photos. This melds with the news that Malachy McCourt, author, saloon keeper, raconteur, an actor and fine Blaguard all and all has died.
His brother, Frank McCourt, won attention with his book "Angela's Ashes" .. and I learned that Angela was a Sheehan.
I once called Malachy and asked if he thought we might be cousins.. He laughed.. "Ah. there's a million Sheehans in Limerick!" So. Malachy has died at 92 and a celebration of his life will come up in New York soon. His son, Conor, sent me an invitation..
All of this turns on watching some interviews with Malachy and Frank talking about their play, A Couple of Blaguards..and how their years of poverty and the oppression of the church and .. poverty! churned them up to be inspirations and examples of what the Irish have to offer.
Malachy said, in one interview, that the Irish mourn weddings and celebrate death! As we all tumble down the road to oblivion, this made me smile as I anticipate an Irish take on British wealth by GB Shaw in his play "Misalliance." It's a romp and the 'nobility' is skewered right along with the great wit that I'd heard about with Shaw, but had not really examined. This is a sort of footnote to my review of the play and hopefully.. I'll see it next Saturday, May 18th.. an auspicious day.. and if the production at A Noise Within is up to the writing, it'll be a lot of fun.
In an interview with Charlie Rose, Malachy and brother Frank, chat about A Couple of Blaguards and this makes me wish I'd seen them do it. Malachy says that one great goal in his life was to make Frank laugh. After reading Angela's Ashes, it was good to hear that Frank could laugh.. and according to Malachy, uncontrollably! What joy.
Malachy went on with the list of Irish writers who are beloved and 'important' in world literature.. W.B. Yeats is a fave of mine.. and the rambles of Jame Joyce's Ulysses, especially.. Yes..
So.. Shaw is on the docket. The beauty of the English language forced upon the Irish who have taken it to special heights ..maybe kicking and screaming.. but certainly with a lilt and joy that few others in English have risen to.
Malachy died a while back. We probably were not cousins.. except in some odd Irish way that he had from birth and I from those Sheehan immigrants so lojng ago.
Long live language. Slante!
