{"id":10414,"date":"2019-10-18T11:36:36","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T15:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=10414"},"modified":"2019-10-21T11:43:25","modified_gmt":"2019-10-21T15:43:25","slug":"actor-author-and-character-malachy-mccourts-presence-in-new-yorks-irish-community-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=10414","title":{"rendered":"Actor\/Author and Character Malachy McCourt\u2019s Presence in New York\u2019s Irish Community and Beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Malachy McCourt and Michele Remsen attend \u201cToss It\u201d launch party at Punch Bar & Grill in Manhattan<\/figcaption><\/figure>By Brad Balfour<\/em><\/p>\n

Whether he’s sitting in his little scooter or using a well-worn walker, 89-year-old Malachy McCourt has a ubiquitous presence on the streets of Manhattan and in many a restaurant, event or on the occasion to celebrate being Irish. He\u2019s been seen doing a reading at an annual Bloomsday celebrating; chatting at some cocktail reception or on the red-carpet doing a step-and-repeat for a new indie film he\u2019s in.<\/p>\n

In the grand old building where he shares a spacious apartment with his wife and various family, this upper Westside resident welcomes visitors into his well stocked sitting room\/library. Surrounded by thousands of books and papers, Malachy holds court (so to speak) and waxes eloquent about many issues political, social, and familial. Even though it looks like he\u2019s the best read man in the world, he acknowledged his lack of formal education. \u201cI\u2019m always thinking in one way or another, the words, and how sometimes I regret not having the formal education. I left school [in Ireland] when I was 13 and I was so bloody stupid. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy last job there was when I was a house boy for the Jesuits. I used to polish their shoes and make their beds and polish the floor and all that. But they had a lovely library so I was able to look at that. I was very lucky. I found a History of India when I was six, and was a really thick book and I plowed through that. Took me about a year \u2018cause that\u2019s how I learned to read.\u201d<\/p>\n

That lack might have provided sufficient motivation for him to prove his skills otherwise, since McCourt has written numerous books drawing on his life and love for being Irish. Though the McCourt name got a bump thanks to late older brother Frank\u2019 success with his family memoir \u201cAngela\u2019s Ashes,\u201d Malachy has got quite a bibliography of his own. He\u2019s done several tomes on Ireland such as \u201cVoices of Ireland: Classic Writings of a Rich and Rare Land,\u201d \u201cDanny Boy: The Legend of the Beloved Irish Ballad,\u201d and \u201cThe Claddagh Ring: Ireland’s Cherished Symbol Of Friendship;\u201d and then there his own memoirs. \u201cA Monk Swimming\u201d and \u201cSinging My Him Song\u201d details his life in Ireland and later return to the United States where he launched a successful Manhattan tavern frequented by many celebrities. <\/p>\n

He addressed his sibling\u2019s success \u2014 which brought further fame to the family name by spilling its secrets. \u201cBefore Frank published \u2018Angela\u2019s Ashes,\u2019 he was always known as Malachy\u2019s older brother given my long history in the entertainment world but once his book became a bestseller [selling beyond 10 million copies] and he won the Pulitzer Prize I was his younger brother \u2014 which was fine with me [he laughs].\u201d<\/p>\n

The last surviving McCourt, who all famously hailed from Limerick, Malachy\u2019s been best known recently as Frank\u2019s flame keeper (who died in 2009). Of course, he gets a sizable mention as the ebullient kid brother in the bestseller. Yet for a great many years, Malachy was the sociable and gregarious alternative to taciturn Frank\u2019s more gloomy aura. Said Malachy, \u201cFrank was one year, one month and one day older than me. Extremely bright and intelligent, he was a smallish kind of fellow. And he looked like a Protestant \u2014with brown eyes and black hair. We often called him Cranky Frankie. He had a fierce temper. Even adults were terrified of him. He\u2019d rise up in a second and had the gift of language, so he could reduce you with 10 words to nothing. But he had a gloomy outlook. We were going on holidays and Angela [the mother] was here. We were renting a big house and Frank was having difficulties with his first wife \u2014 the one I called \u2018The War Department\u2019 \u2014 and Frank was very, \u2018I will come, no I won\u2019t come\u2019. The mother said, \u2018Frank wouldn\u2019t be happy unless he was miserable.\u2019 In fact, that wife long kept Frank from being the great writer that he turned out to be. Once she was gone he was able to get his work done.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was after Frank for years saying \u2018you better write that book!\u2019 and he was teaching and talking in school and so forth, but the War Department would put him down and say, \u2018Who would be interested in your shitty story about your pauper war life in your small town in Ireland and all that? Who\u2019d give a shit about that?\u2019 But finally he got it down.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Malachy revealed, Frank\u2019s success was just about begin. \u201cHe thought he was going to get a few thousand-dollar advance, but when major publishers came calling the book received a sizable advance and his new career as author was on its way.\u201d
\nYet, it\u2019s no wonder that Malachy had status as the other famous McCourt for a long time. As an actor, he\u2019s been on stage, television and in numerous films including: 1970\u2019s The Molly Maguires, \u201978\u2019s \u201cThe Brink’s Job,\u201d 1982\u2019s \u201cQ,\u201d \u201985\u2019s \u201cBrewster’s Millions,\u201d The January Man (1989), 2002\u2019s \u201cBeyond the Pale\u201d and \u201cAsh Wednesday.\u201d And in 2003, McCourt played Francis Preston Blair in \u201cGods and Generals\u201d . Recently he was found at the September premiere of \u201cToss It\u201d \u2014 his most recent cinematic adventure \u2014 an indie-released anti-romantic rom-com. but that\u2019s typical of McCourt. Born in Brooklyn, raised in Ireland, he eventually returned to the States in 1952 at 21 and immersed himself in New York and nightlife of the time. He gained initial fame as the owner of Malachy’s, his Third Avenue bar that became a legend in its day, where celebrities and others gathered nightly in its convivial atmosphere. The late actor Richard Harris was a frequent patrons who, though famous, took time to bartend for McCourt. But as things are won\u2019t to go in NYC, McCourt and Harris had some issues and his erstwhile partners eventually pushed him out of his namesake hotpot and the business.<\/p>\n

As for TV, he has appeared in three NYC-based soap operas: \u201cRyan’s Hope,\u201d \u201cSearch for Tomorrow,\u201dand \u201cOne Life to Live.\u201d He also made Christmas-time appearances on \u201cAll My Children\u201d as Father Clarence, who gave inspirational advice to Pine Valley residents. Through a short-lived role as a Catholic priest in \u201cOz,\u201d HBO\u2019s prison drama added to his supposed religious status. As you know, I\u2019m politically to the left of Karl Marx, and an atheist. Thank God! This offended the Irish, they used to say, \u2018You\u2019re a disgrace to the Irish and Holy Mother Church and Holy Mother Ireland.\u2019 So that\u2019s what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Describing himself this way he added, \u201cI hear people talk about going to heaven. Why would you want to go there? To sit at the right hand of God, looking into his earlobe for eternity? I wouldn\u2019t want to be with him. I\u2019m with Dorothy Parker, \u2018heaven for the comfort, hell for the company\u2019.<\/p>\n

McCourt also built quite a reputation in left-of-center politics. In April 2006, McCourt announced he would seek the New York State governorship in the November election as a Green Party candidate. Running under the slogan, “Don’t waste your vote, give it to me,\u201d McCourt promised to recall the state National Guard from Iraq, make public education free through college, and to institute a statewide “sickness care” system. Though endorsed by Cindy Sheehan, mother of a fallen Iraq War soldier, The League of Women Voters excluded him from the gubernatorial debate. He came in a distant third in the general election, receiving 40,729 votes (or just under 1%), 9,271 votes short of what was required to gain automatic access in the 2010 election. \u201cThat was the Green Party and they asked me if I would run for Governor and I said, \u201cFine!\u2019 I had no idea that I was going to be, I said, \u2018What does a Governor do? You\u2019ll have to tell me.\u2019 So, I got more than 40,000 people voting for me. Up in Syracuse, the reporter there asked \u2018What will you do when you\u2019re first elected?\u2019 And I said \u2018Well, I will do away with that name Empire State, because I don\u2019t want to be Emperor, I want to be Governor.\u2019 I just decided to have a lot of fun. The Green Party requires you to have 50,000 votes to stay on the ballot so I didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

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Malachy McCourt with Paddy McCarthy, Publisher of the Irish\u2008Examiner USA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\u201cWhat I find distasteful is the number if Irish Americans around Trump. It is amazing to me that you Kelly, Flynn, Ryan, McConnell and Spence, there\u2019s a whole lot of them! And then you have Father Coughlin [in the past], who was a fucking Nazi! How could they? There were two regiments in the British Army when the Revolution came, and they were the Roman Catholic Regiment and The Volunteers of Ireland who opposed Washington. These facts of history are not known to all Irish people. The writer George Russell said, \u2018You eventually become the thing you hate the most.\u2019 And that\u2019s it, why so many of ours become traitors to our own independence of thought and philosophy and of people who are just subjugated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malachy\u2019s myriad successes have the feel of a man determined to leave behind the poverty of his formative years. Especially with the acting thing. \u201cWhen I was a kid, there was a group in Limerick called The College Players, an amateur group. Being from the slums and all, I thought, \u2018Jesus it would be lovely to join them!\u2019 but they were aupper class and very British. In Limerick, there were many people like that, with the fucking snobbery. I was about 12 or 13. I asked who was in charge of The Cottage Players and solicitor sent me down. So, I went down to his office, and was still in short pants, snotty nose, scabby knees, scabby eyes and a haircut that looked like it\u2019d been done with a knife and fork! You know, all the appointees of poverty. Finally, I went in and he\u2019s sitting there looking at me with such distaste and I said, \u2018I\u2019d like to join The College Players Sir.\u2019 \u2018You would? For what?\u2019 he said. I said, \u2018To be an actor sir.\u2019 \u2018And what makes you think you could be an actor?\u2019 \u2018Because I\u2019d like to be sir.\u2019 \u2018Well, if ever we need anybody of your type, we\u2019ll send for you.\u2019 So, I left. And I didn\u2019t make I there in Limerick. <\/p>\n

\u201cThen I come to New York, I\u2019m working in the service for a while, working on the docks, unloading cargo and so on. I\u2019m making a nice bit of money, almost $2.75 an hour which was good stuff at the time. I\u2019d just go to theater by myself, because Broadway was only $7 or $8. I went to see a group called the Irish Flairs, and again got this urge. So, I asked someone, \u2018Excuse me can I speak to the boss?\u2019 I don\u2019t remember his name but he said, \u2018Well I\u2019m the producer what can I do for you?\u2019 \u2018I\u2019d like to join your group,\u2019 \u2018Oh, you would? Do you have any experience?\u2019 I said \u2018No, but I don\u2019t need it I\u2019m Irish.\u2019 \u2018Will you read for us?\u2019 \u2018I will.\u2019 So, following Sunday after a few bloody Mary\u2019s I went and read. Someone was leaving the cast, a fella my age, and they put me in. And that was the beginning. Just like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1970, McCourt released an album, And the Children Toll the Passing of the Day and in the \u201870s, hosted a WMCA talk show. More recently, he appeared on various WBAI (the late lamented NYC\u2019s freeform radio station) programs such as Radio Free \u00c9ireann and had hosted a call-in radio forum on Sundays at 11am. He noted, \u201cI used to say, I can\u2019t wait to hear what I have to say next on the radio. So, the writing was very spontaneous. But Bob Dylan used to say was \u2018I don\u2019t write songs. I write them down.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s done his share of theater whether as a regular guest artist at the Scranton, Pennsylvania, Public Theatre \u2014 performing in \u201cInherit the Wind,\u201d and \u201cLove Letters\u201d or doing \u201cA Couple of Blaguards\u201d which he co-wrote with brother Frank and they performed it together for quite a while. <\/p>\n

His Limerick childhood has cast a long shadow on his life, for many reasons. Born of Angela (Sheehan) and Malachy McCourt in NYC, McCourt was raised there until his USA return in \u201952. As the last surviving child from among seven McCourts kids, following the death of his younger brother Alphonsus in 2016, he admits that much of the family\u2019s wit and poetic bent comes from mother Angela. \u201cWhen she was dying in a New York hospital [from emphysema], she turned to the doctor and said, \u2018We come from a long line of dead people\u2019 When we took turns to sit with her near the end, she popped her eyes open and said, \u2018What are you doing here?\u2019 I said, \u2018I thought you might die tonight\u2019. She then said, \u2018I might, I might not. That\u2019s my business\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malachy never fully reconciled with Malachy Sr, who lived out his final days in Belfast. \u201cI wrote him a letter once and outlined my grievances, rages and resentments, and finished it, \u2018with all of that said, I forgive you\u2019. I got a very short note back, \u2018Dear Malachy, thank you for your letter, I\u2019m trying to catch the last post. Your father.\u2019 Then he died. That was the last communication we had.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that, Malachy Jr. reflected, \u201cI love the Irish approach to death and I\u2019m always talking about death \u2014 it\u2019s a great subject. The thing is, humans have a 100 per cent mortality rate. I do wish the Government would do something about that. At my age now, I\u2019m in the departure lounge, and all the brothers and Mary Margaret [a sister, who died as an infant, as did brothers Eugene and Oliver] are gone. I look at life as being purely temporary. Live every day as if it\u2019s your last, and one day, you\u2019ll be right. I wake up in the morning and if I see the ceiling, I think \u2018this is terrific!\u2019 If a coffin lid is there in front of my nose, well f*** it, I\u2019m not going to bother.\u201d <\/p>\n

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