Frank McCourt

Frank McCourt is a memoir and biography author of Irish and American extraction best known for his “Frank McCourt Memoirs.” The author was born in Brooklyn, New York to an Irish immigrant father and Angel his mother from the south west Ireland slums of Limerick. Since his parents met during the depression, life was hard for the family and McCourt father’s alcoholism and tragic death did to help matters. The family moved to Ireland in 1934 and settled in Limerick as they hoped Angela’s family would help set them up. Finding Limerick was no different, McCourt’s father resorted to drinking and the family soon found themselves living on one of the worst rat infested and regularly flooded tenement on Roden Street. While his father sent a little money from England where he had gone to find paid work, the flow soon stopped and his father dropped out of their lives. The family is thus left in the care of the mother who had to combine charitable handouts, great ingenuity and a scrupulous economy to feed her children.