Malachy McCourt, who "fled a melancholic childhood in Ireland for America, where he applied his blarney and brogue to become something of a professional Irishman as a thespian, a barkeep and a best-selling memoirist," died March 11 at age 92, the New York Times reported. He embarked from Ireland with a ticket paid for with $200 in savings sent by his older brother, Frank McCourt, who had emigrated earlier and was working as a public school English teacher, and later became an author whose books included the Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiography Angela's Ashes (1996).
Malachy McCourt left school in Limerick when he was 13, two years after his father deserted the family, leaving his mother, Angela, to raise the four of their surviving seven children. "Coming out of that life, the things that get you are the two evils of shame on one shoulder, the demon fear on the other," he told the Times in 1998. "Shame says you came from nothing, you're nobody, they'll find you out for what you and your mother have done. Fear says what's the use of bothering, drink as much as you can, dull the pain. As a result, shame takes care of the past, fear takes care of the future and there's no living in the present."
McCourt appeared regularly on TV soap operas--notably Ryan's Hope, on which he had a recurring role as a bartender--and played bit parts in several films. In the 1950s, he opened what was considered Manhattan's original singles bar: Malachy's, on the Upper East Side, the Times noted.
His bestselling book, A Monk Swimming (1998), and Singing My Him Song (2000) evoked comparisons with his brother's widely lauded autobiography. "I was blamed for not being my brother," he said. "I now pledge to all those naysayers that someday I will write Angela's Ashes and change my name to Frank McCourt."
He was 11 when he first bellied up to a bar with another preadolescent (who became a priest) and ordered a cider and porter (after which "we were fluthered"), topped off with whiskey. "The taste of alcohol allowed me to be clever, charming and to behave outrageously," he wrote. "Acting also allowed me not to be me."
Among his many exploits, McCourt smuggled gold bars from Switzerland to India; auditioned cold for an Off Broadway production, which led to his first stage role, in The Tinker's Wedding; was cast in Reversal of Fortune, Bonfire of the Vanities and other movies; played Henry VIII in commercials for Imperial margarine and Reese's peanut butter cups; and worked as a radio and television host ("I couldn't wait to hear what I had to say next").
As for immortalizing the past, he advised fellow memoirists: "Write that which shames you the most, and never judge your own material; you will always find it guilty.... Never show anything to your relatives."
