Malachy McCourt
Irish Writer, Actor & Politician
Author of the Bestselling Memoir, A Monk Swimming
“Malachy is outrageous and comic....” —The New York Times
"Of the bad habits available, I missed very few." —Malachy McCourt
Malachy McCourt has long been admired as a teller of tall tales, salty jokes, and personal anecdotes of growing up poor in Limerick, Ireland. Among other things, he has been a longshoreman, an actor, a radio talk show host and a "professional Irishman" as one reviewer dubbed him. He became a bestselling author at age 66, when his memoir, A Monk Swimming—an account of his adventures as a young immigrant in the United States in the 1960s—spent six weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. People Magazine called it, "Irresistible…equal parts pathos and belly laughs." In his winning sequel, Singing By Him Song (2000), a surprisingly tender McCourt disarms the reader with his openness and dexterous touch. [PW] He is currently at work on his third memoir, I Never Drink When I'm Sober.
McCourt is also the editor of Voices of Ireland (2002), a collection of classic short works by Ireland's best writers of the last three centuries, from Jonathan Swift to Oscar Wilde to James Joyce. The book is a tribute to the writers whose works educated McCourt after he dropped out of school at age 13. "Reading was the savior," he told e-zine Literary Liaisons, "the window on the world for [my brother] Frank and myself." McCourt also authored Danny Boy (2002), a book on the history of the much loved Irish ballad, and The Claddagh Ring, a book on the popularity of the famous ring—particularly among those of Irish heritage—whose account he begins with the number of Claddagh rings that were recovered from Ground Zero after September 11, 2001. In Malachy McCourt's History of Ireland (2008) he breaks down Ireland's history into 16 sections and, through biographical vignettes, and uses famous Irish men and woman to define each epoch. From Brian Ború, the Irish king credited with expelling the Vikings and unifying Ireland, to the present with portraits of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and rock star Bono, McCourt retells Ireland's turbulent and eventful history.
Malachy has published articles in many periodicals including New York Newsday, National Geographic, Conscience Magazine and New York Times. His column, Sez I to Myself, appears in the Manhattan Spirit, The Westsider and Our Town in New York City (Read his latest article).
McCourt is also the co-author of a stage play, A Couple of Blaguards, which he co-wrote with his brother Frank in the 1980s. A precursor of later work by both McCourts, the play tells the tale of two Irish brothers, from their Limerick boyhoods to their American misadventures. Malachy has played himself in several productions of the play. As an actor, McCourt appeared in the films Reversal of Fortune (199), Bonfires of the Vanities (1990), and She's the One (1996). He currently plays Father Daniel Meehan on the HBO TV prison drama Oz.
In 2006 Malachy ran for Governor of New York as the Green Party’s candidate. His campaign themes included opposition to capital punishment, the war in Iraq, and tuition charges at public colleges. About the reason our politics seem so irredeemably grim McCourt said, “The inculcation of fear is the essence of American politics. Fear and the evil of your opponents — what awful, dreadful, less-than-human beings they are, until elected. Then they say, ‘We have to get behind them.’” On the issue of chewing gum, McCourt said, “I’m going to triple the tax on it. Chewing gum makes people look stupid, and they spit it out. It does terrible things to the sidewalk and the subway.”
He is happily married to Diana for almost four decades, has five grown children and is grandfather to four.
About A MONK SWIMMING (1998)
In 1952, traveling steerage, Malachy McCourt left a childhood of poverty in Limerick, Ireland, heading for the promise of America. This is the story of what he brought with him, and what he thought he left behind. Armed with savage humor and a gift for story-telling, fueled by rage and the desire never to go hungry again, he ran from memories of a drunken, vanished father and the humiliations of Angela, his mother. He arrived in New York, reminiscent of a Damon Runyon saga - a dark, glittering place, with saloons on every corner, and a new story waiting every night. Larger than life, a world-class drinker, McCourt carved out a place for himself: in the saloons, as the first celebrity bartender, mixing with socialites, writers and movie stars; on stage, performing the works of James Joyce and Brendan Behan; and on television, where the tales he spun made him a Tonight Show regular. He had money and women and, eventually, children of his own; and that’s when he found he had not left his memories as far behind as he had thought. From the notorious Tombs prison of New York City, to poolside arrests in Beverly Hills; in the company of gold-smuggling in Zurich and whores in Calcutta; from Paris, to Rome, and to Limerick once more, McCourt fled again, until he had no choice but to stop and turn and face his past.
About SINGING MY HIM SONG (2000)
A surprisingly tender McCourt disarms the reader with his openness and dexterous touch in this winning sequel to A Monk Swimming. Two constants undergird the book: McCourt's love for (and sometimes rocky relationship) with his second wife, Diana, and the lure of alcohol. " Of the bad habits available, I missed very few, " he admits. Variously a barkeep, raconteur, man about New York, actor, radio host and brother to the more famous Frank, the ever amusing Malachy limns his frequent problems with money, marriage and work. He casually reveals sexual molestation by priests in Limerick, Ireland; a son who was shot on a New York street; and bouts with prostate cancer and depression. When it comes to Diana's autistic daughter, Nina, who was sent to the now infamous Willowbrook State School for the Retarded on Staten Island, N.Y., McCourt passionately relates his involvement in a parent's group that helped uncover the unspeakable conditions there, generating publicity that influenced care of the mentally disabled throughout the country....When the author finally faced his alcohol addiction and formed a grudging relationship with God, he wrote to the father who abandoned his family. McCourt fans will be pleased that this record of a seesawing life stands on its own, and that the charming rogue has transformed into a satisfied, contemplative-and still charming-paterfamilias. —Publisher's Weekly
