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McCourt NY memorial Oct. 6

February 17, 2011

By Staff Reporter

The event, a celebration of the life of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author will be held at Symphony Space on Manhattan’s Upper West Side,” according to his brother, Malachy.
McCourt said that the reaction and response to his brother’s passing had amounted to an “avalanche, an outpouring, a tidal wave.”
He said that authors Peter Quinn and Colum McCann were expected to preside at the Symphony space gathering.
As for the matter of a scattering of his brother’s ashes on the River Shannon, McCourt indicated that no final decision had been made.
He said that the city of Limerick was keen on erecting a statue to his brother but that idea would not have rested well with him.
“Frank didn’t like pigeons,” McCourt, who is himself recovering from a broken leg, told the Echo.
He said that his brother would also not want a statue of himself anywhere near the statue commemorating another famous son of Limerick, actor Richard Harris.
“They didn’t get on. Frank once busted Harris’ nose even though Harris was twice his size,” he said.
Malachy said that his brother’s ashes would mostly rest near his home in Roxbury, Connecticut where the family had a plot.
There was a possibility that some might be donated to the University of Limerick and/or Leamy’s National school in the city which features heavily in “Angela’s Ashes,” the book that catapulted Frank McCourt to worldwide fame.
“Most of all, and rather than a statue, Frank wanted a scholarship program to be set for poor kids,” said Malachy.
Any such scholarship program would most likely be offered by the University of Limerick.

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