The character of father in McCourt’s story “Angela’s Ashes” plays one of the main roles through the whole story. Even so that the poverty of the whole family was caused by Frank’s Dad alcoholism, Frank still loved his father and showed respect to him.
It’s well understood through the entire story that Malachy McCourt is irresponsible, heavily drinking man with no sense of duty for his family. It can be thought that the most of misfortunes that happened to the family were because of him. Even in the times of great depression it was somehow possible to find a job to support the family and be able to provide bearable life to his kids.
But in his case he was not able to do it either in Brooklyn or back in Ireland, in Limerick. Frank’s parents planned that back in Ireland it would be a better life, but it was a naive illusion.


Despite the terrible conditions of life caused by the irresponsibility and drinking habits of Frank’s Dad, Frank still loved him. He was Malachy, who stimulated Frank’s interest in storytelling, and may be because of his father, Frank began to write when a grown-up. Frank enjoyed when his father telling him stories and tales about old days of Ireland, its heroes, the neighborhoods in Limerick and its old days as well as stories that happened and somehow referred to himself. The words that Frank uses to describe his father at the beginning of the book give a clear explanation of his attitude to the dad:
“My father, Malachy McCourt was born on a farm in Toome, County Antrim. Like his father before, he grew up wild, in trouble with the English or the Irish, or both. He fought with the OLD IRA and for some desperate act he wound up a fugitive with a price on his head.
When I was a child I would look at my father, the thinning hair, the collapsing teeth and wonder why anyone would give money for a head like that. When I was thirteen my father’s mother told me a secret: as a wee lad your poor father was dropped on his head. It was an accident, he was never the same after, and you must remember that people dropped on their heads can be bit peculiar.”(p.12)
Frank understood that he father at some particular moment became the victim of circumstances. His free loving nature and to some extend his wild and hard-going character made him to escape from Ireland, even though that he fought in Irish Revolutionary Army for the independence of his motherland. But the whole situation in Ireland and the character of his father could not give the any kind of opportunities for a better life. As a result such disappointment in life and inability to find a place in life caused the heavy drinking of Frank’s Dad.
Frank really sympathized his Dad and he could not blame his father because he knew the sad story of his life. Another reason of why he didn’t complain on his father lies in the education he got, I mean his bringing up in Irish Catholic traditions, made a great influence on the forming of his personality. Irish traditions of the family and belief in the family are very strong and widely observed even nowadays, both in Ireland and in Irish Diaspora all the world round.
The example of Malachy McCourt, his father, made Frank to think about a lot of things, to realize that there are no easy ways in life and that a person has to struggle for happiness and never give up in order to achieve what he deserves.

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