FRANK McCOURT AND AMERICA MAGAZINE
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 22:06:14 +0100 (BST)
From: Rory Connor
Subject: Frank McCourt and "Angela's Ashes"
To: Jesuit “America Magazine”
CC: Letters Irish Voice
Editor
America Magazine
cc Tom Deignan
Irish Voice
Dear Father,
I sent you an e mail recently about your review of Mary Raftery's book "Suffer The Little Children". I pointed out that it contains libels comparable to those of the anti-Semite Julius Streicher against the Jews. These include blood libels i.e. false allegations of killing Christian children (Mary Raftery makes those allegations against the Christian Brothers). Your reviewer Tom Deignan, actually seems to be aware of the libels since he quotes the journalist Breda O'Brien who exposed them. Yet he went on to give a favourable review to the book!
Your reviewer also referred favourably to Frank McCourt's book "Angela's Ashes" which contains similar libels which are lifted directly from Streicher's ravings about the Jews. I am attaching the details in a separate e mail but in summary:
- McCourt's childhood classmate Willie Harold is depicted walking to his first confession while ``whispering about his big sin, that he looked at his sister's naked body.' Willie Harold (since deceased) was a real person and had no sister.
- Frank McCourt claims that he worked for a repulsive Catholic moneylender called Mrs. Brigid Finucane who had statues of the Blessed Virgin scattered among her extortionate book-keeping. There was no such person as Brigid Finucane. Nor was Frank McCourt trying to shield her identity by using a false name. There were no Catholic moneylenders in Limerick on whom she could have been based. There were only Jewish moneylenders - and McCourt knows he cannot get away with anti-Semitism!
- At the time he was supposed to be working for Brigid Finucane, Frank McCourt was actually working for Jackie Brosnan the owner of a radio and bicycle shop who is not mentioned in the book. Jackie Brosnan's lifetime friend was a man named Vincent Finucane.
- Frank McCourt claims that his mother had illicit sex with a cousin Gerald Laman Griffin when the family had to move into this man's house after being evicted from their previous home. (Sex was part of the deal presumably). We are told that Laman Griffin was a former pupil of Rockwell College - a famous Catholic secondary school run by the Holy Ghost Fathers. Gerald Laman Griffin never attended Rockwell College. It is most likely that the entire story is false. If there is any truth in it, the detail about Rockwell College was added to insult the Catholic Church. ***
- Why did Frank McCourt not do another "Mrs Finucane" with this story i.e.use a fictitious name? Presumably because this would make it clear that his book is fiction. He had no alternative but to invent the Mrs. Finucane character because there were no Catholic moneylenders. Gerald Griffin has no living relatives in Limerick which probably explains why his name was used. In the case of Willie Harold, McCourt just forgot that he had no sister.
If America Magazine praised books which demonise Protestants or Jews, this would be evil but at least it would be a "normal" type of evil. (People normally demonise their enemies). To praise lies published by anti-Catholic thugs is incredible. It reminds me of the career of the "Red Dean" of Canterbury Hewlett Johnson whose fervent denunciations of Bourgeois Democracy were matched only by the fervour of his devotion to Comrade Stalin. Johnson was too decadent to rise to the level of evil. He had no Catholic counterparts at that time. Are they beginning to make their appearance now?
There are plenty of people in Limerick who know that Frank McCourt is lying but they are bemused and sometimes discouraged by his international reputation. The same applies to Mary Raftery and her thuggish lies. Since "America" has done its bit to create those reputations, maybe you could now do something about questioning them. Staying silent is neither compassionate nor Christian. Silence now puts you on the side of the liars.
Regards
Rory Connor
*** Note 4/11/05. I recently saw an article by a local Limerick historian which said that the McCourt family never lived with Gerald Laman Griffin.