Malachy McCourt

Personal life

McCourt was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Irish parents Angela (Sheehan) and Malachy McCourt. He is the last surviving child from among seven McCourt siblings, following the death of his younger brother Alphie in 2016. McCourt was raised in Limerick, Ireland and returned to the United States in 1952. He has four children: Siobhan, Malachy III, Conor, and Cormac, the latter two by his second wife Diana. He also has a stepdaughter, Nina. He was portrayed by Peter Halpin in the film version of his brother's memoir Angela's Ashes. He is also one of the four founding members of the Manhattan Rugby Football Club in 1960. Malachy also appears in Frank McCourt's novel 'Tis.

Film, stage, television, radio and music career

He has acted on stage, on television and in several movies, including The Molly Maguires (1970), The Brink's Job (1978), Q (1982), Brewster's Millions (1985) and The January Man (1989). He had appeared on three New York City-based soap operas: Ryan's Hope, Search for Tomorrow, and One Life to Live. He is also known for his annual Christmas-time appearances on All My Children as Father Clarence, a priest who shows up to give inspirational advice to Pine Valley citizens.

In the 1970s he hosted a talk show on WMCA.

In 1970, McCourt released an album, And the Children Toll the Passing of the Day.

In recent years he has occasionally appeared on various programs on New York City's political radio station, WBAI. Among the shows on which he has appeared has been Radio Free Éireann. He is also a regular guest artist at the Scranton Public Theatre in Pennsylvania, having performed in Inherit the Wind, Love Letters and A Couple of Blaguards which he co-wrote with brother Frank McCourt. Currently, Malachy has been hosting a call-in radio forum on WBAI, airing on Sunday mornings at 11 a.m. He also had a short-lived role as a Catholic priest on the critically acclaimed HBO prison drama Oz. He gained fame in New York as the owner of Malachy's, a bar on Third Avenue that became a legend in its time, where celebrities and others gathered nightly in an atmosphere of unmatched conviviality. One of his frequent patrons was actor and friend Richard Harris who although famous took some downtime to bartend for McCourt. McCourt played Francis Preston Blair in Gods and Generals (2003).

Writing

McCourt also wrote two memoirs titled, respectively, A Monk Swimming and Singing My Him Song, detailing his life in Ireland and later return to the United States where, despite limited education, he operated a successful Manhattan tavern frequented by entertainment celebrities. He also authored a book on the history of the much loved Irish ballad Danny Boy. He also put together a collection of Irish writings, called 'Voices of Ireland'.

Politics

On Tuesday, 18 April 2006, McCourt announced that he would seek to become governor of New York in the November 2006 election as a Green Party candidate. Running under the slogan "Don't waste your vote, give it to me", McCourt promised to recall the New York National Guard from Iraq, to make public education free through college, and to institute a statewide comprehensive "sickness care" system. McCourt polled at 5% in a 10 October Zogby poll, versus 25% for Republican John Faso and 63% for Democrat Eliot Spitzer. McCourt was endorsed by Cindy Sheehan, mother of a fallen soldier in the Iraq War. The League of Women Voters excluded him from the gubernatorial debate. He came in a distant third in the general election, received 40,729 votes (or just under 1%), 9,271 votes short of what was required to gain automatic access in the 2010 election.

McCourt in the news