Angela’s Ashes: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

The narrator, Frank McCourt, describes being born in New York to a large family. Frank’s parents moved back to their original home, Ireland, when Frank was four years old. Frank is the eldest of his siblings. He has a brother, Malachy Jr., who is one year younger than he is, and two twin brothers, Oliver and Eugene, who are three years younger. Frank also had a younger sister named Margaret McCourt, who died as a small child. Frank notes that his childhood was “miserable”—so miserable that he can’t imagine how he survived. The worst kind of childhood, he notes, is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.

Among all the horrors of an Irish Catholic childhood, Frank explains, “wetness” is the most common. In the city of Limerick, Ireland, there is a constant rain. The rain spreads diseases and gives people bad coughs. There is so much rain in Limerick that as a young boy Frank and his family would go to the church just to be dry.

Frank’s father is named Malachy McCourt (Malachy Sr.). He was born in Toome, and had a rough life, always getting in trouble. As a baby, he was dropped on his head—supposedly, this accident made him “a bit peculiar.” Malachy Sr. liked being in New York because, in spite of Prohibition (laws prohibiting any alcohol sale or consumption), there were speakeasies where he could drink. At the end of his life, Malachy moved to Belfast and gave up alcohol. He died in a hospital, unremarkably.

Frank’s mother, Angela Sheehan, grew up in Limerick, with a big family. She never knew her own father, who had left the family shortly before she was due to be born. Frank describes what Angela’s father might have been like, years ago. He would drink heavily, late into the night, and sing bawdy Irish songs. Once he was playing with his son, Patrick Sheehan, and dropped him on the floor, hurting him. Angela’s mother (Frank’s grandmother) was so furious that she yelled for her husband to get out of the house. He obliged, and left for Australia. As a result of being dropped on the ground, Patrick (Frank’s uncle) grew up feeble-minded.

Angela had a rough birth, and caused her mother great pain. Frank imagines how the scene would have unfolded: Angela’s mother screaming in pain, calling out the name of Saint Jude, the patron saint of the dying. Angela was born at the exact instant that it became the New Year: her head emerged in the old year, and her body came out in the new year.

As a young girl, Angela learned basic reading and arithmetic. As a young woman, she tried various careers, but failed in all of them: she couldn’t be a maid, for example, because she didn’t know how to curtsey properly. Her mother suggested that she go to America to find a career. Angela arrived in America just after the beginning of the Great Depression. She met Malachy Sr., her future husband, at a party. She was attracted to his “hangdog look.” Together, they had a “knee-trembler,” which Frank defines as a sexual encounter in which the man pushes the woman up against the wall.

Frank describes how his parents were married. Malachy Sr. was an unlikely candidate for marrying Angela, because his family wasn’t respectable at all—in fact, he’d just done three months in prison when he met Angela for the first time. He was also rumored to have Presbyterians in his family—a sure sign of wickedness, supposedly. But because Frank had had sex with Angela, Angela’s cousins, Delia Fortune and Philomena Flynn, insisted that they get married, so as not to disgrace Angela any further. Malachy didn’t want to get married. He could barely support himself, much less an entire family. Nevertheless, he had nowhere to run, and in March he married Angela. That August, Angela gave birth to a child named Male. (Malachy Sr. wanted to call the child Malachy, but couldn’t spell the word.) When “Male” was baptized, the priests gave it the name Francis, after Malachy Sr.’s own father. Thus, Frank got his name.

A year after Frank was born, Angela and Malachy Sr. had another child, Malachy Jr. Frank and Malachy grew up playing around Classon Avenue in Brooklyn. One day, Frank and Malachy were playing on a seesaw. When Frank jumped off the seesaw, Malachy fell to the ground and cut his mouth. Malachy went running to his mother, who yelled at Frank for hurting his own brother. Frank distinctly remembers this, because it was the first time he ever saw blood. Soon after, he noticed a dog that had been hit by a car: in this way, he learned that everything bleeds.

Growing up, Frank was an “odd child.” Even his mother told him that he was odd, just like his father. Malachy Jr., on the other hand, was a happy child, and always laughed at everything. Malachy Sr., an alcoholic, barely ate anything. Sometimes he would make money by sweeping out bars at the end of the day. He complained that his children were hungry all the time—Angela pointed out that they were starving.

When Malachy Sr. brought home money for the week, everything was good. Angela would go to buy groceries, and Malachy Sr. would entertain his children by telling elaborate stories about exotic places like Brazil. There would be treats like bread and jam for the children to eat. But sometimes Malachy Sr. wouldn’t bring home food or money. Sometimes, even when he had a job, he would go drinking, and spend all the family’s money on whiskey. He’d come home very drunk and Angela would yell at him for depriving his children of food. Angela would try to save money by going to the bars where her husband worked and asking for some of the wages upfront. But this never worked—the employers wouldn’t give it up.

Sometimes, Malachy Sr. wouldn’t come home at all. When this happened, Angela would take Frank, Malachy Jr., Oliver, and Eugene to look for her husband. They would go from bar to bar, walking along the streets of Brooklyn. Once, the family spends hours looking for Malachy Sr., traveling from bar to bar. At one bar, Angela asks a bartender to fill two jugs with sugar-water for her children. Very generously, the barman fills the jugs with milk. Finally, after hours of searching, Angela gives up and leads her children to the grocery store. There, she is able to buy food on credit, because the Italian man who runs the store trusts her.

The next week, Malachy Sr. loses his job sweeping bars. He comes home on Friday with wages—but these will be his last wages for a long time. He takes some of the money and goes out to drink. He comes back later, singing loudly.

Several months later, Malachy Sr. comes home after a day of looking for a job. He holds Margaret McCourt, the new baby (born a few months before). He sings her a song about a leprechaun, and Margaret giggles. Angela notices that Margaret seems to cheer Malachy Sr. up—in fact, since she was born, he hasn’t had anything to drink.

One day Frank is walking around the playground near where his family lives. He’s watching his two twin brothers, Oliver and Eugene, while his mother rests. He’s not to disturb his mother until she pokes her head out the window and yells for him to come back inside. As Frank plays with his brothers, a boy named Freddie Leibowitz rushes into the playground. He starts to tell Malachy Jr. and the twins a story that Frank had told Freddie weeks before: the story of Cuchulain, the legendary Irish hero. Frank is so concerned that Freddie is stealing his story that he yells at Freddie and tries to hit him. Crying, Freddie runs away.

Frank notices that his brothers are getting very hungry—in fact, they’re beginning to cry. He decides to go to the grocery store to find bananas to feed the twins. But because he has no money, he decides to steal the bananas. Just as Frank is preparing to steal, the Italian man who runs the grocery yells to Frank. He tells Frank that he has a bag of fruit that he needs to get rid of, and he offers it to Frank. The bag contains bananas, which the man suggests Frank give to the twins.

At dinner in the evening, Malachy Sr. reads the paper and says that President Franklin Roosevelt will provide every man in America with a job. Angela notices that Frank has a bag of fruit—she demands to know where he got it. Frank explains that the Italian grocer gave it to him. Angela doesn’t seem excited. Instead, she mentions that Freddie’s mother told her that Frank hit Freddie. Angela orders Frank to go apologize to Freddie. Frank explains that Freddie stole his Cuchulain story. Malachy Sr. explains that Freddie has his own stories, because he’s a Jew: he has stories about Moses and Samson.

Frank goes to apologize to Freddie. At the Leibowitz home, located in the same building where the McCourts live, Frank is escorted inside, and he apologizes to Freddie. Freddie’s parents offer Frank some food, and he accepts cake and milk from them.

The day after Frank apologizes to Freddie, Angela wakes Frank up, explaining that something is horribly wrong with the baby, Margaret McCourt—she’s very sick. A doctor is called to the house, and he examines Margaret. The doctor seems busy and irritable—he complains that he doesn’t have all day to look at her. Without explaining what’s wrong with Margaret, he wraps the child in a thick blanket, and leaves. For the rest of the day, the family tries to care for Margaret, and Malachy Sr. begins to drink whiskey for the first time since Margaret’s birth.

As the day draws to a close, Angela gives a cry: Margaret McCourt has died, mysteriously. Mrs. Leibowitz, Freddie’s mother, rushes down the hall of the apartment building to comfort Angela. She tells Angela that God takes young children sometimes, and that Margaret is in a better place. Angela, weeping, whispers that her husband will start drinking again and starve his family to death.

In the days following Margaret McCourt’s death, Malachy Sr. is barely present, and Angela barely leaves her bed. Frank tries to take care of his family, and he changes the twins’ diapers. One night, Malachy Sr. comes home late, reeking of whiskey. He orders his children to wake up and promise him that they’ll “die for Ireland.” They promise, confused, and then go back to bed.

The night that his father makes him promise to die for Ireland, Frank dreams about Cuchulain, the Irish hero. In the dream Cuchulain waves a massive bananas at a bird. When Frank tells his father about the dream, Malachy Sr. says that Ireland has no bananas.

Weeks pass, and Minnie MacAdorey, a kind neighbor in the McCourts’ building, stops by their home to offer food to the children. Mrs. Leibowitz feeds the McCourt children, as well, and even shows them how to take care of Oliver and Eugene—wipe their bottoms, change their diapers, etc. The Italian grocer offers Frank more food for his family, and Frank eagerly accepts whatever he can get. Over time, Frank learns that the man’s name is Mr. Dimino, and that he’s married to a woman named Angela—Frank’s mother’s name, too.

One day, Frank comes back to his home to find Mrs. Leibowitz, Minnie MacAdorey, and two large women, who introduce themselves as Angela’s cousins, Delia Fortune and Philomena Flynn. The cousins criticize Frank’s father, mentioning that he’s “from the North.” They also tell Frank and his siblings terrifying stories about Northern men who kidnap babies to “do experiments on.” After some time, Angela comes home. Frank realizes that Mrs. Leibowitz and Minnie have sent for Angela’s cousins to help the family. With Delia’s help, Philomena writes a letter to Angela’s own mother, whose name is Margaret Sheehan. Together, they write about their own husbands, criticize Malachy Sr. for his laziness, and tell Angela’s mother that Margaret McCourt, Angela’s baby, has died. In the letter, Delia insists that Angela and her children would be better off back in Ireland.

Shortly after the letter is sent, Margaret Sheehan sends money for Frank and his family to travel to Ireland. Everyone boards a large ship. When the ship begins its long voyage across the Atlantic, everyone on board waves goodbye, except for Angela, who leans over the side of the vessel and vomits.