Angela's Ashes

“Why don’t you go to America where there’s room for all sorts of uselessness?”

There is an abundance of ethnocentrism in Limerick; this example comes from Angela’s mother. Grandma tends to view anyone not properly Irish, meaning Catholic, as lesser, and this includes Americans. Unlike Malachy and (later) Frank, she does not idealize America.

“Ya father? Well, ya know, he’s got the problem, the Irish thing.”

An Italian shop owner speaks this line. His description of Malachy’s “problem” (i.e., drinking) as “the Irish thing” hints at the stereotype that Irish people are alcoholics and demonstrates how many Americans perceived Irish immigrants in the early 20th century.

“Threaten the men in there with the Quakers and they’ll give you the drawers off their arses.”

This is spoken by Nora Molloy, a woman with a quick wit and a dry sarcasm that enables her to fiercely advocate for herself. She threatens the priests at the St. Paul de Vincent charity, implying that the Quakers treat the poor better. This may or may not be true, but it strikes a historical and religious nerve; as Mr. Quinlivan points out, Protestant charities during the Potato Famine sometimes made conversion a condition of receiving aid.

“If you ever say anything good about Oliver Cromwell they’ll all hit you.”

Cromwell was a 17th-century English military commander notorious as a ruthless conqueror of Ireland. Centuries later, the name still triggers the Irish people in the book, including the schoolmasters this passage references.

“Mam says ’tis all right for her to be begging at the St. Vincent de Paul Society for a docket for food but he can’t stick a few spuds in his pocket. He says it’s different for a man. You have to keep the dignity.”

Angela often shoulders the responsibility of keeping the family afloat (and not only because of Malachy’s drinking). As Malachy indicates here, asking for help would violate masculine gender norms, particularly his sense of pride and self-reliance. This frustrates Angela, who likewise feels that begging is “undignified” but does it anyway to provide for her children. Angela’s willingness to do what it takes to survive (and Malachy’s unwillingness to do the same) is one reason why Frank views his father more favorably than his mother when he’s young; he simply doesn’t see Malachy getting his hands dirty.

“I’d like to know what that word means. Affliction, but Dad says, Och, child, the world is an affliction and everything in it.”

Malachy’s words sum up the cynical attitude Limerick’s working classes have toward life. The word choice is significant; illnesses like tuberculosis are among the most depressing realities the McCourts and their neighbors must contend with.

“In fine weather men sit outside smoking their cigarettes if they have them, looking at the world and watching us play. Women stand with their arms folded, chatting. They don’t sit because all they do is stay at home, take care of the children, clean the house and cook a bit and the men need the chairs. The men sit because they’re worn out from walking to the Labour Exchange every morning to sign for the dole, discussing the world’s problems and wondering what to do with the rest of the day.”

This quote illustrates the gender differences in the way the Irish working classes experience poverty. The men who are out of work have little to do each day other than collect public assistance (though they view this as a great imposition). Their wives, however, still must do all the housework and parenting; this is a woman’s traditional role, and their husbands would likely view assisting their wives as degrading.

“The master says it’s a glorious thing to die for the Faith and Dad says it’s a glorious thing to die for Ireland and I wonder if there’s anyone in the world who would like us to live.”

The quote is an example of young Frank trying to find sense in the words of the adults around him. In many cases, Frank’s innocence rises above the confusion as common sense, as in the final sentence of this passage: Irish history, strict religiosity, and the realities of Depression-era life combine to create a culture of gloom and of pride in suffering.

“Mikey’s father, Peter, is a great champion. He wins bets in the pubs by drinking more pints than anyone.”

A common trope in the story centers on the men of Limerick who populate the pubs. Alcohol fuels the self-aggrandizement of these men, who otherwise lead quiet and desperate lives.

“He loves his mother but he’ll never get married for fear he might have a wife in and out of the lunatic asylum.”

Frank is speaking about his friend Mikey Molloy, whose mother lives in a constant state of panic, always on the verge of breakdown. Her life, like Angela's, is deeply uncertain because of her husband’s alcoholism. Mikey’s fear of marrying shows how trauma has impacted how he sees his future.

“He says he’s not a proper Catholic which means he’s doomed so he can do anything he bloody well likes.”

Frank says this about Mikey Molloy, and it hints at jealousy. Unlike Mikey, Frank constantly worries he will run afoul of God, and he sees a kind of freedom in the fact that Mikey, as someone who isn’t “fully” Catholic, can simply accept that he’s “doomed” and move on.

“If anyone in your family was the least way friendly to the English in the last eight hundred years it will be brought up and thrown in your face and you might as well move to Dublin where no one cares.”

This is one of many references to England and Ireland’s historically fraught relationship, which included “eight hundred years” of on and off colonization. The Irish hatred of this (and of the English more broadly) is passed down through the generations and is so intense that the slightest deviation from it will bring suspicion upon you and your family.

“He tells me I’m a bad boy, he’s ashamed of me that I went to the pictures instead of learning Ireland’s national dances, the jig, the reel, the dances that men and women fought and died for down those sad centuries. He says there’s many a young man that was hanged and now moldering in a lime pit that would be glad to rise up and dance the Irish dance.”

Malachy's words demonstrate a similarity to what Frank hears at school and church. While his father’s words are secular, they use guilt—in this case about national heritage—as a weapon against Frank much in the way the church uses it.

“’Tis class distinction. They don’t want boys from lanes on the altar. They don’t want the ones with scabby knees and hair sticking up. Oh, no, they want the nice boys with hair oil and new shoes that have fathers with suits and ties and steady jobs. That’s what it is and ’tis hard to hold on to the Faith with the snobbery that’s in it.”

Spoken by Angela, these words give us a glimpse into the way she sees the world. Angela is always opinionated, but this is one of the clearest examples of how she believes the upper classes keep people like her down.

“He has to be hard, says Grandma, otherwise you’d have all kinds of babies clamorin’ to get into heaven, Protestants an’ everything, an’ why should they get in after what they did to us for eight hundred years?”

Grandma does not believe in a God of mercy, nor a God who does not discriminate. She holds fast to the idea that there are limited ways to enter heaven and that it is only for the select few. Also embedded in the quote is further contempt for the English, whom she conflates with Protestants in an indication of how deeply intertwined religion and nationality are in her mind.

“She says ’twould break your heart to think of what the English did to us, that if they didn’t put the blight on the potato they didn’t do much to take it off. No pity. No feeling at all for the people that died in this very ward, children suffering and dying here while the English feasted on roast beef and guzzled the best of wine in their big houses, little children with their mouths all green from trying to eat the grass in the fields beyond, God bless us and save us and guard us from future famines.”

This quote provides another example of how Irish people view the English in Frank’s memoir. One of the nurses says this while looking after Frank, who is recovering from typhoid. The nurse alludes to the Potato Famine, which occurred during the mid-19th century and helped galvanize feeling against the British. The “English” she refers to are the landlords who owned much of the land in Ireland at the time.

“I feel sad over the bad thing but I can’t back away from him because the one in the morning is my real father and if I were in America I could say, I love you, Dad, the way they do in the films, but you can’t say that in Limerick for fear you might be laughed at. You’re allowed to say you love God and babies and horses that win but anything else is a softness in the head.”

The working-class people of Limerick live by a patriarchal code that disparages kindness, affection, and love only. Frank believes that he would be able to openly express his feelings in America, revealing his romanticized notions of the place.

“Doom. That’s the favorite word of every priest in Limerick.”

In Limerick, the most common method of keeping people in line is to hold the threat of eternal damnation over their heads. Frank learns the lesson at a young age but seems instinctively able to recognize the flaw in the rationale that the only way to keep people on the straight path is to scare them.

“Lent. Lent, my arse. What are we to give up when we have Lent all year long?”

Spoken by Angela, this quote illustrates her growing discontent with her own religion. Inherent in the remark is bitterness at her impoverished circumstances, and this fuels her cynicism.

“You’ll want to see her, of course. You’ll want to see what you people have done to her with your damn tuberculosis. Race of ghouls.”

Mr. Harrington hurls this overtly prejudiced statement at Frank when his wife dies. This is Frank’s first true run-in with English prejudice, and it has a different feel than the Irish version. Mr. Harrington is blaming an entire nationality for the spread of diseases.

“I’m sorry for their troubles but there’s no other way for me to save the money for America. I know that someday I’ll be a rich Yank and send home hundreds of dollars and my family will never have to worry about threatening letters again.”

Frank learns how to justify the means to an end. He realizes that his letters have made people turn over their hard-earned money, for which he feels guilty. However, he justifies the act in terms of his ambition to travel to America and change his fortunes for the better.

“He tells me God forgives me and I must forgive myself, that God loves me and I must love myself for only when you love God in yourself can you love all God’s creatures.”

The Franciscan priest, Father Gregory, offers these comments to a distraught and confused Frank as he confesses his sins. It is the antithesis of almost all the religious teachings Frank has received, demonstrating a much kinder approach to the same religion.

“A mother’s love is a blessing,

No matter where you roam.

Keep her while you have her,

You’ll miss her when she’s gone.”

These are song lyrics offered up to Frank the night before he departs for America. By including these lines in the book, Frank acknowledges Angela’s love for him and indicates that much of the animosity he previously directed at her has transformed into compassion and empathy.