Angela's Ashes: Frank McCourt Returns to Ireland
March 16, 2005
The long suffering of the people of Ireland -- from potato famine, to decades of profound poverty and massive emigration -- was captured lyrically and unforgettably for so many in the best-selling novel "Angela's Ashes," by Frank McCourt. His description of the poverty endured in the Ireland of his childhood -- his rarely employed alcoholic father and his often deeply depressed mother -- included searing images, such as a meal in which the family shared a single egg.
So, when Ireland was recently listed as the best place to live in the world, according to a quality of life assessment by the Economist magazine, "Nightline" producer Rebecca Lipkin wondered what McCourt might have to say about the changes to his homeland -- now the economic toast of Europe.
Tonight, "Nightline" and Frank McCourt visit the new Ireland, from Dublin to McCourt's hometown of Limerick, in honor of St. Patrick's Day on Thursday. Ireland is no longer exporting its people for economic subsistence. In fact, as McCourt discovered, Ireland is now teaming with students planning for years in university, and immigrants from countries, such as Poland, still seeking the economic turnaround that Ireland has experienced. Ireland is definitely not Angela's Ashes anymore.
We hope you'll join us. And until then: we wish you the luck of the Irish.
Sara Just & the "Nightline" Staff
Senior Producer
ABC News Washington Bureau
