The author, Frank McCourt (no relation) has died of cancer. His obituary mentioned his book, Angela’s Ashes, a story of growing up in poverty in Limerick, Ireland, in the 1930s. It quoted an excerpt from it, which said: “Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood. Worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.”

It reminded me of what my Dad said when the film came out. He was born in Limerick in 1949. His mother, my Nan, was born and lived in Limerick in the mid-1920s and 1930s. Dad had asked Nan if growing up in an Irish Catholic household in that time period was really as bad as it was made out to be in Angela’s Ashes. Nan said that, no, it was exaggerated. She too grew up in a poor household with many siblings, and whilst it was difficult, it wasn’t that terrible.

Nan related a story of an incident when she was a child. Her father, who, like many Irish labourers, liked his drink, would on occasion hide money from her mother, so that he could use it at a later date for alcohol. He assumed that his wife wouldn’t notice, but wives can be sharp like that. This of course frustrated her no end, but he was the breadwinner of the family. Then one day whilst he was out at work, she found his stash of money, which was a not-insubstantial amount. She immediately took it and used it to buy sensible things - food and clothing. When her husband got home, he of course found his stash missing. I’m sure he noticed the food and clothing, but because he’d deliberately hidden it, there was no way he could say anything to his wife. I can just imagine my great-grandmother’s satisfaction at her husband’s inability to do anything about it. I got the impression the men were tough, and the women even tougher in those days.