Malachy McCourt Sr. Quotes

″‘Well,’ she says, ‘is he going to be an altar boy?’ ‘There’s no room for him.‘”

″‘He’s not coming, Mam. He doesn’t care about us. He’s just drunk over there in England.’ ‘Don’t talk about your father like that.‘”

“The man tells Dad, I can see you’re a man that did his bit. Dad says, Och, I did my bit, and the man says, I did me bit, too, and what did it get me but one eye less and a pension that wouldn’t feed a canary. But Ireland is free, says Dad, and that’s a grand thing.”

“Dad stands for a minute, swaying, and puts the penny back in his pocket. He turns toward Mam and she says, You’re not sleeping in this bed tonight. He makes his way downstairs with the candle, sleeps on a chair, misses work in the morning, loses the job at the cement factory, and we’re back on the dole again.”