Frank McCourt…

Malachy stood behind the bar and told his customers stories. I stood before the blackboard and told my students stories. At holiday gatherings we told our families stories. They said, "Why not get together, cobble these stories into a script and tell the world.

Malachy McCourt…

This show is the result of Frank and myself listening to the stories of our elders which in turn tunes the ear, the eye and the tongue to observe and give voice to even the most trivial of events. I think we had more fun than anyone writing and performing "Blaguards" which has become an affectionate term for the rowdy outgoing and sometimes drinking sort boys. If you don’t have a good evening, you should have yourself checked to make sure you haven’t died during the day. Blessings!

FRANK McCOURT taught high school and college English for three decades in New York andoccasionally, Dublin. Frank’s memoir, Angela’s Ashes, published in September of 1996 by Scribner, was honored with The Pulitzer Prize for literature, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Boston Book Review’s Non-Fiction prize, the Abbey Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and spent more than 100 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. His second book, ‘Tis, another bestseller, was released in the fall of 1999. A major motion picture based on Angela’s Ashes starring Emily Watson and Robert Carlisle premiered late the same year. As a speaker, Frank is always in demand, having spoken at countless special events, colleges and universities worldwide. He has been keynote speaker at the White House on several occasions, and his dedication to education and the teaching profession have even prompted invitations from Congressional commitees focusing on education in America.

Howard Platt asked Frank to sing the songs in Blaguards. (Accompanied by Michael McCourt:)

Malachy McCourt was born in Brooklyn, USA and from the age of three was raised in Limerick, Ireland. A very undistinguished academic career plus the need to eat led him to leave school at the age of thirteen to begin work in Ireland and England as a laborer.
He returned to the land of his birth at the age of twenty and again worked at the manual tasks such as longshoreman, truck loader, dishwasher, until he became an actor. That career took him to Broadway and Off-Broadway and regional theatres in plays such as Mass Appeal, DA, The Hostage, Inherit the Wind, Carousel and Translations. The soap operas such a Ryan's Hope, Search for Tomorrow, One Life to Live were also a good source of work and sustenance as were the movies Molly Maguires, She's the One, The Devils Own, Green Card, and TV movies such a You Can't Go Home Again and the Dain Curse. Due to a heavy schedule of writing, book signings and public appearances McCourt had to take a sabbatical from the acting trade but is now back after completing five movies Happy Hour, Guru of Sex, Gods and Generals, The Last Run and Ash Wednesday plus a running part in the HBO prison series Oz.
In the early seventies he was one of the first radio talk show hosts on WMCA, NYC, a lively and controversial time of his life and he was a frequent guest on the Tonight Show, Merv Griffin and Tom Synder shows. Along with the above, Malachy McCourt has been credited with founding the first singles bar in America, Malachy's of Third Avenue.
As well as being the co-author of the play A Couple of Blaguards with his brother Frank, Malachy has written his own New York Times bestseller memoir, A Monk Swimming, published by Hyperion Press. His most recent memoir, Singing My Him Song, now out in paperback is published by Harper Collins. Malachy's new books are: Danny Boy, a history of the song Danny Boy; Voices of Ireland, an anthology of Irish literature; History of the Claddheh Ring; and a book of affirmations, Harold B Thy Name. Malachy writes a column, Sez I to Myself, that appears weekly in the Manhattan Spirit, The Westsider and Our Town in NYC.
Malachy McCourt is happily married to Diana for three and one half decades, has five grown children and is grandfather to three. He owes a great deal to his friend Bill W.