In Memorium to My Darling Lad Malachy McCourt

Who Meant More to Me Than One Can Imagine

Septemember 20, 1931-March 11, 2024

In His Own Words

There are four (4) interviews with Malachy McCourt, stage, film and TV actor, playwright, author, wit, entrpreneur, radio show host and great friend posted below. We will be searching our archives from over the last 18 years to when I first met and interviewed Malachy so that we post all of these special, unique, informative, hilarious, entertaining and insightful chats for your enjoyment and to keep the light of Malachy McCourt burning brightly right here.

In the first interview posted below, Malachy McCourt mentions the song, “Come Back Paddy Reilly to Ballyjamesduff,”  and sings part of this song for us. It’s a song he remembered which he used to sing to the sailors on the ship that took him at the age of 3 from New York City, where he  was born in Brooklyn, to Ireland with his brothers and parents to live and grow up in County Limerick. The family moved after the only girl she ever gave birth to, Mary Margaret McCourt, died in infancy which sentt Angela McCourt into a depressive state which the doctor thought she’d it easier to recover from if they were living in Ireland again. Malachy’s brother, Frank McCourt, pictured above represented by the bronze sculpture that now stands on display in Limerick in a museum there. and for whom a school is named in New York City, won a Pulitzer Prize for his memoir, “Angela’s Ashes,” which was made into a film focused on the lives of Frank, his brothers and his parents in Limerick. Malachy was always quick to point out that the memoir was filled with Irish humor that the film lacked, making the film dark and depressive.

When Stephanie Abrams heard Malachy mention the name of the town of Ballyjamesduff, she knew at once that the song  must have been composed by Percy French whose work is memorialized  at the Cavan  History Museum in Ballyjamesduff, County Cavan, Ireland.

Here is what Google says  about the song and its composer.

“It’s 100 years since Percy French’s song, Come Back Paddy Reilly to Ballyjamesduff, was first sung in the Irish town it made famous. Foyle College old boy French (1854-1920) wrote the ballad in 1912, but it took another couple of years to negotiate copyright and production deals.Sep 13, 2014”

Have a listen: