Happy Birthday, Malachy!

Today, in honor of our friend Malachy McCourt’s 91st birthday, we revisit “My American Dream,” the personal story he presented at City Winery during our “Straight Outta Ireland event in the spring of 2019.

Malachy McCourt was born in Brooklyn, New York, and from the age of three was raised in Limerick, Ireland. He returned to New York at age twenty, working manual jobs until he became an actor, a career that led to many roles on Broadway, off-Broadway, on television, and in film. Malachy’s writing been published in New York Newsday, National Geographic, Conscience Magazine and The New York Times. With his brother, Frank, he co-authored the play A Couple of Blaguards and has written his own New York Times bestselling memoir, A Monk Swimming. His most recent book is Death Need Not Be Fatal. Other books include a second memoir, Singing My Him Song, Danny Boy, a history of The Claddagh Ring, Voices of Ireland, an anthology, and Malachy McCourt’s History of Ireland, Harold Be Thy Name, and Bush Lies in State. Happily married to Diana for more than four decades, Malachy has five grown children is grandfather to four, and owes a great deal to his friend, Bill