Plot

An Irish Catholic family returns to 1930s Limerick after a child's death in America. The unemployed I.R.A. veteran father struggles with poverty, prejudice and alcoholism as the family endures harsh slum conditions.

Based on the best-selling autobiography by Irish expatriate Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes follows the experiences of young Frankie and his family as they try against all odds to escape the poverty endemic in the slums of pre-war Limerick. The film opens with the family in Brooklyn, but following the death of one of Frankie's siblings, they return home, only to find the situation there even worse. Prejudice against Frankie's Northern Irish father makes his search for employment in the Republic difficult despite his having fought for the I.R.A., and when he does find money, he spends it on drink.—KB-26

Five-year-old Francis "Frankie" McCourt (Joe Breen), born in 1930, is the eldest child of Irish immigrants Malachy (Robert Carlyle) and Angela (Emily Watson). Frankie and his brothers (Malachy Jr., a year younger, and two-year-old twins Oliver and Eugene) were all American-born, and the family resides in a small apartment in Brooklyn. In 1935, Angela gives birth to a daughter, Margaret, who dies in early infancy. Angela becomes depressed and sick, and the boys start to rely on neighbors for food. Angela's relatives visit and arrange for the McCourts to move back to Angela's hometown of Limerick, Ireland. They make the trip and are greeted by Angela's family, although her judgmental mother (Ronnie Masterson) and irritable sister Aggie (Pauline McLynn) disapprove of Malachy's being from northern Ireland.

Money is scarce in Limerick and the living conditions are deplorable. The McCourts move into their new house, in which they encounter problems such as flea-ridden mattresses. The nearby Shannon River, combined with constant rain and squalor, cause disease to be rampant. With the family still recovering from Margaret's death, Oliver and Eugene succumb in quick succession to the deadly effects of the unsanitary conditions.

Angela, who has lost three children in five months and is pregnant again, cannot bear the memories that linger in their current house. The family moves, though their new home is no improvement. Their house is right next to the lavatory used by the whole block, which provides a constant stink. Malachy, though a loving husband and father, cannot control his chronic alcoholism, which contributes heavily to the family's poverty and makes it difficult for him to find work. After a lengthy job search, he eventually finds employment at a cement factory, and his family is optimistic. After his first day he goes to the pub, spends all his wages on liquor, comes stumbling home late, misses work the next morning, and is fired. Though his sons love him, they are dismayed and angered by his behavior.

Angela has another son, Michael. Frankie and Malachy Jr. (Shane Murray-Cocoran) are sent to the nearby Leamy School, where they receive strict religious lessons and frequent corporal punishment. Frankie endures a comically fussy first communion due to his grandmother's religious superstitions. He and Malachy Jr. begin to make friends with other boys in the lane, who teach them about "girls bodies, and dirty things in general."

When Frankie is ten (now played by Ciaran Owens), his mother enrolls him in Irish dancing class, which he despises. Frankie begins skipping class in favor of going to the movies with his friend Paddy Clohessy (James Mahon), later tricking his parents about his whereabouts by inventing dance routines to show them at home. Frankie and Paddy often play truant, running around the countryside and wreaking havoc on nearby farms. Angela has her final child, another son called Alphonsus, though Malachy is still out of work and only supports his family with dole money.

Frankie develops typhoid, receives a blood transfusion, and is hospitalized for two months. While in the hospital, he develops a love for reading Shakespeare, which contributes to his budding interest in literature and writing. When he is well enough to return to school, Frankie is held back a year because of the time he missed. Ashamed to be in the same class as his younger brother, he prays for a miracle to move him up a grade. After being given a special assignment to write an essay about how Jesus Christ might have grown up if he had been born in Limerick, Frankie writes a paper explaining that the cold, wet climate would have given Jesus consumption and he would have died much younger, leading to no crucifixion and no Catholic church, and no one having to write papers about him in school. The school officials, impressed with his creativity and writing skills, return him to the sixth form.

Malachy, along with many other Limerick men, goes to England to find work, but sends money to his family only once. Desperate, Angela joins crowds of women in begging outside the church for the priests' leftovers. Frankie gets a job helping an elderly man deliver coal, but the coal dust gives Frankie severe conjunctivitis and his mother forces him to quit.

Over the next several years, it becomes evident that Malachy has abandoned his family. Angela and her sons break down a wall in their apartment for firewood, and are evicted for the damage. They move in with a distant cousin, Laman Griffin (Alvaro Lucchesi), who is cruel and disgusting, and who soon forces a sexual relationship on Angela. Frankie (Michael Legge), now fifteen, refuses to remain under Griffin's roof, and moves in with Angela's brother Pat (Eanna MacLiam). Frankie gets a job as a telegram boy for the post office, and his Aunt Aggie surprises him by buying him a suit of new clothes for his first day. At one of his telegram stops, Frankie meets a teenage girl named Theresa (Kerry Condon) who suffers from consumption. Despite her condition, they begin to make love whenever Frankie stops by with a telegram. When Theresa finally succumbs, Frankie fears his actions have sent her to hell.

On the eve of Frankie's sixteenth birthday, his jovial Uncle Pa (Liam Carney), Aunt Aggie's husband, takes him to the pub for his ceremonial first pint. Frankie later comes home drunk (just as his father had done for so many years), and gets into a heated argument with the visiting Angela, eventually slapping her in the face. The next day, Frankie goes to church to pray for forgiveness, admitting to the priest that he had hit his mother and had sent Theresa to hell because of his sins. The priest comforts him by saying that the nuns at the hospital would not have let Theresa die without her last rites, and so she was surely sent to heaven. Frankie realizes he must keep his wits about him if he does not want to end up like his father.

Frankie is hired by the town moneylender, Mrs. Finucane (Eileen Pollock) to write threatening letters to customers with overdue payments. He hates the stingy old woman, but is determined to earn enough money to travel to America. Mrs. Finucane eventually dies in her home while Frankie is out doing her shopping, and he helps himself to her cash. He also takes her logbook, which reveals that every family in his neighborhood was in debt. He throws the book into the Shannon. With the new found money, he now has enough to book a spot on a ship bound for America.

The night before Frankie's departure, he visits with his family to say goodbye. His Aunt Aggie and Uncle Pa usher everyone outside to see a rare lunar eclipse. There is silence as the alley is flooded in darkness for a moment, and Frankie sees images of his childhood self which disappear as the moonlight returns. Frankie finally leaves Limerick behind and arrives in New York, achieving his dream.