Angela's Ashes

The families in Limerick (including Frank’s) are prone to in-fighting: For example, Frank’s grandma and mother are no longer on speaking terms because of the “God in the backyard” incident.

Malachy is a good writer and many neighbors come to seek his services when they need to do something such as send a letter to the government. Uncle Pat (Angela’s brother) befriends Bill Galvin, a Protestant, and he lodges at Grandma’s home. Grandma gives Frank the new, paid job of bringing Bill his dinner. On his first try, Frank eats the bacon, cabbage, and potatoes intended for Bill, causing Grandma to lash out fiercely at him.

Frank's parents have rotting teeth, which they ultimately have pulled and fully replaced. This leads to an adventure in which Malachy Jr. puts his father’s teeth in his mouth and gets them stuck. Malachy brings him to the hospital and drags Frank along. After saving Malachy Jr. from choking, the doctor looks at Frank and insists that his tonsils must come out.

Mam decides that Frank will take Irish dance lessons, which Frank does not want to do. He goes for a few weeks, but when his friend Billy makes fun of him, Frank decides to blow off dancing, using his mom’s sixpence to treat Billy to a movie and some toffee. Frank does this the following two Saturdays, all while his folks think he is at dance. Dad wants Frank to be an altar boy, so he trains him to memorize prayers in Latin. However, when Dad brings Frank to the church, the sacristan denies Frank the opportunity to be an altar boy at just one glance, which Angela blames on class snobbery.

Frank is in fourth class now with Mr. “Dotty” O’Neil, a man obsessed with Euclid, as his teacher. Mr. O’Neil is as cruel as the other teachers, once cutting an apple in front of the hungry boys and wondering aloud whether he should give the peels to the pigeons.

The teacher’s pet, Fintan, bribes Frank and a boy named Paddy Clohessy with food in front of the class, calling them his friends. Fintan and his mother are extremely devout Catholics. One day, Fintan brings Paddy and Frank home for lunch but does not give them any food. Because they are hungry, Paddy and Frank skip afternoon classes and raid an orchard, where they stuff themselves on apples. They also sneak onto a farm and steal cow’s milk from the cow itself. A friend named Quigley sees the boys and warns Frank that he is “going to be killed” by his parents (162), who received a note from the school saying Frank has skipped class. Afraid to return home, Frank spends the night at Paddy’s home—another poverty-stricken residence, with a father sick with consumption (tuberculosis) and a mother detached from her own existence.

The next day, Angela arrives with a guard, who warns Frank that he’ll wind up in jail if he ever skips school again and causes his mother torment. Paddy’s father, Dennis, knows Angela, and when she arrives, he tries to get her to dance as a means of remembering his youth. Angela indulges him, and Dennis has a brief respite from his consumption.