Angela's Ashes

Emily Watson - Angela
Robert Carlyle - Dad
Joe Breen - young Frank
Ciaran Owens - middle Frank
Michael Legge - older Frank
Ronnie Masterson - Grandma Sheehan
Pauline McLynn - Aunt Aggie

Brooklyn, 1935. Five-year-old Frank McCourt lives in a tenement with his four-year-old brother Malachy, toddler twins Eugene and Oliver, father Malachy Sr and mother Angela. Delight at the birth of a new baby sister turns to despair when she dies. Angela is unable to cope, Malachy Sr goes on another drinking binge and Angela's mother sends money for a journey back to Limerick, where life is even harder.

Frank grows up against a background of desperate poverty. Malachy Sr drifts in and out of work and of the city's pubs, frittering away his wages on drink while the family starves. Angela pleads for charity. Oliver and Eugene fatally succumb to the damp and cold, but Frank gradually manages to find a place for himself in Limerick, progressing through school, his first communion, his first pint and first job as a coalman's assistant, a job which near blinds him with conjunctivitis. When World War II starts, Malachy Sr goes to England in search of work, returns fleetingly one Christmas and is never seen again. Evicted from their house, the McCourts move in with their cousin Laman, who treats them like slaves and expects sexual favours from Angela. Frank leaves school and home and gets a job as a telegram delivery boy through which he meets Theresa, a young girl with consumption, with whom Frank loses his virginity before she dies. Frank also makes extra money writing letters for the local moneylender. When she dies, he finds her hoard of cash and, after a final confrontation with his mother, leaves for the United States.