UL chair named in honour of McCourt

ANGELA'S ASHESauthor Frank McCourt will be posthumously honoured by a chair in creative writing at the University of Limerick.

Fittingly, the memoir will be a particular focus of the professorship to be named after McCourt, whose memoir of childhood in a Limerick slum was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1997.

Former US president Bill Clinton paid tribute to the author at a New York event launching the chair on Wednesday. “Everyone has a story to tell in life but Frank wrote uniquely about his, and in doing so, has inspired many others to put their own stories down on paper,” he said.

More than $500,000 (€362,000) has been raised for the chair by the non-profit University of Limerick Foundation, roughly half of the sum needed before the five-year position can be filled. The university hopes to fill the post next year.

“Frank McCourt was a true friend of the University of Limerick, and it is highly appropriate that we honour his legacy in this way,” said university president Prof Don Barry.