ABSTRACT
Introduction What Frank McCourt is saying on the very first page of Angela's Ashes is that Irish childhood was a wet childhood. He was probably wrong. I feel pretty sure that many sociologists and anthropologists would immediately present to him a sample of children who were not wet, only half wet, or merely wet during the night. Yet, McCourt gives us an impression of Irish childhood, which is quintessentially real: its Irish-ness, its Catholic-ness, miserable-ness, and above all, its wet-ness. Although not applicable for each and every child in Ireland, it conveys a picture which is recognizable ofIrish children at the time and which achieved its distinction in comparison
. with childhoods in other countries; no one other childhood possessed this combination. Were any other childhoods wet? If so, no others were Catholic and wet, and for sure not Irish and Catholic and wet. Though McCourt did not think of it, he is actually using a particular method for coming to terms with his childhood, indirectly comparing it with other childhoods so as to make it as distinct as possible.
