McCourt was accused of exaggerating his family's impoverished upbringing by many Limerick natives, including Richard Harris.[10][11][12] McCourt's mother denied the accuracy of his stories shortly before her death in 1981, walking out of a stage performance by her two elder sons; Malachy's recollection is that she said it was "all a pack of lies."[10]
Local writer and filmmaker Gerry Hannan has compiled a list of 204 inaccuracies in Angela's Ashes, Hannan confronted McCourt on The Late Late Show in 1999.[13][14] McCourt was a member of the Boy Scouts, a middle-class pursuit the poor could not afford, and family photographs show the children and Angela as well-fed.[15]
American journalist John Meyer visited Limerick and took the tour of the city sparked by publication of the book. He realized how much the city had changed since McCourt's childhood years, including destruction of the slum area where his family lived when Frank was in school.[15]
McCourt described the book as "a memoir, not an exact history", and admitted to fabricating the story about Willie Harrold's sisters.[16] Similarly, Alan Parker, who directed the film version, said that Angela's Ashes "was a work of art which met Gore Vidal's definition of autobiography, being an 'impression' of a life, rather than a memoir."[17]
