Marriage

He married his nurse, Mary Carr, on 5 October 1972 in Sutton Co Dublin. He settled in Ballyheigue, County Kerry. He later moved to Parbrook, Somerset, England.

Death

At the age of 49, Brown died on 7 September 1981. He is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.

His autobiography, My Left Foot, was later expanded into the novel Down All the Days and became an international bestseller, with translations into 14 languages. The Irish Times reviewer Bernard Share said the book was "...the most important Irish novel since Ulysses". Like Joyce, Brown employed the stream-of-consciousness technique and captured the Dublin culture in his use of humour, language and unique character description. Down All the Days is a novel of Ireland and its society, focusing more on that than Brown's illness. Down All the Days was followed by a series of other novels, including A Shadow on Summer (1972), Wild Grow the Lilies (1976) and A Promising Career (published posthumously in 1982). He also published three poetry collections, including Come Softly to My Wake, Background Music and Of Snails and Skylarks (now available in a compendium as The Collected Poems of Christy Brown).

My Left Foot, a film version of his autobiography, was directed by Jim Sheridan in 1989 with a screenplay by Shane Connaughton. Daniel Day-Lewis starred as Christy while Brenda Fricker played Brown's mother; both won Oscars for their roles in the film. The film was nominated for five Oscars in total, including Best Picture.

The Irish rock band The Pogues paid tribute to Christy Brown with a song titled "Down All the Days". It is the seventh track on their 1989 recording, Peace and Love.