"While Mem'ry Brings Us Back Again" is available again!

Get your copy now!

As featured on Out of Ireland, BronxNet TV, The CBS Early Show and numerous newspapers both in the U.S. and in Ireland, produced by the Aisling Center, "While Mem'ry Brings Us Back Again" is a volume of memoirs by Irish emigrants to the U.S. between 1927-1964, compiled by Frances Browner.

You can get a copy of this book now by making one of the suggested donations through our online donations service. Just select the relevant donation depending on where you live, fill out your details, and we will mail you a copy of the book. Our online donations service is powered by PayPal for your peace of mind and security. Click here for more details on PayPal.

Click here to go to our donations page and reserve your copy of the book now.

PRESS RELEASE

AISLING IRISH COMMUNITY CENTER LAUNCHES
WHILE MEM’RY BRINGS US BACK AGAIN

Book Documents the Memories of Immigrants Who Arrived in New York from 1927 – 1964

Yonkers, NY, November 28, 2006 -- The Aisling Irish Community Center today launched While Mem’ry Brings Us Back Again, a book recounting the personal histories of 35 Irish immigrants who arrived in America between 1927-1964.
The idea for the book arose when Frances Browner, organizer of the Aisling Center’s spirited Friday “Young at Heart” group, suggested a creative writing workshop. She simply asked participants in the sessions to start writing down their memories of coming to the U.S. and how they built their lives here.
For their first assignment, the trigger phrase was: I remember…
I remember the first time I saw myself in the mirror . . .
I remember my first day at school . . .
I remember the awful snowstorm of 1947 . . .
I remember coming to America on the boat . . .
The last suggestion ignited a torrent of recollections from around the table – “I came on the SS America; the SS Washington; the Britannica; the Olympia; the Queen Elizabeth; the SS United States.”
The result is a moving 295-page publication that chronicles the extraordinary stories of ordinary people who made the journey from their homeland in search of a better life.
Available via www.aislingcenter.org, While Mem’ry Brings Us Back Again details first impressions of America, the social life, the beach at Rockaway, and vacations in the Catskills. The immigrants recalled their childhoods and the families, villages, towns, and parishes they left behind.
“Far from their families, friends and everything they were used to. Every one of them overcame homesickness and the challenges of a new world and built fine lives for themselves in this great country,” said Tim O’Connor, Consul General of Ireland, host of the evening. “These stories will delight, absorb and uplift you. They also underline again the amazing story of the Irish in America and just how good this country has been to millions of our people. “
They remembered first jobs in Schrafft’s restaurants, the New York Telephone Company, and B. Altman’s. Dance halls such as the Jaeger House, City Center, and the Tuxedo Ballroom came back to life. Sundays at Gaelic Park were vividly recaptured, as was the magnificence of a long ago Fordham Road and The Grand Concourse. Meanwhile, Manhattan’s Inwood section, Highbridge and Kingsbridge in the Bronx, Woodside, Queens and other areas were transformed from unfamiliar territory to thriving enclaves of Irish life.

Featured in the book are the stories of immigrants including 100-year old Jimmy Clarke; band leader and Vietnam vet Sean Fleming; Dr. Michael Browner, a retired English professor at the University of Miami and the father of Clinton Administration EPA director Carol Browner; long-time Philadelphia resident Pat Murray, whose house blew up on July 4th weekend in 1979; Project Children founder Denis Mulcahy; and 94-year old entertainer Joe Cunningham, who recounted hearing the news that the great Irish leader Michael Collins had been assassinated.
“A story does not need to have an elaborate plot, intricate language or sophisticated vocabulary,” said Frances Browner, who organized the project, interviewed the subjects and compiled the book. “A story should simply come from the heart. All of these memoirs come from the hearts of the people who lived them.”
Eileen Moran, who emigrated from Cork City in 1951, movingly recaptured the heartbreak of leaving family behind and beginning her life in a new country:

I wonder if my mother ever missed having me around when she got sick. Did she regret sending me off that day, her little girl in ankle socks, on a journey from which I would never return.

“I was transported back 50 years and plunged into a place that was already forgotten by the time of my own arrival in 1987,” Browner added. “Why did I not know all this before? Putting this book together may help keep these memories alive for future generations of Irish Americans to know what it was like to be a new arrival.”
With the publishing of While Mem’ry Brings Us Back Again the memories once in danger of being lost have been preserved forever. The book is available for a donation of $20.00 plus $5.95 shipping & handling by sending a check to Aisling Center, 990 McLean Avenue, Yonkers, NY 10704. The proceeds will support the Aisling Center’s community outreach programs.
“We tried to include as many compelling personal histories as we could without making the book too overwhelming,” said Agnes Delaney, Board Chair of the Aisling Center. “We tried to present a representative sample of the experiences of 35 individuals from 18 different counties who arrived in America from 1927-1964.”

CONTRIBUTORS

Media Contact: John Mooney, (908) 720-6057, johnrmooney@yahoo.com

While Mem’ry Brings Us Back Again features the stories of:

1. Jimmy Clarke, 1927 (County Galway) – Bronx, NY
2. Rose McGurk, 1928 (County Derry) – Bronx, NY
3. Frank Bergin, 1929 (Cork City) – Sunnyside, Queens
4. Joe Cunningham, 1929 (County Clare) – Yonkers, NY
5. Rose Cunningham, 1932 (County Leitrim) – Yonkers, NY
6. Thomas McCarrick, 1948 (County Sligo) – Mamaroneck
7. Michael Browner, 1950 (Limerick City) – Miami
8. Julia Malpeli (Doyle), 1951 (County Kilkenny) – Bronx, NY
9. Eileen Moran, 1951 (Cork City) – Bronx, NY
10. Terry Connaughton, 1952 (County Roscommon) – Bronx, NY (Riverdale)
11. Theresa McNamara, 1952 (County Leitrim) – Yonkers, NY
12. Mike Cremins, 1953 (County Kerry) – Yonkers, NY
13. Chris Butler, 1955 (County Offaly) – Yonkers, NY
14. Anne O’Connor, 1955 (County Clare) – Bronx, NY
15. Jimmy Chambers, 1956 (County Clare) – Bronx, NY
16. Ann Chambers, 1959 (County Derry) – Bronx, NY
17. Peggy Murphy, 1956 (County Cork) – Bronx, NY
18. Bridget Glendon, 1956 (County Donegal) – Bronx, NY
19. Pat Sheehy, 1956 (Dublin) – Bronx, NY
20. Mary Carrigan, 1957 (County Leitrim) – Bronx, NY
21. Mary Judge, 1957 (County Sligo) – Bronx, NY
22. Jean McPeake, 1957 (Derry) – Bronx, NY
23. Martin O’Malley, 1957 (County Mayo) – Bronx, NY
24. Carmen Purcell, 1957 (Belfast City) – Bronx, NY
25. Jerry Cregan, 1958 (County Kerry) – Bronx, NY
26. Marion Cregan, 1958 (County Cavan) – Bronx, NY
27. Patrick Murray, 1958 (Dublin) – Philadelphia, PA
28. Philomena Murray, 1958 (Limerick City) – Philadelphia, PA
29. Oliver O’Donnell, 1960 (County Tipperary) – Yonkers, NY
30. Bill Burke, 1960 (County Sligo) – New Rochelle, NY
31. Therese Crowe, 1962 (County Tipperary) – Leonia, NJ
32. Denis Mulcahy, 1962 (County Cork) – Greenwood Lake, NY
33. Mary Woods, 1962 (County Armagh) – Bronx, NY
34. Sean Fleming, 1963 (County Kerry) – Nyack, NY
35. Agnes Delaney, 1964 (County Galway) – Bronxville, NY

Counties:
1. Antrim
2. Armagh
3. Cavan
4. Clare
5. Cork
6. Derry
7. Donegal
8. Dublin
9. Galway
10. Kerry
11. Kilkenny
12. Leitrim
13. Limerick
14. Mayo
15. Offaly
16. Roscommon
17. Sligo
18. Tipperary