Limerick author launches book about life of Irish emigrants
‘I've Never Been to Me’ may have been a hit sensation for songwriter ‘Charlene’ in 1982, but by contrast Frances Browner has ‘been there and bought the T-shirt’.
In fact, the scion of old Limerick could not be more at home with herself especially when writing about the realities of life abroad for Irish emigrants, (her family, and of course, herself!).
She explained the backstory to her latest novel, ‘A Bronx Summer’ (2023). “It’s a coming-of-age story about a young girl, Kaye, who goes to New York to get away from a life at home that is falling apart.
“The man she loves is unresponsive, her best friend is pulling away, and Ireland is sinking into the economic doldrums. Everybody is leaving, including her cousin Chrissie who is constantly urging Kaye to join her. Eventually, she does, but only for the summer, or so she says!”
Browner added: “The story draws from a broad-spectrum of characters I met over there and the stories they told me. No one character is based on anyone specific. The novel revolves around why people emigrate, which is not always for economic reasons. Living in another land is a great experience and everyone should try it, but it does have a dark side.”
Five of her father Connie Browner’s six siblings emigrated in the 1950s so it was no great surprise when his daughter decided to follow in their wake.
Frances headed first to Paris to work as au pair for two years. Here her bohemian spirit came alive, studying French, frequenting folk clubs, hitch-hiking, and touring Europe in a Camper Van. A few years later, she headed for New York.
“I loved the place from the minute I landed,” she said. “The hustle and bustle of Manhattan, the freedom to be who you wanted to be, the camaraderie in the Irish enclaves (Yonkers and the Bronx).”
But it was when she moved to Montauk, on the tip of Long Island, that she first started to write fiction. Indeed, the genesis of ‘A Bronx Summer’ (2023) was a creative writing class that Frances took in East Hampton in the 1990s.
“It was first left in a notebook, before being resurrected a decade later, downloaded to a word processor and eventually saved to disc. However, I returned to it every now and again, editing, tweaking and eventually, rewriting it.”
Her short story, ‘The American Parcels’ was published by the East Hampton Star (1996). It recounts her father’s aunt, Nan Lynch, who had emigrated from Athlunkard Street to California in the 1960s.
When she retired, she returned to Limerick, and was thrilled to read the newspaper account.
Indeed, parts of the story were quoted by Frances’s uncle Paddy in his eulogy at Nan’s funeral, where the Shannon flag was draped over her coffin. The deceased’s father, Paddy Lynch, Frances’ great-grandfather was co-founder of the Club, and its first Captain. Antiquarian, Denis O’Shaughnessy, included extracts from the story in his best-selling compilation, ‘Stories of Limerick’.
While working in the Aisling Irish Community Centre in Yonkers, Frances also compiled a book of immigrant memoirs, entitled ‘While Memory Brings Us Back Again’ (2006).
Returning then to Ireland, she wrote several short stories, subsequently published and shortlisted in competitions, with memoirs broadcast on RTE’s ‘Sunday Miscellany’ and ‘Living Word’. ‘The Veil’ (2012) recounted the family veneration for Auntie Betty’s Limerick Lace Communion Veil.
The latter was worn by two of her cousins in New York, her younger sister, Maura; by Betty, and by her daughters, on their wedding days in California.
In 2015, a debut poem, ‘A Minefield in Korea 1953’ based on her Uncle Mike’s experiences there, was published in the University of Limerick’s Ogham Stone Literary and Arts Journal (2016).
Frances concluded: “In the 1980s, it was possible to come home every year, which I did, and my parents and family members visited me. The telephone also made home more accessible.
“However, when my aunts and uncles emigrated in the 1950s, it was years before they could return, and their only means of communication was by letter. Yet, their love and adoration of Limerick never wavered, including that of my own father, who only went as far as Dublin!”