Crossing Highbridge: A Memoir of Irish America

by Maureen Waters

Overview

The first in her family born in the United States, Maureen Waters grew up the "Bronx Irish" daughter of two unforgettable immigrants: her storytelling, former revolutionary father, and her fierce, IRA-supporting mother. Crossing Highbridge is framed by the accidental death of Waters's son and her struggle to make sense of this loss by re-imagining her past and her heritage. Her life in postwar New York City was colored by Catholicism and strong cultural links to "the other side"-by Irish step dancing, the melodies of Thomas Moore, and the rituals, inflections, and harrowing memories impressed on her. Sex was a mystery. Schoolgirls wore below-the-knee blue serge uniforms with starched white collars and cuffs. Brutal treatment at the hands of the nuns who ran her college drove Waters to transfer to a secular school. Waters rebelled against an upbringing that seemed to wall her off from the twentieth century. She marr ed outside the church, divorced, and became a scholar and professor at the City University of New York. Waters follows in the tradition of her father with this vividly humorous and moving true tale.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815606826
Publisher:	Syracuse University Press
Publication date:	04/01/2001
Series:	Irish Studies
Edition description:	1 ED
Pages:	168
Product dimensions:	6.28(w) x 9.33(h) x 0.72(d)

About the Author

Maureen Waters is professor of English and acting director of Irish Studies at Queen's College, New York. She is the author of The Comic Irishman and the coeditor of Lady Gregory: Selected Writings.

Table of Contents

	Preface	xi
	Acknowledgments	xiii
	Brian Patrick	3
	Bronx Irish	11
	The Bridge	11
	University Avenue	13
	An Irish Father	20
	Mayo Woman	29
	Tribal Voices	37
	Nuns	42
	Death's Dominion	52
	Rockaway	56
	A Green World	59
	Songs and Hornpipes	65
	The Flesh and the Devil	69
	Intemperate Need	75
	Soundings	83
	No Celestial Signpost	90
	Mythologies	99
	Locating America	107
	At the Interior	123
	Appendix	141

What People are Saying About This

Michael Pearson

On its deepest level, it is a story of a woman who has suffered an unimaginable loss (the death of her son) and attempts to make sense of that loss by re-imagining her past and her own heritage. . . . A fascinating story, poignant and evocative, a true tale in every sense of that term.

Editorial Reviews

In her moving memoir, Waters recounts her parents' divergent memories of growing up in Ireland and their emigration to the Bronx in the early twentieth century; she investigates how these versions of the past helped shape her own identity as an Irish American.

American Literary History

Those of Irish ancestry may recognize their own family's habits in this memoir by Waters (English, Queens College, New York City). Waters relates the history and politics of her Irish parents, her childhood in the Bronx, her education in Catholic schools, the culture of her Irish neighborhood, and her ultimate rebellion from the mores there. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

A touching meditation on her Irish immigrant family and her own life.

Commonweal