Briarhill to Brooklyn
An Irish Family's Journey to Freedom and Opportunity
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Briarhill to Brooklyn
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Narrated by:
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Scott Fleming
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By:
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Jack Bodkin
About this listen
Briarhill to Brooklyn is a work of creative nonfiction, in which I tell the story of my Irish family’s journey from County Galway on a coffin ship named Cushlamachree. Their destination was Brooklyn.
The main characters are real people, and the locations, events and timelines are historically accurate. Some of the book is fact, but most is fiction sewn together with factual places, names, and dates.
Briarhill to Brooklyn relates what I have imagined about my family’s lives between 1848 and 1902.
The prologue sets the stage for the immigrants’ story, using the retrospective voice of a first-person narrator, as he describes his boyhood memory of the family crowding around a table in their Irish cottage for another meal of boiled potatoes. The storyteller recalls his mam talking to his da.
“’John, do todhchaí ár bpáistí, ní mór dúinn dul go Meiriceá.”… ‘John, for the future of our children, we must go to America.’”
British parliament’s role in the starvation of the Irish people is clear from the opening pages, and you will understand the tragic conditions in famine-era Galway as the narrator relates the startling images he encounters walking through the ancient city.
Early chapters establish several storylines, and the first half of the book is consumed by the family’s last days in Ireland, the steerage voyage across the Atlantic, and the Cushlamachree’s landing in New York. An unimaginable hurdle confronts the family after they arrive in Brooklyn, but the siblings survive and manage to assimilate into New York’s melting pot.
The most significant event that transpired in America after the Bodkins arrived in 1848 was the Civil War, and several chapters of Briarhill to Brooklyn detail the impact the war had on the family.
The journey I describe in Briarhill to Brooklyn—fleeing Ireland, steerage, a new life in Brooklyn, Civil War, prosperity—has caused many American Irish immigrants to think, “This is my family.”
©2021 John S. Bodkin, Jr. (P)2022 John S. Bodkin, Jr.Listeners also enjoyed...
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By: Bo Caldwell
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Guernica
- A Novel
- By: Dave Boling
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 126
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 77
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 78
Calling to mind such timeless war-and-love classics as Corelli's Mandolin and The English Patient, Guernica is a transporting novel that thrums with the power of storytelling and is peopled with characters driven by grit and heart.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Guernica a good historical novel
- By ARLEENE on 04-26-11
By: Dave Boling
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The Nine of Us
- Growing Up Kennedy
- By: Jean Kennedy Smith
- Narrated by: Lorna Raver
- Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 125
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 110
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 110
In this evocative and affectionate memoir, Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, the last surviving child of Joe and Rose Kennedy, offers an intimate and illuminating look at a time long ago when she and her siblings, guided by their parents, laughed and learned a great deal under one roof.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Inside the Kennedy Family~ excellent and funny~
- By Molly on 10-30-16
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The Cigar Factory
- A Novel of Charleston
- By: Michele Moore
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 87
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 82
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Story4 out of 5 stars 82
Cassie McGonegal and her niece, Brigid, work upstairs in the factory rolling cigars by hand. Meliah Amey Ravenel works in the basement, where she stems the tobacco. While both white and black workers suffer in the harsh working conditions of the factory and both endure the sexual harassment of the foremen, segregation keeps them from recognizing their common plight until the Tobacco Workers Strike of 1945.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Tale of Two Charlestons
- By Susie on 08-10-16
By: Michele Moore
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Forgiveness
- A Gift from My Grandparents
- By: Mark Sakamoto
- Narrated by: Geoff Sugiyama
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 39
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
When the Second World War broke out, Ralph MacLean chose to escape his troubled life on the Magdalen Islands in eastern Canada and volunteer to serve his country overseas. Meanwhile, in Vancouver, Mitsue Sakamoto saw her family and her stable community torn apart after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Admirable progenitors
- By M. D. Baines on 04-24-18
By: Mark Sakamoto
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The Waiting
- The True Story of a Lost Child, a Lifetime of Longing, and a Miracle for a Mother Who Never Gave Up
- By: Cathy LaGrow, Cindy Coloma - contributor
- Narrated by: Pamela Klein
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 261
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 239
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 239
In the summer of 1928, sixteen-year-old Minka was looking forward to a sewing class picnic. This would be a rare chance to put aside farm chores, don a pretty dress, and enjoy an outing with other girls. It would be a day to remember. And it was - but not in the way Minka had dreamed. Cornered by a stranger in the woods, the young girl was assaulted. Minka still believed that the stork brought babies; she would not discover for months that she was pregnant.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Captivating and fantastic
- By John alexander on 10-03-19
By: Cathy LaGrow, and others
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The Silence of Ghosts
- A Novel
- By: Jonathan Aycliffe
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 42
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 40
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Story4 out of 5 stars 39
Dominic Lancaster hoped to prove himself to his family by excelling in the Navy during World War II. Instead he is wounded while serving as a gunner, and loses his leg. Still recovering from his wounds and the trauma of his amputation when the Blitz begins, Dominic finds himself shuffled off to the countryside by his family, along with his partially deaf sister, Octavia.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Spooky story. All it lacks is the campfire.
- By DarylP on 10-09-15
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The Tea Rose
- By: Jennifer Donnelly
- Narrated by: Jill Tanner
- Length: 28 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,986
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,829
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,816
East London, 1888 - a city apart. A place of shadow and light where thieves, whores, and dreamers mingle, where children play in the cobbled streets by day and a killer stalks at night, where bright hopes meet the darkest truths. Here, by the whispering waters of the Thames, Fiona Finnegan, a worker in a tea factory, hopes to own a shop one day, together with her lifelong love, Joe Bristow, a costermonger's son. With nothing but their faith in each other to spur them on, Fiona and Joe struggle, save, and sacrifice to achieve their dreams.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wow. Wow wow wow!
- By I like to shop on 04-26-16
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Remember Us
- My Journey from the Shtetl Through the Holocaust
- By: Vic Shayne, Martin Small
- Narrated by: Peter Altschuler
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 367
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 333
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Story5 out of 5 stars 331
Remember Us is a look back at the lost world of the shtetl: a wise Zayde offering prophetic and profound words to his grandson, the rich experience of Shabbos, and the treasure of a loving family. All this is torn apart with the arrival of the Holocaust, beginning a crucible fraught with twists and turns so unpredictable and surprising that they defy any attempt to find reason within them. Through the eyes of 91-year-old Holocaust survivor Martin Small, we learn that these priceless memories that are too painful to remember are also too painful to forget.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Tragic and Rich Life, With Lessons For All
- By still reading on 03-17-16
By: Vic Shayne, and others
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The Island
- By: Victoria Hislop
- Narrated by: Emma Powell
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 88
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 82
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Story5 out of 5 stars 82
On the brink of a life-changing decision, Alexis Fielding plans a trip to her mother's childhood home in Plaka, Greece hoping to unravel Sofia's hidden past. Given a letter to take to Sofia's old friend, Fotini, Alexis is promised that through Fotini, she will learn more. Arriving in Plaka, Alexis is astonished to see that it lies a stone's throw from the deserted island of Spinalonga—Greece's former leper colony. Fotini reveals the story that Sofia has buried all her life: the tale of her great-grandmother Eleni and her daughters, and a family rent by tragedy, war, and passion.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Will listen to it again someday
- By RN on 01-07-23
By: Victoria Hislop
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The Daughters of Mars
- By: Tom Keneally
- Narrated by: Jane Nolan
- Length: 18 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 132
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 117
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Story4 out of 5 stars 117
Naomi and Sally Durance are daughters of a dairy farmer from the Macleay Valley. Bound together in complicity by what they consider a crime, when the Great War begins in 1914 they hope to submerge their guilt by leaving for Europe to nurse the tides of young wounded. They head for the Dardanelles on the hospital ship Archimedes. Their education in medicine, valour, and human degradation continues on the Greek island of Lemnos, then on the Western Front. Here, new outrages - gas, shell-shock - present themselves.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Interesting WWI novel with an Australian bent
- By Sarah Gamp on 03-09-13
By: Tom Keneally
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Behind Enemy Lines
- The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany
- By: Marthe Cohn, Wendy Holden
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 102
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 91
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Story5 out of 5 stars 92
Marthe Cohn was a young Jewish woman living just across the German border in France when Hitler rose to power. Her family sheltered Jews fleeing the Nazis, including Jewish children sent away by their terrified parents. But soon her homeland was also under Nazi rule. As the Nazi occupation escalated, Marthe's sister was arrested and sent to Auschwitz and the rest of her family was forced to flee to the south of France. Always a fighter, Marthe joined the French Army and became a member of the intelligence service of the French First Army.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing story of a fighter and survivor
- By Magalie Busch on 05-06-19
By: Marthe Cohn, and others
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Something Beautiful Happened
- A Story of Survival and Courage in the Face of Evil
- By: Yvette Manessis Corporon
- Narrated by: Pam Turlow
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 76
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 68
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Story4 out of 5 stars 66
Yvette Manessis Corporon grew up listening to her grandmother's stories about how the people of the small Greek island Erikousa hid a Jewish family - a tailor named Savvas and his daughters - from the Nazis during World War II. Nearly 2,000 Jews from that area died in the concentration camps, but even though everyone on Erikousa knew Savvas and his family were hiding on the island, no one ever gave them up, and the family survived the war. Years later, Yvette decided to track down the man's descendants - and eventually found them in Israel.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Absolutely wonderful! Thank you, Yvette.
- By Cellowoman on 09-21-17
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Roman's Journey
- An Extraordinary Odyssey of Holocaust Survival
- By: Roman Halter
- Narrated by: Robin Sachs
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 36
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
Roman Halter was a spirited, optimistic schoolboy in 1939 when he and his family gathered behind the curtains to watch the Volksdeutsche (German Polish) neighbors of their small town in western Poland greet the arrival of Hitler's armies with kisses and swastika flags. Within days, the family home had been seized, 12-year-old Roman had become a slave of the local SS chief, and, returning from an errand, he silently witnessed his Jewish classmates being bayoneted to death by soldiers at the edge of town. So began his remarkable six-year journey through some of the darkest caverns of Nazi Europe....
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1 out of 5 stars
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Could not finish!!!!
- By Natalie Rohde on 02-23-16
By: Roman Halter
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Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden
- Two Sisters Separated by China’s Civil War
- By: Zhuqing Li
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 81
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 67
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 67
Scions of a once-great southern Chinese family that produced the tutor of the last emperor, Jun and Hong were each other’s best friends until, in their twenties, they were separated at the end of the Chinese Civil War. One became a model Communist, the other a model capitalist. On Taiwan, Jun married a Nationalist general, established a trading company, and emigrated to the United States. On the Communist mainland, Hong built her medical career under a cloud of suspicion about her family and survived two waves of “re-education” before she was acclaimed for her achievements.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful Story of a Family’s Survival Through Political Change…
- By Marie G. on 04-12-23
By: Zhuqing Li
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Chicken Soup for the Soul: Stories of Faith
- Inspirational Stories of Hope, Devotion, Faith, and Miracles
- By: Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Amy Newmark - editor
- Narrated by: Sandra Burr, Tom Parks
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 50
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 49
This is the first Chicken Soup audiobook to focus specifically on stories of faith, including 101 of the best stories from Chicken Soup’s library on faith, hope, miracles, and devotion. These true stories written by regular people tell of prayers answered miraculously, amazing coincidences, rediscovered faith, and the serenity that comes from believing in a greater power, appealing to Christians and those of other faiths, and everyone who seeks enlightenment and inspiration through a good story.
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5 out of 5 stars
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good read
- By Amazon Customer on 07-29-16
By: Jack Canfield, and others
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Mosaic
- By: Diane Armstrong
- Narrated by: Deidre Rubenstein
- Length: 19 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 208
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 167
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 171
>i>Mosaic is compelling storytelling at its best - from the fascinating details of Polish-Jewish culture and the rivalries and dramas of family life, to its moving account of lives torn apart by war and persecution, this an extraordinary true story of a family, and of one woman's journey to reclaim her heritage.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Absolutely excellent!
- By Roberta on 09-22-11
By: Diane Armstrong
What listeners say about Briarhill to Brooklyn
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 08-04-23
Wonderful Story
I loved this story. I met Jack Bodkin on a plane, and he told me about the book. I bought it on the spot. What a wonderful story about his family. Being from Brooklyn made all the more enjoyable. Definitely recommended.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sybil Brown
- 08-05-22
Great
I really did love this book. The author did a great job, it was so interesting, the characters came alive, made me feel I was there with them. I loved the narrator with his Irish brogue. ❤️❤️
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jacqueline Crooker
- 11-20-23
Excellent a must read for a Genealogist
Very very interesting!!! My own family is from Waterford and similar in context. tracing my family like the Bodkins would be a dream!
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