Foreword written by Pete Hamill - A factual account of a Catholic man and women who faced the hardships of Protestant Northern Ireland in the 1910s through the 1920s. Despite growing up only 3 miles from each other in Belfast, they never met. They both immigrated, at different times in the mid to late '20s, to the same neighborhood in Brooklyn and met for the 1st time, by chance, in a dance hall on St. Patrick's Day weekend, in 1932. They fell in love and married, raising 7 children through in the very difficult years of the Great Depression, WWII, and post war recessions. The book is a combination of photos and text and family history, mush of which is drawn from taped interviews with Anne, the Matriarch, and anecdotes from family members who eked an existence and persevered, while growing up in Brooklyn. The latter part of the book is the tribulations of Anne's brother who tried persistently tried over his entire lifetime to immigrate to America to join his sister but legal woes prevented it. One year shy of his death, he was finally granted an entrance visa to the US. The majority of the 216 page book is filled with historic tales of Belfast, during its most difficult period, and ethnic life in Brooklyn, supported by reams of documentation and person testimony. NOTE: This edition is a culled down version of the Regular Edition minus about 24 pages of family photos to make it more of an Irish history research book.