BY DEIRDRE FLANAGAN WARD
NEIGHBOR
— to —
NEIGHBOR
TheJournalNJ.com | APRIL 2020 45
Local Author Shares Glimpse
on Growing Up Irish
On March 3, residents of The Chelsea in Shrewsbury
were treated to an afternoon of literature,
laughter and a look into what it was like growing
up Irish Catholic under the reign of strict immigrant
parents. Outreach Coordinator Linda Magill
invited her friend, neighbor, published author and
screenplay writer to share a few of his treasured memories
and tall tales with the group, and sign copies of
his latest work “This is Your Brain on Shamrocks.”
Meet author Mike Farragher, Jersey City native
and current Spring Lake Heights resident who is best
described as “a rebel, a poet, and a trailblazer – an
Irish kid from Jersey City who bleeds green.”
“This is Your Brain on Shamrocks,” is not only a
catchy title for his book, it’s also a metaphor for the in-
uence an Irish upbringing has on American children
– which he details with honesty and humor throughout
his series of short stories.
Farragher’s parents hail from Counties Galway
and Limerick, Ireland, and he said like many immigrants,
they toiled in manual labor jobs in and
around Manhattan holding tight to the American
Dream. Their goal was to move to the suburbs and
create a better life for their kids, a life where they wouldn’t have to endure
the hardships of their parents. However, and here’s the irony, having Irish
parents also makes it interesting, for lack of a better word, to conform to the
American way.
“I grew up in Jersey City, moving down to Monroe Township when I was
12,” Farragher said. “I was sent to school on the rst day, teetering on the
edge of my teen years, with tombstone buckteeth, expandable waist Sears
Toughskin jeans
bought in the
husky section of
the store, and a
mustard velour
top. It took so
long for me to
assimilate in the
new school.”
“One of the
things that shaped
me in my formative
years was
growing up in the
urban jungle of
Jersey City and
then spending
summers on a rural
Irish farm,” he
added. “Calving
season, as an example,
was not a season we had on our calendar. Irish people who have cattle
add that as a season.”
Humor, honesty and candor pepper Farragher’s written experience of
an upbringing under the watchful eye of an Irish mom and of “being tangled
in a compost of Catholic guilt, repression from nuns, and a shadow of
doubt the other shoe is about to drop whenever you nd yourself at a peak
in your life.”
He said, “It’s in Irish mammies’ DNA to drop weapons-grade guilt
bombs all over the house to keep the proverbial trains running on time,
which makes for rich fodder for humorous stories in one’s later years. Writers
always get the last word. Always.”
When not perfecting his “side hustle” of writing books, plays and
screenplays, Farragher works as a vice president for a large Fortune 500
scientic supply and services company. He admits people often ask, “Are
you going to kick the day job to the curb if the writing thing takes off?” And
the answer is: He loves both aspects of his career.
“My day job is fullling, and I love my customers,” he said. “It also
feeds my bank account, so I am never in starving artist territory. I have no
distractions of how I’m going to make a mortgage payment to keep me
from being creative. From a creative perspective, one feeds the other.”
His job can be difcult though too.
“As a writer, making time to write, sticking with the time you committed
to, and then clearing your head so that you come from a place of nothing
in which you can create something, that’s a perpetual challenge,” he
said. “Meditating 10 minutes before writing time, lighting a few candles
for a mood and/or a stiff whiskey usually does the trick!”
For more information about Mike Farragher and his updated blogs
and stories, visit ThisIsYourBrainOnShamrocks.com.
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