by Tim Brannigan - £9.99 Blackstaff Press Ltd (2010)
paperback
ISBN 13: 9780856408533 | ISBN 10: 0856408530
Born into a devoutly Catholic Belfast family, Peggy Brannigan was devastated when she became pregnant as a result of an extra-marital affair with a black junior doctor. Unwilling to have an abortion or to have the baby adopted, Peggy came up with an audacious plan to keep her child.
When Tim was born hospital staff smuggled him into St Joseph’s Baby Home and told the rest of the Brannigan family that the baby had been stillborn. One year later, Peggy adopted Tim and brought him to live with her family in the Falls Road area of Belfast. It was 1967.
Told here for the first time, this is Tim’s extraordinary story, describing in vivid detail what it was like growing up black in Belfast during the turbulent 1970s and 80s, his five-year stint as a republican prisoner, his coming to terms with the true circumstances surrounding his birth, and his desperate attempts to trace the father who abandoned him.
Where Are You Really From? is a fascinating and powerful memoir about one man’s struggle to establish his own identity and a moving tribute to the woman who risked everything to keep her son.
(Price & availability last checked: December 2018)
In booklists: Black, Asian and Middle Eastern Biography and Autobiography, Irish Biography and Autobiography,
In categories: History & Biography, Black, Asian & Other Diasporas, Ireland, Scotland & Wales,
© News From Nowhere Co-operative Ltd IP24524R 2004-2024 | Privacy policy | Contact | return to top of page