AFTER spending three years living and working in New York in the mid 1990s, a Dublin man went home and spent years reminiscing over wonderful Irish American stories he heard during his time here. This past January he decided to do something to document them. Brian Reynolds, from Ranelagh, Co. Dublin, set up the Irish American Story Project in January to collect Irish and Irish American stories of past and present."It was in my head for a long time to do something like this. I had heard many great stories when I lived in New York and I initially thought they would make a good book, but then technology has changed so the next idea I came up was a website," Reynolds told the Irish Voice.Reynolds, 36, who worked with Merrill Lynch Investment Bank from 1993 to 1996 and did a few shifts at Pete's Tavern on 18th Street, said he was bowled over by the reaction of Irish Americans when they met an Irish-born person. "They looked and felt about Ireland so differently than I did. I was amazed at how proud they were of their culture and their roots," Reynolds said.After the initial encounter and pleasantries were exchanged, Reynolds remembers there wasn't an Irish American he would meet that didn't have a story about their immigrant relations. "It always began with my great grandfather or great grandmother came from Co. Kerry or wherever, and it went from there," remembers Reynolds.After years of contemplating collecting all these great stories and possibly putting a book together, Reynolds thought he would test the waters in January so he created a website called www.irishamericanstoryproject.com. "It is flying. We have had over 3,200 in the past two months and several people have written their stories," he said.One of Reynolds' personal favorites was the very first story written by a lady whose great grandmother went back to Ireland in the early 1900, and upon returning to the U.S. she paid for the fare of her neighbor from the next field over. "They ended up marrying and this couple's great granddaughter is just after graduating from Harvard. It is a beautiful story of how it all has come full circle," said Reynolds.Not only is the website about collecting stories from the turn of the century, Reynolds is interested in documenting more recent experiences also. "Several Irish went to America in the '90s on Morrison visas and I know that there is hundreds of stories to be told there too," he adds.Reynolds, who pointed out that three times more Americans went to Ireland than Irish went to the U.S. last year, said in a short few years these stories are going to get lost, so he is hoping by keeping the website alive it will preserve them for years. "There are 150 years of one way traffic to America and that has suddenly stopped so a lot of those stories will be lost. It's important to capture the stories while we can now," he feels.Mentioning that there may be a lot of older Irish who emigrated to New York in the '50s who may not be computer literate, Reynolds said he will also accept written letters which he will then type up and add to the website. "Some of the Irish people I met when I was over served in Vietnam and everything. They had some fantastic stories to tell," he said.Stating that any story is worth telling, Reynolds explained that it doesn't matter if it's a story about success, failure, laughter, joy, family experiences or travel - everything is worth sharing. "We just wish to capture stories relating to the Irish culture and the way the people have woven their culture into American society," he says.The website, which is advert free, is for social purposes only with no hidden agenda. "There are no fees for anything; it's all free. If people want they can just log on to read the stories. They truly are amazing," he said.Reynolds said down the line if there is enough interesting stories written, he might consider collaborating them together and creating a book of short stories.To contribute to the story project log onto www.irishamericanstoryproject.com. For those who do not have access to a computer, Reynolds will accept stories by mail to 10 Park View, Northbrook Avenue, Ranelagh, Dublin 6, Ireland.