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We Were Rich and We Didn't Know It

A Memoir of My Irish Boyhood

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We Were Rich and We Didn't Know It

By: Tom Phelan
Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
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About this listen

In the tradition of Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes and Alice Taylor’s To School Through the Fields, Tom Phelan’s We Were Rich and We Didn't Know It is a heartfelt and masterfully written memoir of growing up in Ireland in the 1940s.

Tom Phelan, who was born and raised in County Laois in the Irish Midlands, spent his formative years working with his wise and demanding father as he sought to wrest a livelihood from a farm that was often wet, muddy, and backbreaking.

It was a time before rural electrification, the telephone, and indoor plumbing; a time when the main modes of travel were bicycle and animal cart; a time when small farmers struggled to survive and turkey eggs were hatched in the kitchen cupboard; a time when the Church exerted enormous control over Ireland.

We Were Rich and We Didn't Know It recounts Tom’s upbringing in an isolated, rural community from the day he was delivered by the local midwife. With tears and laughter, it speaks to the strength of the human spirit in the face of life's adversities.

©2019 Tom Phelan (P)2019 Simon & Schuster Art & Literature Authors Cultural & Regional Memoir Village Heartfelt
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I loved this book, it's beautifully written. the descriptions are wonderful and it feels like it's an honest recount.
I would love to hear more from Tom Phelan of his story though life.

beautifully written

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As i grew up in Laois in the fifties also on what was an average farm for that era 45 acres in reasonably good land near Durrow I found it an interesting maybe sad story
It took me a while to get into the storyline, but once I did I was hooked
Thank you Tom for telling it I have for most of my working life been involved in Agriculture & mining in Australia for the past 33 years
I have family in Nz and to conclude Tom’s story could be told in any country and that is based on my experiences in Australia Nz and the USA
Our generation have been extremely lucky that we never seen as my old neighbour used to say “The Blue Wind “
And his parents ,like my grandparents would have been around for the famine

Growing up in Lovely Laois

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Lovely narration. Great to have the glossary at the end. I both laughed and cried. Just delightful ❤️

A delight!

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I laughed and cried, and related wholeheartedly to this story. Tom Whelan has written a vibrant account of his life growing up in Irish, Catholic Ireland. I enjoyed his description of farm and town life, and the people within them. Above all, he poignantly represents the expectations of the cultural milieu for this period in Irish history. I visualised my parents' lives, the joys and the challenges they experienced and I understand it now. I don't often review books I read, or listen to through Audible but this one was truly memorable and highly recommended. For some reason, I chose to review this book almost 2 years after buying it.

For children of Irish parents born 1930s-1940s

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