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  • We Were Rich and We Didn't Know It

  • A Memoir of My Irish Boyhood
  • By: Tom Phelan
  • Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
  • Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (36 ratings)
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We Were Rich and We Didn't Know It cover art

We Were Rich and We Didn't Know It

By: Tom Phelan
Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
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Summary

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

What listeners say about We Were Rich and We Didn't Know It

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Reminiscent of a bygone era

Having listened to this I bought it for my 90 year old Dad who was brought up on a farm in Ireland. When he started reading it I had an emotional phone call from him to say how much he was enjoying it and how it was bringing back lots of memories of his time spent with his Dad when he was young.

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Excellent

This has to be one of the best audio I have listened. it brings you back to life in Ireland when money was short but people stilled looked out for one another

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Hard to listen

I found it very difficult to listen to the narrator , for me it killed the great book .

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