We Were Rich and We Didn''t Know It: A Memoir of My Irish Boyhood

You dont have to be Irish to cherish this literary giftjust being human and curious and from a family will suffice. Malachy McCourt, New York Times bestselling author of A Monk Swimming

In the tradition of Frank McCourts Angelas Ashes and Alice Taylors To School Through the Fields, Tom Phelans We Were Rich and We Didnt 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 back-breaking.

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 Didnt Know It recounts Toms 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 lifes adversities. See more