Growing Up Poor in Irish Boston
"Growing Up Poor in Irish Boston” is a podcast series, colored with humor, nostalgia and pathos. It’s about a Boston tenement kid, born in 1939, clawing his way out of poverty by being hard-working, creative, persistent, entrepreneurial and by taking risks often. There are also stories of my later life in Boston, Cambridge and New England. If you like old Boston stories or Irish-American stories or old Cambridge stories, this is your podcast. If you like Pull-Yourself-Up-By-The-Bootstrap type stories and/or down-to-earth philosophy with a Roman Catholic, funny and relatively conservative slant, then this is for you.
I am Roderick Patrick Murphy, born into a large, loving Irish family in Boston, widowed after 50+ happy years. So I am now doing some writing, volunteering and learning how to be a bachelor again.
- Update frequency
- every day
- Average duration
- 7 minutes
- Episodes
- 100
- Years Active
- 2025
Ep.18 Speaker Tip O'Neil & My College Expulsion
Ep.18 Speaker Tip O'Neil & My College Expulsion spells out how my entrepreneurial actions caused my college expulsion. It also shows why we need political connections.
Ep. 10 Dollars Fall with the Snow
Ep. 10 Dollars Fall with the Snow discusses making money shoveling snow in the wealthy neighborhoods.
Ep. 42 From Dungarees to Blue Jeans
Ep. 42 From Dungarees to Blue Jeans makes a case for disrupting the American descent into almost 100% indistinguishability from each other.
Ep. 11 Little Roddy’s New Years Eve in Times Square
Ep. 11 Little Roddy’s New Years Eve in Times Square, tells the story of my determination to be in Times Sq. on New Years Eve. I did it at 14 years old!
Ep. 15 Rosie the Riveter
Ep. 15 Rosie the Riveter tells the story of World War 2 housewives stepping up to take factory jobs making munitions, etc.
Ep.32A Dad's Failed Fire Extinguisher Business
Ep.32A Dad's Failed Fire Extinguisher Business portrays my father's side gig attempts to fatten up the family income.
Ep.14A Jesus Coming through the Roof
Ep.14A Jesus Coming through the Roof talks about my juvenile delinquent friends & I harassing a Black Church service. It's funny but it was not very nice.
Ep. 47 My Roxbury Real Estate Office
Ep. 47 My Roxbury Real Estate Office tells of my young man's experience as a real estate broker in Roxbury.
Ep. 59 Boston Mayors & the Murphys
Ep. 59 Boston Mayors & the Murphys relates experiences by Murphy family members with Boston mayors.
Ep. 37 Flyfishing in the Slums
Ep. 37 Flyfishing in the Slums is a description of fishing in Boston's urban Charles River and my 10 year old attempts at flyfishing.
Ep. 33 Uncle Clarence's Haunted House
Ep. 33 Uncle Clarence's Haunted House portrays our family's summer vacations and my mother's old Yankee farmer's kinds haunted house.
Ep. 27 Outdoor Confession in Boston's Combat Zone
Ep. 27 Outdoor Confession in Boston's Combat Zone talks about the RC Sacrament of Penance and how my generation of Catholics understood their Faith.
Ep.1B The Murphys, Tom & Helen's Kids
Ep.1B The Murphys, Tom & Helen's Kids presents my family, 7 kids and a mother and father as atypical in our less than affluent beginnings.
Ep. 65 Irish America Disappearing
Ep. 65 Irish America Disappearing bemoans the loss of today's Irish American population lack of knowledge and understanding of our forbears and their native country.
Ep. 66 Christmas at the Murphys in the 1950s
Ep. 66 Christmas at the Murphys in the 1950s describes the warm and loving Murphy family in the 1950s at Christmas.
Episode 51B Catholic School & Discipline
Episode 51B Catholic School & Discipline describes why Catholic schools were so effective in teaching kids Reading, Writing and Rithmatic.
Episode 51A Catholic School & Discipline
Episode 51A Catholic School & Discipline describes why Catholic schools were so effective in teaching kids Reading, Writing and Rithmatic.
Episode 5B Fenway Park & Illicit Parking Gig
Episode 5B Fenway Park & Illicit Parking Gig. This one shows the innate larcenous creativeness of so-called poor kids.
Ep. 30 My Faith & Conscience
Episode 30 My Faith & Conscience provides listeners and viewers of how I became a leader in the battle against abortion.