Thurles writer pens his first novel and all are invited to the launch!

Nellie's Kids is the name of a new book by Raghnall Cagney. Always a big thing to write a book, the author says it was an idea that first came to him while doing his day job twenty years ago:

“I have my own cleaning business, so I was driving around in the van and I was listening to Liveline on the radio and they started talking about a real conman who was travelling the country and he was stealing from people.

“It was a Liveline drama and they were asking the public to help the guards but he came across as a loveable rogue. He was robbing from people in small ways like borrowing cars from garages and driving to the next town. 

“So it was nothing serious but more of an inconvenience. He would stay here and there pretending to be a priest and of course no one got paid.

“My impression as a listener was that this man was very skilled at taking small amounts of money and living a good life for himself. 

“So I had this idea of writing about a loveable rogueish con man with no real malice. That was the origin of the story. The book is a novel, a con man's story.

“We witness his final big score which of course goes wrong and learn why he became a con man which adds an intergenerational story.”

Raghnall Cagney says that in spite of its dark topics in places, which relates to sad incidents in Irelands collective past, the book is written in a non graphic way: “It is more ‘Midsomer Murders’ than ‘Cracker’.

“We touch on forced adoption, eviction and other issues but hopefully in a non shock way.

“I describe it as Philomena mashed up with Arthur Daley of ‘Minder’. The book jumps in timelines across the chapters. It moves across time from the 1960s until the present day and back again.”

Raghnall says each line reveals more of the story as it goes along until near the end when all is revealed:

“We find out why he became a conman and what his last and final con will be and because it's a story, obviously that last final con has to go a bit wrong so some of it is comically wrong and some of it is seriously wrong but he has to try and remedy the situation and salvage the con.”

This is the writer's first foray into writing a novel and many hours have gone into developing the book as he went along: “I started with the idea for the book and it took form then.

“What pushed me to write the book was a friend of mine who is a lifecoach gave me the energy to pursue my goal and write the book.

“I was motivated to do it from that. I really enjoyed the process. I have learned from the process and I have really enjoyed how the characters interact.

“Some of the characters go back to the 1960s and the 1970s and I found that I enjoyed doing those historical chunks of the book a lot more than I did enjoy writing the 2023 stuff. Having said that, it all ties together and they work well together.

“When I wrote the con man it was based on the one I had heard about, but I didn't follow his story by the letter of the law.

“When I say at the beginning that it is complete fiction, it really is complete fiction, but I will say that some of the locations I use are actual locations.

“I used locations that I have been in before. None of the people bear any resemblance to any ‘real’ person so any coincidental similiarity is just that, it is coincidential. The story is about a con man but it talks about Ireland's dark history.”

Raghnall says anyone interested should come along to the official book launch in Thurles. All are welcome on the evening and he says they will enjoy the experience: 

“I would love to meet them. I will be talking about the book and will do a reading. Some of the stories in the book will resonate with people.”

The official launch will be in Bookworm, Liberty Square, Thurles on Friday the 13th of October at 7pm.