Drom man writes first novel

A MAN living near Templemore who spends most days cleaning gutters and power washing buildings has found a new escape in novel writing.

Raghnall Cagney (48), a native of Thurles living in the village of Drom for two decades, has just published his first novel, Nellie’s Kids.

The idea for the book came after he heard a discussion about a conman on the RTÉ radio Liveline programme around twenty ago.

“It’s an idea that has been brimming for a lot of years and I only seriously sat down to get on with the book during the Covid period – because what else would I be doing,” Raghnall told The Guardian.

“In writing the book I developed a back story about the conman’s mother and all the miserable events that happened to her in her life,” he says.

The book has echoes of difficult subjects like forced adoption, the treatment of residents of mother and baby homes, rape and domestic abuse.

“I know people might find flaw, but I will challenge anyone to be offended by what I have written, because I haven’t been gory or graphic in any way. There’s a very gentle humour in the book that should appeal to the subtle sense of humour of the Irish that I hope will leave people smirking and smiling.”

The solitude for Raghnall of writing is in stark contrast to busy physical days spent cleaning windows and gutters in Sequoia Cleaning, the company he founded and which operates all over Tipperary, including towns such as Nenagh.

ROBBING

The nefarious activities of the conman discussed on Liveline were something he felt was the basis for a book that would appeal to a wide audience.

“He was robbing from people in small ways, like borrowing cars from garages and driving to the next town. So it was nothing serious, 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 himself. So, I had this idea of writing about a loveable roguish conman with no real malice.”

The book jumps in timelines across chapters, form the 1960s until the present day and back again.

The big reveal comes at the end. Says Raghnall: “We find out why he became a conman and what his last and final con will be, and because it’s a story obviously the 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 to remedy the situation and salvage the con.”

The motivation to write Nellie’s Kids came after a friend of the author’s, a life coach, gave him the motivation to pursue his goal. “I really enjoyed the process and how the characters interact,” says Raghnall, who is hoping others will get as much pleasure reading it as he did in the writing.

Nellie’s Kids is currently on sale in Eason, Nenagh, and The Nenagh Bookshop. It is also available on Amazon as an audiobook.