In Pictures: Limerick man launches his latest novel, The Truth About Lies

WITHIN just a few minutes of chatting to Limerick author Tom Fitzgerald, it’s hard not to sense his deep need to tell stories.

Originally a painter by trade, Tom describes how he often used to sneak away to begin jotting down characters and ideas. “I used to say to the lads ‘oh, I have to go and get more paint’, I'd just go away to the van and write. If I wasn't working for myself I'd have been fired.”

Tom can remember stories floating around in his mind since he was a schoolboy. “My head was always in the clouds, my problem with doing the essays in school was that I wouldn't stop when I was supposed to. My whole life I've been writing down new stories on anything around, the sides of all my cigarette boxes are full of stories.”

A mind seemingly overflowing with plots and characters, Tom's habits have paid off. On Sunday, December 3, he launched his second novel, The Truth about Lies, at the People's Museum of Limerick in the city's Pery Square.

The Truth about Lies weaves a complex web involving a missing person’s case, police investigations and the criminal underworld. All set against the contrastingly scenic backdrop of present day Killarney.

Acclaimed Limerick- based writer Roisin Meaney launched the book with great pride.

“Like many an Irish writer, I have a particular fondness for those books that are imagined and set in Ireland. I like the way they taste, I like their flavours and their accents, and, being a proud Kerry woman, I’m delighted that The Truth About Lies is set in Killarney. There is nothing like a whodunit in scenic surroundings,” she smiled.

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Askeaton native Tom Fitzgerald always felt the draw to being a writer, but the death of his father, in his 20s, saw him take over the family business.

Coming from a five-generation line of painters, creativity flows in his blood. It wasn't until his 30s that the draw to storytelling was reignited by his own children. “I started making up stories for them. After that I'd be waking up at night with the stories in my head. You'd see me the next morning then with 27 chapters laid out in front of me.”

Tom began honing his craft, attending creative writing classes in Askeaton, Listowel and Limerick and writing short stories for several Limerick Writers' Centre anthologies.

“At creative writing classes, you’re sitting in a room with very educated people with masters degrees, and journalists who turn out books, and you’re thinking to yourself ‘what am I doing here? I haven’t got a chance at this’. I think there’s a huge lesson there for people who have these stories and won’t write them.”

The catalyst for Tom's novel writing was the triple bypass heart surgery he had to undergo in 2021. “When a man has your heart out on a table, you kind of think to yourself “oh sugar, I might not get a chance to do this again, so here goes’.”

Tom's first novel, Underbelly, and The Truth About Lies is available in O'Mahony's bookstores, and online from the Amazon Kindle store and the Limerick Writers' Centre website.