Underbelly
Description
A teenage boy witnesses a physical attack on an elderly man in a local wood and is immediately threatened by a menacing stranger to keep what he saw a secret to ensure his father's safety. A few days later, unknown to the public at large, the corpse of a supposedly penniless drunk disappears from his coffin when reposing in a secluded rural church.
The events conspire to turn the life of local curate and former soldier Fr Liam Hegarty upside down. When the boy's future wellbeing is thrust on his shoulders, Liam's commitment to try and find peaceful solutions to all conflicts is tested to the extreme when he is forced to become an unwitting trouble-shooter.
As the poisoned underbelly of their town begins to be exposed, some locals in the foothills Kerry village of Knockeven discover that some of their friends and neighbours are far from the people they imagined they were. Instead, they are cold, calculating individuals who will stop at nothing to satisfy their sexual and financial desires.
More details
Person
Tom Fitzgerald is a native of Askeaton, Co Limerick, is married to Deirdre and has two children Darragh and Kate. He has always wanted to be a writer but never had the time required to pursue his dream. To keep his hand in, he completed creative writing classes through the years at Listowel Writers Centre, Limerick Writers' Centre, and Askeaton Secondary School. Since he began investing time in writing, he has completed two books for children which he hopes to publish, has had short stories published in the Limerick Writers Centre Anthologies in 2018, 2019 and 2020 and has had Christmas Stories included in West Limerick Radio's Christmas Miscellany for the last three years. He has been a regular contributor to the letters page of the Irish Examiner for many years and has entered his stories in various short story competitions for children and adults.
From a family of ecclesiastical decorators whose roots can be traced back at least five generations, Tom credits his creativity in no small way to the meticulous nature his extended family applied to their work and the pride they had in their trade and craftsmanship. It undoubtedly fostered patience and a desire for perfection, two necessary parts of writing. Tom also acknowledges his work as a painter /decorator and his involvement in sport in Limerick County and City gave him a great opportunity to meet a broad spectrum of people who have enriched his life and fed his creativity.
