Diarmuid Ó Conghaile

An economist, Diarmuid has always had literary leanings.

He started writing in his teens, has an unpublished novel, and studied Kafka in Berlin, having won a scholarship. He met his wife there.

Diarmuid has worked as an economist for 20 years, for the European Commission, various government departments, and for commercial state-owned companies. “I was surprised by Ireland’s economic success. At the time of The Commitments, it was almost a mark of being Irish to fail. I wanted to set the novel during the boom time, but it’s not about the Celtic Tiger. It’s character driven. It was the character of Alexander who interested me. He was in my earlier, unpublished book, but he evolved.”