A-Z Blogging Challenge - T is for Tom

Tom Keating is another ‘recurring’ character in my Mist Na Mara novels, and features in nearly all of them.

In Irish Inheritance, Jenna and Guy have inherited a house near Clifden in Connemara from a woman named Helena Keating, who had been born in County Galway in 1920. They discover that Mist Na Mara house was left to Helena by her father William Keating. This leads them to visit Tom Keating, an elderly man living in Clifden, who gives them more clues about William and the Keating family.

Tom also gets a mention in Irish Intrigue when he takes his dog to the veterinary clinic, but he has a bigger role in Irish Deceptions. When Finny (see my F post) stops attending school, and it becomes apparent he and his mother have left the house where they were living, Ellie discovers he is still walking Tom’s dog every morning. She arranges to visit Tom early one morning, but Finny runs off when he sees her there, so she is no wiser about where he and his mother have moved to.

In Irish Shadows, Tom has another significant role to play when he puts an end to a family feud which began during the Irish Civil War in the 1920s. Last but not least, in Irish Echoes, it turns out that Tom’s ancestor, Padraig Keating, originally came from Kilcreggan, one of the villages which was abandoned during the Potato Famine in the 1840s and whose location has remained unknown until Elliot finally manages to trace it.

Little did I realise when Tom Keating first appeared in Irish Inheritance that he would insist on appearing in my other novels!

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