Tom Phelan
om Phelan was born and reared on a small farm in Mountmellick, Co. Laois, Ireland. He had just turned fifty when his first novel, “In the Season of the Daisies,” was accepted for publication in Dublin. One reviewer later wrote, "The most obvious question posed by a novelistic debut with as much resounding vigour as this is: Where has Mr. Phelan BEEN?" “In the Season of the Daisies” was later selected by Barnes and Noble for its Discover Great New Writers series and was a finalist for the Discover award. Since then, Tom has written the novels "Iscariot," "Derrycloney," "The Canal Bridge," "Nailer," and "Lies the Mushroom Pickers Told." These deal with such themes as Irish soldiers in World War I, returned emigrants, the abusive Irish industrial schools and the church-state collusion that allowed them to flourish, the priesthood, and life in rural Ireland in the mid-1900s. Tom Phelan’s most recent work, "We Were Rich and We Didn't Know It: A Memoir of My Irish Boyhood," was awarded a star by Kirkus Reviews, indicating a book of exceptional merit.
