University of Limerick Alumni Spotlight: Neil Tully

In the latest instalment of our Alumni Spotlight series, we speak to author, Neil Tully, a graduate of the MA in Creative Writing at University of Limerick, whose debut novel, The Visit, was published in March 2026.  

Neil shares his experience of studying creative writing at UL and how the encouragement and guidance he received from Professor Joseph O’Connor, Professor Sarah Moore Fitzgerald and Donal Ryan of UL’s Creative Writing team helped him on his journey to completing his debut novel. 

Tell us about yourself 

I grew up in County Mayo, one of six children now scattered far and wide.  

I was interested in almost nothing but football growing up, but my father, who was a Garda, read a lot – Dickens, and Hardy, and Penguin paperback classics – and encouraged reading. My eldest brother inundated us with great songwriters from the off, and I think that’s where a love of words and writing comes from.  

I’m a dentist, and live with my wife in Cork, after the better part of a decade away in Scotland and Australia.   

Why did you choose to do the MA in Creative Writing at UL? 

We moved back to Ireland just before the pandemic. Those years of restrictions were a wakeup call that the time we think we have to do things is not guaranteed.  

I always wanted to study writing in a more formal way. After living abroad for years, I was very out of touch about writing in Ireland, and when I was looking into courses, I remember thinking it was a huge coincidence that there were teachers named Donal Ryan and Joseph O’Connor at UL – I couldn’t quite believe I could just apply to learn from writers whose books I loved.   

What did you enjoy most about the programme?  

Lovely classmates – a whole load of people with the same interest in writing. There was around twenty of us, with very different voices and aims for our writing. Some were writing biography, some sci-fi, romantasy, crime, and literary fiction. Everything from obscure political figures to talking animals, nobody was doing the same thing, and it was all facilitated by brilliant teachers. It was a reminder of how big our imaginations can be and how important this is for writing. 

I have read some articles that worry about MFAs (Master of Fine Arts) and Creative Writing courses leading to a sort of generic, bland but well punctuated writing style, but what made UL so worthwhile was that at no point was anybody’s voice or originality encroached on.  

The course is best likened to having an eye test, where the optician drops in a new lens until you get the one that helps you to see clearly. It’s still your vision, but it’s been sharpened by an expert.  

How did the MA in Creative Writing help you get to where you are today in your writing career? 

The most important thing the MA did was help to develop a writing practice, or writing life. I was committed to writing, but left the MA with writing built into all aspects of how I spend my time – reading, listening to music, and so on.  

The practical help of a teacher like Professor Sarah Moore Fitzgerald improving a story with editorial feedback, then that story gets published, then that leads to another opportunity – a domino effect of help.  

I’ll embarrass myself by trying to explain how inspiring and helpful the teachers are. They are among today’s best teachers, editors, and novelists and you can’t spend time learning from such a team and not benefit in everything from confidence, to knowledge, to inspiration.   

How does it feel to now have your first novel, The Visit, published?  

I’m grateful to everybody who made it happen.  

I’m a little apprehensive as suddenly something that until this point has been mostly private work for the joy of it, now clashes with reviews, opinions, social media, and public aspects of publishing that are beyond my control. I’ll have to just separate those things.  

I hope people enjoy the book of course, and that it leads to the next one finding more readers.

You began writing The Visit while a student on the MA in Creative Writing at UL. Tell us about that journey from first draft to publication.  

I did, I brought a draft of the opening to a module with Professor Joseph O’Connor, and while it was raw and early, the encouragement he gave was enough for me to really settle on it as the work to pursue as the master’s neared its end.   

It’s hard to describe the clarity that established writers can give an emerging writer – I don’t know if they realise it themselves, but in a short amount of time great writers like Donal Ryan and Joseph O’Connor can untangle things for students, and after one or two meetings about this idea, the story unfolded in my mind in a way I don’t believe it would have without UL.   

I wrote it over around two years, and when I finally had a novel I thought was worth something, I looked for agents who represent Irish writers I admire, and found Simon Trewin. Simon was the only agent I sent it to, and he liked the book enough to take it on. 

The protagonists of The Visit are Patrick Hatten, a young man struggling to find a job, a life and a purpose in a small-town Wexford community, and Sergeant Jim Field who feels a guilty paternalism towards Patrick. What inspired you to write the story of Jim and Patrick? 

I think ideas are a blend of interests and influences, and are hard to pin down. I remember reading Ryan Tubridy’s JFK in Ireland years ago and looking at the pictures, amazed by how close people got to him on rural roads and town squares. I looked at the faces in the crowds and gave them different stories and Patrick must have come from one of them.   

In terms of Jim, I don’t know why, but even in short fiction I wrote before the novel I have tended to write about men of a generation that a lot of modern commentary reduces to stereotypes – all gruff, stale, silent men who drank, and kicked the dog, and weren’t capable of love or affection until millennials came along and enlightened them. That simply isn’t the experience of people from that generation that I know, and it’s a damaging and cynical impression to give younger people. I think it’s worthwhile to portray people in a more realistic, complicated, and fairer light.  

Why do you write and what influences and inspires your writing? 

The simple explanation is that I love writing, and I’m lucky to have the time, freedom, health and everything needed to do it. If I go a day or two without writing or editing something, I feel lazy and sluggish in a similar way to if I haven’t done any exercise.   

I think reading every day is essential, and reading the work of better writers will always influence and inspire. If I’m not getting anywhere, reading a few pages of a favourite book, or listening to a favourite song will usually shake something loose. 

What would you say to anyone considering doing the MA in Creative Writing at UL? 

I couldn’t recommend it more. Any reservations or nerves about sharing your writing can be parked, it is a hugely supportive and kind environment.  

I continued working while doing it as a full-time one-year programme, but it can also be done part-time over two years, and the workload is not an all-consuming thing. It should hopefully amount to doing the reading and writing you are doing anyway, but in a more structured way.  

I had a fantastic year and if I could start it again tomorrow, I would.   

What are your hopes and plans for the future?  

I just want to remain consistent with writing. Everything else is beyond my control, so enjoying the work itself is the best strategy I know.  

I have written a second novel, and am enjoying a real challenge with something else I’m writing that may or may not take shape, but that’s all part of it.  

Finally, here at UL we encourage our students to ‘Stay Curious’. What keeps you curious and how important has curiosity been in your writing career?  

Reading, always. Even a short spell of reading leaves the mind feeling very different to a short spell of scrolling. Reading is an admission of curiosity about other stories, and other lives.  

I don’t think you can do anything creative without curiosity – in the case of this book for example, without an interest in John F. Kennedy and people from a certain time in Irish history, there wouldn’t be a book.

Join Professor Joseph O’Connor and Professor Sarah Moore Fitzgerald in conversation with Neil Tully to celebrate the launch of his debut novel 'The Visit', at O'Mahony's Booksellers, O'Connell Street, Limerick, on Tuesday 14 April at 6.45pm.