Early Influences

Born to Maureen and Davy Ronan in Limerick, one of his earlier memories is being given a book on the ancient stories while in single digits. Whether it was because he found an early ancestor in the Fianna stories or that he got caught up in the heroic deeds of golden warriors, it is hard to tell.

But one thing he did immediately spot was the gap in information that seemed to dog even the most wonderful of stories. Even in his early years he questoned the missing logic that the historians applied to major events of most of their subjects.

Dissatisfied with the answers. he parked the questions until many years later when he had the knowledge and resources to work through a greater understanding.

When Ireland became christianized, the zealous monks and bishops tried their best to annihilate what they saw as pagan (and therefore unacceptable) stories. He learned that they destroyed most of what they found and altered the rest to morph into a solid christian message for their times.

As he dug further into it, he then saw that there were also layers of misogyny added into the retelling and layers of unbelievable "fairy tales" inserted into the history in an effort to discredit any truths that might otherwise be discovered.

And so, when he set out writing hsi first book (Pursuit) he did so from the perspective of identifying as much of the stories that were factual and then rebuilding logical and unbiased reasons into why these people did what they did.

Neville believes firmly in the "why" of anything and that unless we ask that question, then we have no right to draw any real conclusions on anything that we see or read about.

Today, Neville lives in central Florida. He has two children from his first wife, has remarried, and shares his life with a myriad of cats, possums, and raccoons.

He is an avid naturalist and photographer and most weekend is found on a trail somewhere trying to capture images of nature's playground.