‘Come West The Road With Me’, a whistle-stop reading tour around West Cork during June, is a homecoming of sorts for writer and documentary filmmaker Cónal Creedon.
The 2024/25 season marks an especially meaningful period for the writer. After receiving multiple invitations to give readings across West Cork, he chose to link the engagements into a tour, culminating in a visit to West Cork where his parents were born: His father’s family hail from Inchigeelagh in Iveleary and his mother’s people, the Blakes, are from Adrigole on the Beara Peninsula.
After a prestigious invitation to New York in 2024, he presented a series of events, including a lecture at New York University and a reading with the Phoenix Manhattan Poets. At the time he was involved in several exciting projects, notably the publication of his latest book, ‘Spaghetti Bowl’ along with two independent revivals of his acclaimed stage plays, ‘After Luke’ and ‘The Cure’.
“I seem to be blessed by what I describe as a cascade of good fortune, which all began last June, when the Fairhill Pigeon Fancier Club in Cork invited me up to the loft because they decided to name a pigeon – ‘Dowcha Boy’, in honour of the fictional pigeon in my novel ‘Begotten Not Made’. (Begotten Not Made won the Eric Hoffer Award USA and the CAP Award Dublin).
“I brought my young niece with me to the pigeon loft – and they decided to call the latest hatchling – Asha in honour of my niece. As we walked home that evening, down along Fairhill, I remember the sun setting and I was glowing with pride, and I was saying to Asha what a great honour it was to be invited into the Fairhill Loft, after all I was in my 20s before I had ever been invited into a Pigeon Loft. But nothing could have prepared me for the next big turn of the wheel of fortune…”
The following day, Cónal was notified via email that he had been awarded the prestigious Leonardo da Vinci Gold Medal by the World Cultural Council in Switzerland, along with a €10,000 cheque, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the arts. Initially suspecting it to be a phishing attempt, he dismissed the message – until a follow-up call from University College Cork confirmed that the Council had indeed been trying to reach him. Further investigation revealed the distinguished nature of the World Cultural Council, an organisation comprising over 200 international scholars, including 24 Nobel Laureates.
Still basking in his good fortune, the same week, Cónal unexpectedly received a call from the Irish American Heritage Centre in Chicago, informing him that he was to receive the 2024 Award for Literature at the prestigious Irish Books Arts and Music Awards in Chicago. Previous winners have included John B Keane, Frank McCourt, Maeve Binchy, Marion Keyes and Colm Tobin.
“It was like a rolling snowball, I was attempting to process the accumulation of good news when I received an email from McGill University in Montreal – they invited me to deliver the 2025 Beatty Lecture.” The Beatty Lecture is McGill University’s most distinguished and endowed lectureship. Cónal’s lecture was broadcast internationally.
“A funny incident happened while in Montreal airport; on my way home from McGill University, a woman approached me with her iPhone outstretched in her hand. “Did you see this?” she said. I don’t use a phone so I wasn’t sure what she was showing me. And then it became apparent it was two four star reviews of two of my stage plays on the same day in the Irish Times. As it turns out, the woman, now living in Montreal, was from South Douglas Road in Cork. She read out the reviews and went on her merry way. I normally don’t like flying, but that was one of the most enjoyable flights home ever.”
Soon after arriving home, Cónal received word that his novel ‘Begotten Not Made’ had received the 2024 CAP Award for Best Literary Fiction.
On the same week that his book ‘Spaghetti Bowl’ was launched in Cork, he was awarded the 2025 Princess Grace of Monaco Irish Library Residency and the Ireland Funds Monaco Bursary Award.
While in residence at the Princess Grace Irish Library, he wrote a short piece of theatre, ‘It’s Not You It’s Me’, which will be produced by Landmark Productions and feature as part of the ‘Theatre for One’ at Cork Midsummer Festival 2025.
Cónal has been invited to perform alongside his longtime collaborator of over twenty years, John Spillane, at De Barra’s in Clonakilty on June 5.
The following evening, June 6, he will appear at Inanna Rare Books in Skibbereen, where his close friend, photographer John Minihan, will be the evening’s guest of honour.
Throughout June, Cónal will present a series of events across West Cork, concluding with a special two-hander evening at the distinctive Macroom Mart on Friday, June 27, alongside writer and journalist Denis Lehane.
As additional invitations came in, Cónal decided to link them together into a seven-stop whirlwind tour across West Cork. His June itinerary includes visits to Ballincollig, Clonakilty, Skibbereen, Ballydehob, Bantry, Castletownbere, and Macroom.
Be sure to watch for Cónal’s play ‘After Luke’, produced by Lost In The Cannon Theatre Company, which will be featured at the West Cork Fit-up Festival.
