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John Creedon’s new TV series indulges his life-long passion for Irish place-names. Donal O’Keeffe caught up with the veteran Cork broadcaster ahead of “Creedon’s Atlas of Ireland”.
The first episode of ‘Creedon’s Atlas of Ireland’ – which airs at 6.30pm on RTÉ 1 on Sunday 5th August 2019 - features a scene with a young John Creedon – or rather young actor Tomás O’Connor McGovern - lying on the carpet in the Creedon family home on what John’s brother Cónal calls “the spaghetti bowl of downtown streets that I call home” - leafing through an atlas and circling place-names.
Beside Young John on the floor is a nature picture book, and a radio plays in the background, of course. The image will ring true for those who listen to Creedon’s week-night music show on RTÉ Radio 1, where the presenter regularly wanders off down what he calls Botharín na Smaointa – the byroads of daydreams.
“I’ve always had a grá for place names, since I was a kid really,” the Cork broadcaster says.
“My mother and father were Irish speakers, my father especially. He was from Inchigeelagh, which he called a “Breac Gaeltacht”, a speckled Gaeltacht, where some houses were Irish-speaking and some English-speaking. My dad had Classical Latin and Greek. And makey-up words!
“As a young fella, it was from him I got that interest. I have a very clear snapshot in my head of standing in the well of the car in front of the front passenger seat, with my elbows up on the dashboard, asking him about place-names.
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