Honorary Citation by Dr Ciara Chambers for C贸nal Creedon
A Leas-She谩nsail茅ar agus Uachtar谩n, mhuintir na hOllscoile agus a dhaoine uaisle,鈥�� 鈥�
It is an honour to be invited to introduce today鈥檚 honorary graduand, the novelist, playwright, short story writer, performer and collaborator, C贸nal Creedon.鈥��
C贸nal鈥檚 magically imaginative writing is a unique literary seam which runs bright through this city and throughout 鈥楴ot Cork鈥�.鈥�� 鈥�
Growing up at the heart of the City on Devonshire Street in The Inchigeela Dairies where his family had traded and talked for over a century, C贸nal Creedon was pure Cork from the start. In his words: 鈥楾he shop served a bit like a Wells Fargo staging post to the Wild West; a drop off point for parcels and produce, where people gathered to talk with constant updates on births, marriages and deaths鈥�. That 鈥榃ild West鈥� refers to his parents鈥� important rural roots, reaching through his father to the Barony of Iveleary, and via his mother鈥檚 people, the Blakes, to Crooha on the Beara Peninsula. While deeply immersed in the life of the city, C贸nal, his parents and his eleven siblings still retained strong and regular contact with their rural relations and heritage.鈥��� 鈥�
Like his literary forefunner, the writer Patrick Galvin (who received his UCC honoris causa in 2006), C贸nal is both product and producer of the city of his birth. Through exceptional creative achievement he has reinvented how to think about this city, its ways of life, its real and mythic inhabitants, its built structures and its celebrated public spaces. In a brand of magic realism we associate with writers like Gabriel Garcia M谩rquez and Isabel Allende, C贸nal has deployed his distinctive language to reacquaint the city with itself and forge a new collective identity for its inhabitants and admirers.鈥� 鈥�
C贸nal has written novels, short stories, prose, criticism, stage plays, radio drama, and鈥痜ilm documentaries.鈥疎xamining the pattern of his creative output through his career to date, it becomes clear that at particular times C贸nal has immersed himself in a chosen genre or subject. Between 2005 and 2009 he produced five film documentaries, all of which have been broadcast and acclaimed in Ireland and internationally. From the early nineteen nineties to the mid-naughties, he wrote and produced over a dozen original pieces for radio, including over 60 hours of radio drama, broadcast across the English-speaking world from Australia to Canada, and picking up numerous awards 鈥� including Irish Best Radio of the Year for both 1994 and 1997. His adaptations for voice of Eric Cross鈥檚 The Tailor and Ansty and Frank O鈥機onnor鈥檚 Guests of the Nation have enjoyed huge success. But for many of his listeners, especially here in Cork, the apog茅e of C贸nal Creedon鈥檚 radio work remains his cult classic Under the Goldie Fish, a spellbinding series of 85 half-hour episodes broadcast between1994 and 1998 on RT脡 Radio Cork and RT脡 Radio One. A helter skelter of hilarity, wit and breathtaking dialogue, which featured a cast of quare hawks, aul鈥� wans, beours and gowls, the series developed a strong and addicted following, becoming鈥痑 key agent in the cultural revival of Cork during those heady鈥痙ays of the late nineteen-nineties.鈥�� 鈥�
When considered together, the range and extent of C贸nal Creedon鈥檚 work is dizzying: some would say that he is most widely known for his fiction. Begotten Not Made, a masterpiece of dialogue and dialectic, set in a Cork monastery, won the Irish CAP Award for Creative Fiction and was nominated for the Dublin International Book Award. In his novel Passion Play the story鈥檚 protagonist decides to go on a hallucinogenic journey,鈥� encountering a series of long-deceased friends and acquaintances before meeting a sad and dramatic end. A 鈥楤ook of the Year鈥� on BBC Radio 4, Passion Play was voted the 鈥楳ost Popular Book of 2020鈥欌�� by readers at UCC Library.鈥� 鈥�
C贸nal has also ventured into historical biography with The Immortal Deed of Michael O鈥橪eary, a story about the first Irish man to be awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery during the First World War. To quote the author: 鈥淚n the context of everything I鈥檝e produced or written, that book is unintentionally a most personal and detailed exploration of my own childhood.鈥� It鈥檚 a far cry from the zany world of Passion Play 鈥� and yet throughout all his works, C贸nal鈥檚 diverse settings, engaging plots and utterly original treatments make for consistently compelling reading.鈥�� 鈥�
He has also published two books of short fiction as well as essays on topics including life, Cork and the Universe. Spaghetti Bowl published earlier this year is an anthology of essays inspired by his global perspective as viewed from the so-called 鈥楽paghetti Bowl of Streets鈥� around his home in Cork City. It uses the local urban as a lens to explore universal human themes of love, loss, pain, and joy. His book of short fiction, Pancho and Lefty Ride Out, published 25 years ago, was followed in 2021 by its 鈥渄igitally remastered鈥� sequel Pancho and Lefty Ride Again. This most recent Pancho was selected as the Cork One City One Book for 2022 and was the most borrowed book from Cork City Libraries that year, as well as gaining a Next Generation Book Award in the USA.鈥� 鈥�
As a playwright too, C贸nal has produced exceptional work. His Second City Trilogy was commissioned and performed during Cork鈥檚 year as European Capital of Culture in 2005, and it played also that year in New York and Shanghai. A collection of three short plays, Second City Trilogy explores the role of parenthood and the influence of parents on their children as they move through adulthood.鈥�� 鈥�
The full list of C贸nal鈥檚 achievements, awards and publications is far too long to recite here. However, two awards do merit mention.鈥�� 鈥�
In 2024, in Montreal, C贸nal became the first Irish artist to receive the prestigious Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts; and in the same year he received the Irish Books, Art and Music (IBAM) Award for Literature, presented in Chicago.鈥� 鈥�
And at the epicentre of all this, there is C贸nal the person. Always supportive of other 鈥攅specially younger鈥� writers, always available to give the interview, the talk, the reading; frequently collaborating and experimenting with composers and musicians. Always accessible, generous-hearted, interesting, and funny. As a former UCC Writer in Residence and Adjunct Professor in the School of English, who still comes to visit and share his work and his magic, C贸nal is a much loved and hugely respected figure to staff and students of this 深夜亚洲福利久久.鈥� 鈥�
In recognition of his extensive contribution to Cork's life and culture, and to international culture across literary modes including fiction, drama, radio drama and film; for his brilliance and brio as a person and public figure; and in light of an extraordinary body of work, with more hopefully to come, C贸nal Creedon richly deserves to be presented for enrolment as a Doctor of this 深夜亚洲福利久久.鈥�� 鈥�
Praehonorabilis Cancellarie, totaque universitas! Praesento vobis hanc meam filiam, quam scio tam moribus quam doctrina habilem et idoneam esse quae admittatur, honoris causa, ad gradum Doctoratus in Litteris, idque tibi fide mea testor ac spondeo totique Academiae鈥��