Cónal Creedon: 'Some people go to the gym...I always feel an overpowering need to write'

Writer Cónal Creedon’s career has seen him regularly pack his bags and head to the airport.

Just recently, he was invited to present the 2024 Beatty Lecture at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and he was in Chicago last November to receive the Irish Books, Arts and Music Award for Literature.

Now Cónal has his port at the ready again, as he is jetting off shortly to spend a month in Monaco, where he has just been appointed writer in residence at the Princess Grace Irish Library.

During his stay, he will work on his next novel, as well as deliver a series of lectures.

Cónal is at ease with international audiences, and to date his work has been translated into several languages, including Chinese, Italian, German and Bulgarian.

His latest role has been gestating for a while.

“Back in 2007, I received an email enquiring of my interest in taking up a residency in Monaco,” he says, “and at that time, believe it or not, I was actually in Shanghai on a three-month residency, attached to the Shanghai Writers and Fudan University, so I had to decline.

“It was a great surprise when I was invited to take up this residency again in 2025.”

Moving to a new country to continue with his work in progress does not faze Cónal one bit.

“I guess the reality is - I don’t see what I do as work,it’s like an obsessive-compulsive activity,” he says.

“Some people go to the gym and their day doesn’t happen until they break a sweat - well, like that, I always feel an overpowering need to write.

“I’m never concerned about publication, or production - my personal buzz is all about putting words down on a page - and I can write anywhere, any place - I feel so privileged that I can follow my heart and write.

“The novel I am currently working on is set at Christmas time, it’s about a dysfunctional family - but they are dysfunctional in a functional sort of way.

“As I’ll be staying in Monaco for about a month, I also have plans to screen a number of my film documentaries.”

Many of Cónal’s documentaries are marinated in Cork history and culture and include The Burning Of Cork (2005), The Boys Of Fair Hill (2008) and If It’s Spiced Beef (2007).

His first lecture, on February 27, is entitled ‘A Sense of Place’ and is inspired by his most recent book, Spaghetti Bowl, an anthology of essays in which he explores the downtown streets of his native city of Cork, a forensic exploration of his neighbourhood where his family lived and traded for generations.

During his formative years the Creedon’s shop, ‘The Inchigeela Dairy’, was a place teeming with life.

People came not just to buy a pound of butter, but also to exchange the news and divulge details about the myriad aspects of their lives: the births, the deaths, what was prayed for, and what was to be avoided at all costs.

Growing up in the shop and listening to the exchanges between the customers and his family proved to be rich fodder for Cónal’s storytelling skills. He went on to become not only a multi-award winning writer, but also a playwright, documentary maker, and collaborative artist.

“The opening lecture in Monaco will be based on Spaghetti Bowl - but the reality is that all my work is inspired by my neighbourhood here on the downtown streets of Cork,” he said.

His writing beautifully elucidates the complexities of the human condition with a visceral and emotional reach extending far beyond the inner-city streets of his native city.

You can be sure that the literati and glitterati of Monaco alike will all feel the resonance of his words when he delivers his lectures.

The World Cultural Council described Cónal’s writing as “revealing insights into the universal nature of the human condition and constitutes a significant contribution to the creative legacy of artistic expression”.

So it is no surprise that he has been invited as writer in residence at the Princess Grace library in Monaco, which was established in honour of Grace Kelly, a woman who was much loved in Ireland.

Born in Philadelphia to an Irish American family, Kelly went on to become a movie star, appearing in films such as the western High Noon and romantic comedy High Society, as well as working with Alfred Hitchcock in suspense thrillers such as Dial M For Murder.

When she married Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956, the fairytale wedding was televised to an audience of more than 30 million viewers.

Kelly never forgot her Irish roots and made numerous visits to her ancestral land. She was a great champion and er of Irish industry and craft, for example wearing clothes by Irish fashion designer Sybil Connolly.

“Princess Grace has always been such as special and iconic figure for Irish Americans,” mused Cónal. “I am lucky to have always received a great welcome from Irish America.

“My plays are regularly produced in New York and my documentaries have been screened there. I presented many readings there including a seven-city coast to coast reading tour.

I always have a deep affiliation with Irish America.

“My grandfather went to Butte, Montana, back in the early days of the last century. He was one of the lucky few of his generation to make it back home to Ireland - so I often think that, just for a twist of geographical fate, his future hereditary line could just have easily been Irish American.”

The Princess Grace Irish Library was inaugurated in 1984 by Prince Rainier as a tribute to his late wife, who tragically died in a road accident in 1982 aged only 52.

Her grieving husband wanted to cherish the affection and attachment to Ireland which Princess Grace held throughout her lifetime, the country where her grandfather was born.

The library is situated only five minutes from the Prince’s Palace, where the couple’s son Prince Albert, the current reigning Prince of Monaco, was born.

Prince Albert continues to preserve his mother’s legacy and in 2016 he purchased her childhood home in East Falls, Philadelphia, which was originally built by her father, Jack Kelly Sr.

He established the Princess Grace awards in 1984 to recognise emerging performers in film, theatre and dance.

The heart of the library contains the personal collection of Princess Grace’s 500-plus books, which is of immense cultural significance.

The library also holds Irish American sheet music collected by Princess Grace, as well as many rare first editions and items of historical value such as a first edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses, considered one of the most important works of modernist literature.

The late writer Malachy McCourt once compared Cónal’s relationship with Cork city to that of Joyce’s relationship with Dublin when he said on WBAI Radio New York: “They say if Dublin was burnt down, it could be rebuilt again by reading the work of James Joyce - well, the very same could be said about Creedon’s work - Cork city could be built from his words.”