How I Met My Partner: Conal Creedon on the ‘50’ that led to a 31 year relationship and a wedding

So, we’re talking back in 1993 - 31 years ago...

I had met Fiona the previous weekend at Rock The Cradle, where Nick Cave, Shane McGowan and The Golden Horde had played.

I seem to , Fiona was at the City Hall that night because of a Sculpture Factory Christmas gathering.

I was there because my friends Erin O’Reilly and Paul ‘Zoot’ Mulvany, plus Anthony Morley, Noelle Meara, Annette Lynch, Mandy, maybe Breda Casey — the list goes on — they were staging a fashion show as part of the Rock The Cradle charity that night.

The following Saturday, me and Fiona had our first date. 

In the days before the mobile phone, we prearranged to meet on those two stools at the end of the bar in Le Château.

But here’s the thing — Fiona turned up to inform me that she didn’t wish to meet me — but didn’t want to give me a 50 either (by the way, a ‘50’ in Cork means getting stood up.)

That should have been the end of it there and then. And it would have been the end of it, but I offered to walk her home, and a chance and surreal intervention by Ebenezer Jones along the way — like the fickle finger of fate — put a spin on the night.

So, there I was walking Fiona home to Skiddy’s in Shandon. 

And lo and behold, who did we meet and we making our way through Emmet Place but Ebenezer — Ebenezer Jones.

Chance meeting

This chance meeting with Ebenezer Jones instigated a circuitous if not scenic route home, via the old Cat Club, the Comedy Club, and an all-night lock-in at The Art Hive (at 50p per can, where would you be going like?). The night ended in the early hours, following a police raid and a most bizarre pact with Ebenezer that the three of us — me, Fiona and Ebenezer — promised to meet Ebenezer the following morning at Silversprings Hotel.

So next morning I phoned Fiona to remind her of our pact to meet Ebenezer. Once again, this was pre the invention of mobile phones, Facebook, or email, but there was a public phone box on each floor of Skiddy’s, and the three numbers were listed in the telephone book (ask your granny!).

Eventually Fiona was woken up and she came to the phone and sleepily agreed to fulfil our promise from a few hours earlier and keep our date with Ebenezer.

You gotta picture the scene, Fiona and I arrived down to the hotel — we were by far the youngest in the room with an average age profile 20 years our senior.

To my naive and unsophisticated eye, it was a gathering of every vagabond or villain, character or chancer, teddy boy, wide boy, wise boy, wit and half-wit in Cork city — the place was rockin’.

It’s impossible to explain to the uninitiated the chaos of a Sunday morning session back in the day, with seasoned campaigners and hardcore party people.

So there we were waiting for Ebenezer to turn up, and just when we thought he would be a no-show and had given us a 50, next thing, from nowhere, Ebenezer Jones appears centre stage. 

Lights lowered

Introduced by the one and only legend that is — Joe Mac of the Dixies. Brass section pumping out this rising swell of sound. And it’s getting louder and louder...

Ebenezer calls for the lights to be lowered, and then he begins “Ladies and gentlemen, as I walked the streets of Cork last night — I met two young lovers. Two young lovers, ladies and gentlemen!” Ebenezer points to me and Fiona from the stage.

“Two young lovers, ladies and gentlemen!”. The whole room is on their feet in a standing ovation for the two young lovers.

Ebenezer continued with his speech, the details of it were very personal and heartfelt and intended only for the ears of those in the know. So, in the interest of confidentiality, it’s best not to include his words on this public platform.

Meanwhile, the brass section is building and building… And at a crescendo of sound and music and goading and taunting from the crowd, Ebenezer finishes with the words: “And so for the two young lovers — this one’s for you…”

Ebenezer Jones then belted out a most amazing rendition of You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.

And kids, if you don’t get a second date after an intro like that... well...

What can I say — as a first date that began with a 50, it paved the way for the roller-coaster, the swings and roundabouts, the ups and downs of life.

The highs, the lows, the happy, the sad, the good, the bad of all that life had to throw at us over the past 30 years, and a life well lived.

After 30 years doing a line, we finally got married in 2021. October 1. My birthday.

And every now and again we return to those two same seats at the end of the bar in Le Château, to remind ourselves to take life and love one day at a time.

We live on a knife edge. Life and love is always but a 50 away.

Post Script

Now here’s a curly twist to that tale.

When my mother first came from Beara to Cork, her first job was working for the Reidys at Le Château. In fact, my mother is Maura Reidy’s godmother, and Maura Reidy is the godmother of my sister Marie Therese. My father once told me that he was walking along Patrick Street — past Le Château — when he first saw my mother and he asked her out. And that’s the very reason I picked Le Château for my first date with Fiona. So there now.

And I suppose a curly tale needs at least two twists to warrant the title curly. You might I mentioned that on that fateful night on the trail with Ebenezer Jones, we visited the Comedy Club, across the street from my house.

Well, back in the day — back in the 1940s — that was the Munster Hotel, and that’s where my mother and father had their wedding reception.

Isn’t the big wheel of life funny the way it just keeps on turning?

Cónal Creedon’s new short story collection, Spaghetti Bowl, is on sale at Waterstones Cork.