John Creedon

The popular broadcaster is getting back on the road again this summer for his new TV series. Darragh McManus catches up with him to find out more

John Creedon is too modest: he describes himself as “an enthusiastic amateur, not an expert on anything”, but that’s clearly not true. Over 20 years of presenting his much-loved Radio 1 evening show, he’s demonstrated a breadth of musical knowledge unmatched in Irish broadcasting. And in his new three-part series, Creedon’s Atlas of Ireland, the genial Cork man proves his love for – and yes, expertise in – the many wonderful placenames dotting this island.

He’s got the academic credentials to back it up, too: John did a two-year diploma in folklore and local history in UCC, which included placenames as one of its core subjects. Ever before though, he’s always had “a great grá” for that subject.

By studying placenames, he says, “you’re trying to work out what the people back then were saying. All of that does connect you with your ancestors. And some of these names are so poetic and expressive: the Land of the Robins, the Path of the Deer…to this day, the deer still come over that pass, down in the West Cork Gaeltacht.”

John also has a passion for Irish, instilled by parents, and indeed all languages. He chose Italian as one of four subjects for his arts degree, because “I’d done Latin in school so I figured Italian was close enough. Talk about punishing yourself!

“A lot of this show,” John says, “is driven by my grá for people and place, and languages. I pick up words and phrases from songs, anywhere. I’m just interested in words. I was in South America recently and saw a sign for roadworks, ‘obras’. The same, of course, as our word ‘obair’. Or you think of capall for horse, being related to caballero in Spanish or cheval in French.”

You get the sense that the detective work involved in language – its roots and development, how it got from there to here – appeals to him, as shown in his anecdote about a road-trip from Cork to Galway with his daughter Nancy: “She was saying how her Irish was poor, and I’d be saying back, ‘Ah you’re not too bad.’ So the next village we came to, Ardrahan (in Co Galway), I asked her to break it up.

“So we have árd: that means tall or high. Rath: it’s a fort, you get it in loads of placenames. And

‘een’ at the end means small. So the name means something like ‘small fort on a hill’ – and a few seconds later, we passed a tumbledown old fort.”

In Creedon’s Atlas of Ireland, he explores the meaning behind some of Ireland’s most famous, odd or amusing placenames. He travels the country (at times by hot-air balloon), digs into old maps and avails of modern technology, chats to the experts and reads the linguistic runes.

The central conceit is that John is following in the footsteps of his namesake, John O’Donovan, the man who documented Irish placenames in a groundbreaking and hugely important survey during the 1820s.

“Ireland is now one of, if not the, most mapped countries in the world,” John says. “ e whole country is mapped down to the smallest detail, every hedge and boreen and holy well. So O’Donovan’s survey was a really seminal moment for Ireland, one of three big maps of the country. Interestingly, Ptolemy’s was the rst, and he did fairly well – he got a lot of it right. And he wasn’t even here!”

It’s a fascinating subject and Creedon’s Atlas of Ireland is among John’s best TV work. He describes it as “following on loosely from my previous shows. e producers wanted it to be less of a travelogue, and more of ‘me’ in it. My enthusiasm, they meant. I suppose I do get enthusiastic; I’m like a kid. Can I have a go at that?! And that can be contagious for the viewers.”

The programme looks beautiful too, although John is quick to pass on the praise where he feels it rightly belongs (there’s that modesty again): “Television is a collaborative process. ose beautiful pictures you see on Atlas of Ireland are not of my making. ere are some aerial shots which are really stunning. I have a great team with me, they’re hugely talented people.”

He loves being from Ireland, although “not in a chauvinistic way – I just realise how lucky I am. But I love travelling abroad too, and do it more as I get older: this year I’ve been to the Gulf of Mexico, Vietnam, Guatemala. My daughter’s getting married in Oz next April. So I’m constantly on the road, and sometimes you get tired, but I just love it.”

He also loves presenting e John Creedon Show on radio, so much so that he likens it to “going down to the garden shed every evening, pottering around for the evening. It’s a complete labour of love.

“Structurally, the show is a mix and match. It’s planned out ahead of time, but only to an extent. It’s all coming from somewhere very loose and open and honest. I’m never closed o to any type of musical genre. Some shows are trying to be eclectic but I’m just playing music I love, o en because one piece will put something else in my mind and I’ll think ‘Yeah, let’s go with that.’”

This “go with the ow” attitude doesn’t seem surprising; John Creedon comes across, in person as well as on-air, as a very chilled-out, philosophical sort of character. Accept what you can’t change, be grateful for what you have, and all that.

He’s a thoughtful chap as well. When conversation turns to loftier matters, he says, “I’m not a great reader, but when I do, more o en than not, it’s strange stu – the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao te Ching. at’s an amazing book; it likens life to a dream, and when you think about it, a lot of it does feel very dreamlike.” He speaks about a “lovely line” he came across a while back, in a Tibetan book, “about how a true philosopher is like a river following the line of least resistance, and so is owing downhill between mountains. Eventually you fall into the ocean, where you’re absorbed into the greater consciousness. en precipitation takes place, and the cycle begins again.

“I’m not saying I believe exactly that, but I’m open to it. I do get a sense of body, mind and spirit; when loved ones have died, I did sense that their energy had le .”

He adds, laughing, “Where we go a er death, I don’t know. Maybe a good long snooze – that’s alright by me!”

A lot of this show is driven by my grá for people and place, and languages. I pick up words and phrases from songs, anywhere