John Creedon
The genial Corkman is back traversing the land for his new TV series. Darragh Mcmanus caught up with him
Creedon’s Atlas of Ireland is that unusual thing: a show which blends two genres of television and never neglects either. On the one hand, it’s a beautifully lmed travelogue, with our genial host John Creedon traversing the highways and byways of this fair land. On the other hand, it’s an “educational” exploration of history and culture and language, as he reveals the meaning behind our always colourful and sometimes crazy placenames.
e programme was an instant smash, spawning a bestselling spin-o book, is Place We Call Home (the paperback is just out). Now it’s back for a new three-part series, lmed last year in Covid-related circumstances.
“It was o and on, o and on,” John says. “Waiting on government announcements, towns were closed, people couldn’t talk to us… We’d to devise a whole new model for lming, with di erent camera angles and all sorts of things, a blueprint for working safely. But it turned out well in the end – we all felt this was the best one we’ve done so far. And hopefully, it’ll all be back to normal soon. We’d love to do another show, but clearly it has to be safety rst.”
Now almost a decade into a second career as travel broadcaster, beginning with Creedon’s Retro Road-trip in 2011, John Creedon spoke about his memorable journeys, and where he’d most like to go once the pandemic is over.
You’ve very de nitely been bitten by the travel bug, John…
I love the road. Even if that’s only going to Mallow to buy an armchair, I love seeing how the town is doing, hearing tiny nuances in the accent. It doesn’t have to be exotic, I just love being somewhere else. A change is as good as a rest, mentally. I think it was Plato who said, ‘For observation to take place you need to put distance between yourself and the observed.’ It’s when you’re away that you start to get perspective on your home place.
Tell us about some unusual trips…
Probably the most unusual was going to the Arctic (for Creedon’s Four Seasons in One Day, his 2014 investigation of climate change). We also went to Florida for that show, lming giant loggerhead turtles which only arrive on the beach under a full moon. ey are colossal – I had no idea how big. We had to wait and wait under this blue light, and eventually they arrived and we could hear this sound as they laid their eggs and grunted and dug a hole with their ippers. It was almost like being in a delivery room! at was quite dramatic. For No Frontiers I went to the Shetlands, which was lovely. ey speak English and it’s administered from the UK, but the culture is more closely related to Norway than Scotland. I discovered some great music there too: no bagpipes, most of them play the Norwegian hardanger ddle. e biggest island is called
Mainland, which is interesting: it’s not big and it’s out in the middle of nowhere! e other ones reminded me of a rave: one’s called Yell and another is Unst, which sounds like a bass drum: unst, unst, unst…
What about your own holidays?
Since the kids grew up, my partner Mairead and I have found the time for big trips – we’re both mad for the road. We get away most winters, though of course not this one, and usually go to Australia and New Zealand every second year. My daughter Martha lives there. We’d take three weeks, with two in a camper van. Australia is great to visit, especially for Irish people. ey speak English, drive on the same side of the road…no shortage of GAA jerseys around! It’s easy to assimilate. And with the wildlife, the scenery…i like Australia a lot.
We’re also into genealogy and tracked down my uncle’s unmarked grave in Sydney, just to close the circle. He died there in 1939. en Tasmania is like here: rolling hills, green pastureland. Port Arthur, the convict town, is well worth a visit – very sad. And New Zealand is fantastic: we went from seeing icebergs o the South Island to a balmy summer’s evening, in January, on the North Island, watching a jazz band playing to a crowd of 25,000, inside the crater of a volcano!
How has the pandemic a ected all of this?
Funnily enough, last winter we were in Malaysia and Borneo, on the way back, when the pandemic actually broke out. Up around Penang and Langkawi, rumours were growing about Wuhan; there were a lot of Chinese people around. By the time we got to a stopover in Sri Lanka, you could see the guys out with heat guns. First time in my life I wore a mask: we weren’t obliged to, but I decided to be safe. I don’t mind being con ned to barracks for the moment, although it is frustrating.
Where is on your dream-list for travel once restrictions are li ed?
I’m not really into returning to places, especially if they’re hard to get to, but I would like to go back to Guatemala. I went there in 2019 with Trócaire and it was a remarkable experience. We got up close to people who’d been through a lot of trauma, including a prison visit to Abelino Chub, a community leader in his third year in jail with no court hearing. Such a graceful man, so noble. He spoke Mayan and we chatted through a Spanish translator. A few months later he got a hearing and ten months a er that I was drinking co ee with him in Cork!