Book review: The twisting path to life of a writer

Cónal Creedon's 'Spaghetti Bowl' gives the reader a view of how Cork culture is changing, and yet remains the same

Cónal Creedon: One of the keepers of Cork’s cultural flame. Pic Larry Cummins

• Spaghetti Bowl 
• Conal Creedon 
• Irishtown Press

This weekend of Culture Night is perfectly timed for Cónal Creedon’s new book, Spaghetti Bowl. 

The book gives the reader a view of how Cork culture is changing, and yet remains the same.

The book is a collection of previously published works. Each essay is both enjoyable for itself while neatly dovetailing with the other works in the book.

Cónal Creedon is one of 12 children. His family lived over their corner shop, known as the Inchigeelagh Dairy, on Devonshire St. 

This is one of a warren of narrow streets just across the river from the Opera House. He calls this lattice of lanes and alleys a “Spaghetti Bowl”.

In the economically depressed 1980s this area was opened up to some fresh air when Christy Ring Bridge was built. 

In December 1986, the unemployed Creedon rolled with the punches and opened up a laundrette in the old corner shop. Though now closed, he continues to live on the premises.

The essay titled ‘The Accidental Author’ outlines how the laundrette called Creedon to writing. Laundrettes, by their nature, are places where people wait and talk. 

It became a meeting place for actors, singers, and poets. Imbued by this atmosphere and chatter, he just wrote down everything that sprung to mind in old copy books. Then, as time passed, his style began to take shape.

He has since produced a large canon of work. This year he was awarded the Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts from the World Cultural Council and the Irish Books & Music Award from the American Irish Heritage Centre, Chicago.

The essays in Spaghetti Bowl take the reader from Creedon’s early days playing football on Devonshire St and Pine St through to his observations on Cork in the aftermath of covid 19.

He has been clearly influenced by his father and mother. His essays on Beara (his mother was from Beara) and Iveleary (his father was from Inchigeelagh) contain the warmth and memories of happy days spent with his uncles, aunts, and cousins.

We also learn of the great community spirit in the Spaghetti Bowl of Cork. 

It seems the first pull-along suitcase was designed and constructed in Ned Ring’s forge in Lower John St. The purpose of this feat was to aid a neighbour bring a large suitcase home from England.

Gathering places and the exchange of ideas is another of Creedon’s topics. 

There was a time when he and other children walked home from school. During these meandering strolls they developed their opinions and learned how to argue and debate.

These same children became the local corner boys. It was their banter and hijinks that kept Devonshire St alive through the dark evenings. 

After that phase, there was a plethora of pubs in Cork’s city centre which provided similar talking shops for the now adult corner boys.

Nowadays, it is the coffee shop that is the centre of conversation and debate. Creedon considers this change in lifestyle in his essay ‘Café Culture’. 

He has observed the shift to the café across the world from Shanghai (where he met a man who has a secret stash of Taytos and Barry’s Tea) to Cork.

The takeaway from Spaghetti Bowl is that people, and not events, make a culture. 

Throughout the book, Creedon nods towards the contribution that his family, neighbours, and friends have made to the “culture” of Cork.

Cónal Creedon is now one of the flamekeepers of Cork culture. All we can hope is that in time, the children of today will take that flame from our current flamekeepers and carry it forward.