A Cónal Creedon Christmas

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Playwright, author and doc maker Cónal with his nieces and nephews.

Published: Mon 22 Dec 2025, 12:26 PM

Last updated: Mon 22 Dec 2025, 12:28 PM

By Cónal Creedon

Christmas is enough to put the head spinning and the mind doing somersaults. It’s a time when bygones become bygones and those dead and gone are remembered.

It’s a time when the pain of loneliness finds comfort in candles and fairy lights and the lonesome sound of Shane McGowan singing of fairy-tale nights.

It’s a time when the mind wanders to another time – when all was sweet and innocent in the world.

A time when memories become truths and the magic of belief is restored. And I suppose that’s it, Christmas is a time of belief – a time of tradition.

For me, Christmas is all about weaving in and out around the flat of the city – visiting my friends: the traders, stall holders and publicans – including my annual visit to James at McCarthy’s on the Coal Quay. My own personal Yuletide tradition begins at Waterstone’s Bookshop Christmas Celebration (Friday 12 December), it’s always a massive gathering - Christmas carols, mulled wine. You’d never know who’d pop in to sign a book and sing a song.

I was one of the founding members of the St Luke’s Choir over twenty years ago, and though my singing days are over, I always go to hear them perform at St Luke’s and I find myself singing along, joining in the chorus and thinking of friends dead and gone.

For over twenty years, my dear friend John Spillane has invited me on stage as part of his Christmas Concert at the Everyman. this has become a defining Cork tradition and a personal highlight of my Christmas. It’s impossible to explain the magic of performing to a full-house audience of 800 – friends, family, and neighbours – just a few doors up from my house. Christmas Day is a movable feast of friends and family – and by mid-January we are ready to wrap it up and put it away for another year. We always mark the end of Christmas by hosting a special pantomime night at our house for my nieces and nephews.

Christmas is all about the three Fs: Family, Friends, and Fun – keeping it simple – the magic of this time of year creates the wonderland.