John Creedon is a man on a mission, teasing and exploring the true meaning behind some of Ireland's most unusual, iconic and famous place names. Each show is an hour long journey where John discovers lost meanings behind every day place names.
He travels the length and breadth of Ireland with ancient maps and modern technology at hand to investigate, probe and uncover hidden folklore, forgotten history, secret architecture and obscure topography of our country's towns, cities, villages, highways and byways that give rise to Ireland's place names.
Following in the footsteps of John O'Donovan - the man who helped document place names for the 1820s survey - John Creedon cracks the code of some of Ireland's best loved, quirkiest and common place names.
John says "Placenames have been a source of fascination for me since childhood. I mean, NewTwoPotHouse is only out the road .. how could you pass that without wondering about the story behind it. My father was a fine Irish speaker and through him I loved to crack the placenames code. Sunday spins in the car were peppered with conversations like 'Dad, what does Glengarriffe mean? 'It's from 'Gleann' meaning Glen and 'Garbh' meaning rough. So 'Rough Glen' and if you look around you, you'll see why!"
John Creedon has always had a curiosity as to how places got their names which ultimately led to a two year Regional Studies diploma course in UCC, where he examined Irish Folklore and place names.
John says "The study of place names has opened up a wonderful world to me. As I drive around Ireland for work, my view of the landscape has become 3D, as I read the signs and stories within the place names."
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