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The 2024 World Cultural Council Leonardo da Vinci Award of Arts awarded to novelist, playwright, documentary filmmaker, essayist, and collaborative artist, Cónal Creedon

28 Oct 2024
The 39th World Cultural Council Award Ceremony hosted by McGill University at its historic downtown campus in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on Wednesday, October 23, 2024.  
 

 

In advance of the Award Ceremony - Cónal Creedon was invited to present the distinguished 70th Annual Beatty Lecture <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatty_Lectures>  Inspired by the work of fellow WCC  laureate Professor Eske Willersleiv - Cónal presented a highly engaging and entertaining lecture, in which he explored the origins of storytelling in his quest to discover the DNA of narrative.

The 2024 World Cultural Council Leonardo da Vinci Award of Arts, is awarded to novelist, playwright, documentary filmmaker, essayist, and collaborative artist, Cónal Creedon.  Through his artistic works, Cónal Creedon has received acclaim for peeling back the layers of Cork city’s history and culture with insights from different periods of his life. He captures its essence, while simultaneously providing a vivid portrait, as he immerses the reader into his hometown. His detailed investigation of such a tight-knit neighbourhood reveals insights into the universal nature of the human condition and constitutes a significant contribution to the artistic legacy of creative expression. Exploring the global through the local in a multi-layer narrative that reaches outward and far beyond this locale which Creedon describes as - 'his Spaghetti Bowl of Streets'. 

Cónal Creedon acknowledged his home city when accepting the award : 

“It's a great personal honour for me to accept this award. It is an honour for my home place of Cork city in Ireland – and indeed, it is an honour for Irish people across the world. It is extremely special to have the luxury – to be able to work at what I love doing. So, it is very humbling for me to receive the World Cultural Council – Leonardo da Vinci Award of Arts for effectively following my own heart, indulging my passion, and living my dream.”

Cónal dedicated the award to the memory of his mother Siobhán Blake - who was born into a family of 10 sisters on the Beara Peninsula.

 

The 2024 World Cultural Council Albert Einstein World Award of Science 2024 was awarded to Prof. Eske Willerslev, Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Copenhagen and Prince Philip Professor at the University of Cambridge. Prof. Willerslev is credited with establishing the field of environmental DNA as a revolutionary means of understanding ourselves as humans and the world surrounding us. His broad scientific impact forces us to rethink the origins and evolution of human groups, languages, and behaviour. His discoveries have influenced how scientists’ approach Indigenous communities. He has respectfully worked alongside Indigenous Peoples on several continents and his findings have resulted in the repatriation of various human remains to their rightful descendants.

In his acceptance speech, Professor Eske Willerslev thanked the WCC for recognizing his work, “I see the award as a great acknowledgment of the scientific fields of ancient human genomics, pathogen genomics, and environmental DNA - fields that I have spent my entire career on.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps_L00WUBsU&t=15s

English Department

Roinn an Bhéarla

O'Rahilly Building, University College Cork, Cork. Ireland

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