Father Ted Fest

Diehard fans of cult television comedy, Father Ted, will be heading to the west of Ireland at the end of the month for Tedfest '08.

The festival will be held in two locations; inland at Kilfenora from 25 to 27 February and on the Aran Island of Inis Mor, otherwise known as Craggy Island, from 29 February to 2 March.

The programme of events will include a special evening with writers Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews, Dermot Morgan Memorial Priests and Nuns 5-a-side, the ‘Lovely Girls Competition’ and ‘Dunk the Monk in the World’s Biggest Cup of Tea’.

Airline Aer Arann is an official Tedfest Travel Partner and will be flying to the Aran Islands from Luton, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh. Colin Lewis, head of sales and marketing at Aer Arann confirms “The bishop doesn’t know yet, but we will be transporting priests, nuns and lovely girls to the Aran Islands”.

...It has been ten years since Father Ted had its last hurrah with the filming of the final episode, we are glad to be blessed with the prestige of being an official carrier a decade later."

The series was filmed between 1995 and 1998 and starred Dermot Morgan as Father Ted Crilly, Ardal O'Hanlon, Frank Kelly and Pauline McLynn. Morgan died suddenly of a heart attack the day after filming of the last episode was completed. The 10 year anniversary of his death will be marked on 28 February with a black and white Priests and Nuns Ball in Galway.

Tickets to the festival are sold out but if more become available priority will go to 'Friends of Ted'. According to the website, fans are travelling from as far as Canada and Japan.

Inis Mor is the largest of Ireland's three Aran Islands and welcomes up to 400,000 visitors every year.

Written by: Maxine Clarke