The Brendan Voyage

This month sees veteran Irish comic Brendan Grace take his new show on tour around Ireland. Grace, of course, has been a hugely popular entertainer throughout the country for many years, during which time he created many memorable characters, including schoolboy Bottler, the intoxicated father of the bride and singing priest Father Macgillycuddy.

However, his popularity hasn’t just been confined to Ireland and he also gigged extensively in the US, performing for the likes of Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr and Liza Minnelli. Latterly, Brendan found favour with a new generation of comedy fans courtesy of his role as the decidedly anti-social Father Fintan Stack in Father Ted.
Though he returns to Ireland for a month-long tour each August, Brendan is now based in the US for the majority of the year. Does he do much gigging in America?
“Not a lot,” he replies. “I work a reasonable amount – I’m winding down now! I’ve actually just returned from Anchorage, Alaska, where my son Bradley is in a band. I met with him, and my production company is doing a performance video of the band, who are called Poison The Well. I just went along with them, to see how the pop end of things works. I believe they’ll be doing a gig here next year, please God.”
Did Brendan get a particularly big break that kickstarted his career in America?
“I got a break with Frank Sinatra in the ’90s, and I followed it through,” he responds. “A lot of doors opened as a result of it. I was booked to entertain him while he was here in Ireland, and he really, really enjoyed the performance. It was at a private meeting at the Horse Show House in Ballsbridge, and he and his entourage commandeered the pub for the night. Sammy Davis Jr was with him, and Liza Minnelli. Subsequently, I got an opening with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr’s management company in the US.”
What did Brendan make of both Sinatra and Davis Jr?
“Frank Sinatra was a very nice person. I found him to be a very gracious man, and certainly very generous with his time. I actually performed with him in America, mostly big theatres in the mid-west; Minneapolis, Missouri and Chicago. I never actually performed with Sammy Davis Jr; he died shortly after I met him. In fact, so did Frank Sinatra. I must have had a shocking effect on them!
“But I did meet Sammy Davis in the US subsequent to the first time I met him in Ireland. He was an absolutely wonderful person. He was very sociable and had a great affinity for the Irish. In fact, both of them had, because they were here performing themselves and they got a great welcome. I was part of it, so I was delighted.”
Another US entertainer with whom Brendan is friends is Starsky and Hutch star David Soul.
“David and I have been friends for almost 30 years,” he explains. “He was in Ireland making a series called The Manions Of America. I had a pub in Dublin at the time, and he came one day and we became instant friends. His then wife was with him, and they ended up calling their son – who is now 26 – Brendan.”
Grace also knew the late Charles Haughey.
“I knew Charlie and the Haughey family all my adult life. I came to know them through the helicopter business, in Ciaran’s case, although I’d known Charlie in his career. I still see Ciaran from time to time, although obviously I’m not here as much now. But I would see him occasionally at functions and so on.”
Undoubtedly, an important moment in Brendan’s career in the ’90s was his appearance on Father Ted. He played the rather menacing Father Fintan Stack, who arrived in Craggy Island parochial house following Jack’s move to a retirement home, and proceeded to get on Ted and Dougal’s nerves by chain-smoking, drilling holes in the wall and blasting out jungle music in the early hours of the morning. Brendan credits the show with introducing him to a new audience.
“It was a short spot that I did in it, but it was a really big thing for me. It has now become a cult TV series, and lots of people tell me that their favourite episode was the one I was in. I happened to play a nasty priest, and it worked, and it just caught people’s imagination. My memories of shooting it are of the week in London, and that I knew the actors in it from earlier in my career. It was fun doing it, but the character that I did was of my own creation.
“Like I say, it introduced me to a completely new audience. I still get young people coming up to me and asking me to do the various quotes from the series. And it’s fun, actually.”
Given Father Stack’s fondness for drum ‘n’ bass, the question has to be asked – is Brendan a fan of jungle music?
“I’ve never even been to the jungle!”