Fr Jack is back for Galway Comedy Festival

In a sensational development that will have the folks of Craggy Island quaking under their wooly blankets, Fr Jack Hackett (Frank Kelly) will make his return to the public eye at the Galway Comedy Festival, details of which have just been announced.

Frank Kelly will feature as a special guest in 'The Stars of Fr Ted' – a comedy revue that will also feature Joe Rooney (Fr Damo), Patrick McDonnell (Eoin McLove) and Michael Redmond (Fr Stone) from the series that revolutionised Irish comedy. Father Jack was the star of the festival launch, which took place this week.

He’s not the only megastar lined up for the festival: Greg Proops, Phil Nichol and punk poet legend John Cooper Clarke are among an array of international attractions who will join all the heroes of Irish comedy in Galway over what promises to be a scintillating week of comedy and high jinks.

“Never in living memory has the populace been in such need of a good laugh,” a spokesman for the festival commented. “Over the October Bank Holiday we are here to provide people with the most robust antidote imaginable to these depressing recessionary times.”

“With over 50 different acts drawn from all corners of the world, performing in the funkiest carefully chosen venues, with ticket prices at pre Celtic Tiger levels, it promises to be one helluva party! Come soak up the atmosphere, catch as many shows as possible, love our city and laugh your way through the October Bank Holiday!”

This is the 4th Annual Galway Comedy Festival and this year the festival has expanded to feature over 70 comedians in a number of different venues.

What festival organizers are calling “unmissable headliners” this year include: international star of Whose Line Is It Anyway Greg Proops, Stewart Lee, Jason Byrne, Des Bishop, David Letterman’s Eddie Brill, PJ Gallagher, Neil Delamere, Colin Murphy, Andrew Maxwell, Maeve Higgins, Reginald D Hunter, Jim Jeffries, Phil Nichol, John Cooper Clarke, Nina Conti, Kevin Bridges, Al Pitcher, Carey Marx, Sarah Kendal, Karl Spain, Dead Cat Bounce, Holly Walsh, Andrew Stanley & Damian Clark, Eric Lalor, Paddy Courtney and the aforementioned The Stars of Fr Ted).