Dermot Morgan - Death and Legacy

Death and Legacy

After the recording of the third series of Father Ted had been completed, Morgan intended to work on a new comedy series, based around two retired football players living in a small flat together. However, 24 hours after finishing the recording of the last episode of Father Ted—while hosting a dinner party at his south-west London home—Morgan had a heart attack. He was rushed to the hospital but died soon after in Hounslow, London.

Morgan said in a 1996 interview with Gay Byrne on The Late Late Show that his forthcoming screenplay would be called Miracle of the Magyars, and based on real-life circumstances in the 1950s when the Archbishop of Dublin forbade Catholics from attending a football match between Ireland and Yugoslavia on religious and spiritual grounds. Yugoslavia won the match 4-1. Morgan, however, planned to use Hungary as the opposing side to Ireland—hence the reason for the title.

Frank Kelly said of his acting colleague: "Dermot's mind was mercurial. I think he was a kind of comedic meteor. He burned himself out."

Morgan's Requiem Mass in St. Therese's Church in his native Mount Merrion, South Dublin, was attended by, among others, President of Ireland Mary McAleese, her predecessor, Mary Robinson, and by the leaders of Ireland's church and state—many of whom had been the victims of Morgan's humour in Scrap Saturday. His cremated remains are buried in the family plot in Deansgrange Cemetery, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, south County Dublin.