Dermot Morgan - Father Trendy and The Live Mike

Father Trendy and The Live Mike

Born in Dublin and educated at Oatlands College, Stillorgan, and University College, Dublin (U.C.D.), Morgan first came to prominence as part of the team of the highly successful RTÉ television show The Live Mike, presented by Mike Murphy. Between 1979 and 1984 Morgan, previously a full-time teacher at St. Michael's College, Ailesbury Road, played a range of comic characters, who would appear between segments, including Father Trendy, an unctuous trying-to-be-cool Catholic priest given to drawing ludicrous parallels with non-religious life in two-minute 'chats' to camera. He also played (among other characters) an intolerant GAA bigot, who would wave his hurley around aggressively while verbally attacking his pet hates. He lampooned The Wolfe Tones' song "A Nation Once Again" by singing of a dog who saves his Irish Republican Army (I.R.A.) master by eating a grenade during a search by the Black and Tans. When the dog farts and the grenade detonates, the British commented that, "It must have been something he ate." The song climaxed with the words, "I hope that I shall live to see Fido an Alsatian once again."

Morgan's success led him to quit teaching and become a full-time comedian.