Fr Ted Festival planned for North Clare

DESPITE many of the iconic scenes of Father Ted being filmed there, North Clare has never capitalised on its involvement in the hit TV series.

This may be about to change as a group of business people have come together to create the Fr Ted Festival and bring ‘television tourists’ to the area. The inaugural event will be held in May and, according to organisers, has the support of Hat Trick Productions, the company that made the cult series.
Programme writers Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews were in North Clare last summer to film a documentary looking back at their time in Clare and the birth of a comedy legend. This proved the catalyst for a group of locals to look at how the county could cash in on the show’s popularity.
“When the writers were here back in August, they were amazed nothing much big had happened in the area. They were curious as to whether anything had come out of it. I said we had always spoken about having a festival and it just never actually happened,” explained John Morgan, one of the festival organisers and the man behind finding props and outdoor locations for many of the episodes.
John has joined with residents of Craggy Island Parochial House, Cheryl McCormack, her husband Pat and their children, as well as Mark Vaughan from Vaughan’s Bar, Kilfenora and Joanne Clancy from the Falls Hotel in Ennistymon to make a Clare-based Fr Ted Festival a reality.
“We want to bring tourists to North Clare,” said John. “I got on to Hat Trick Productions because they own Fr Ted and asked them if we could do a festival. I got in touch with Vaughan’s Bar. I had spoken to Mark previously and we had both said ‘we must do something’. I was there in the beginning and was one of the first people producers met when they were looking for a house to use for filming. The reason for the festival is basically to bring tourists into the area. I don’t have anything to gain from this festival but we hope to fill The Falls Hotel in Ennistymon and Vaughan’s Bar and Hostel in Kilfenora and we hope to fill many other places as well. There are a huge number of people who are fans of Fr Ted who want to see where it was filmed and to visit the sites associated with it,” John continued.
The inaugural Fr Ted Festival is taking place in Ennistymon, Kilfenora and the surrounding area over the weekend of May 13-15.
“North Clare relies on tourists. We met a few weeks ago to see if it was possible for 2012 but then we said we would go for 2011 instead, picked a date that we thought would work and went with it. We have hundreds of people up here who were extras and they want to be part of it again and have the craic. If it is a success this year, we will go all out for next year,” John told The Clare Champion.
This year, organisers are hoping that 1,000 people from Clare and around the country will attend the inaugural festival.
Already, Ted Fest takes place on Inis Mór, attracting hoards of tourists to the Aran Islands every February. That said, John believes it is not in competition with the planned Fr Ted Festival.
“The two festivals are on at different times of the year but the main difference is that all the locations are here in North Clare. The only thing that happened on the Aran Islands is that the opening sequence is of Inis Oirr. The Lovely Horse video was filmed at the Falls, you had the lovely girls competition in Vaughan’s, the roundabout from the well-known Speed 3 was in Kilfenora, the pitch and putt was in Doolin, the cave was Aillwee, the raffle was in the hall in Kilfenora, the Chinese was Vaughan’s in Kilfenora, the sports day was at the Falls, the caravan park was in Fanore and the whistle was near Fanore as well. Some street scenes were used in Ennistymon.
“It is authentic because everything is there and the tour we are giving is very good because people will be able to stop and visit the locations. We won’t do all the locations in the first year, it is too big. We want to keep this alive and keep people enjoying themselves in these difficult times,” John outlined.
The weekend will have a series of events and May 13 will see the official opening, followed by the Lovely Girls Competition in Vaughan’s Bar in Kilfenora.
There will be a number of events and activities taking place on Saturday, May 14, including the Song for Europe and bus tours. The tours will depart from the Falls Hotel in Ennistymon and will go on a journey to many of the more memorable locations used during the filming of the Father Ted series, including the parochial house for photos and cups of tea and Kilfenora for some entertainment and games.
On Saturday night, there will be the Craggy Island Raffle in the Falls Hotel. This will entail a fancy dress party, including a sit-down meal, entertainment, a raffle and awards.
May 15 is the Craggy Island Olympics. This is taking place on the grounds of the Falls and will include nun-carrying races.
A festival website www.frtedfestival.com is going live this week and further information on the festival is available from 087 2211333. The official launch of the festival takes place next Tuesday from 6.30pm in Vaughan’s Bar in Kilfenora.