Ardal O'Hanlon is an Irish comedian, actor, and author. He played Father Dougal McGuire in Father Ted (1995–1998), George Sunday/Thermoman in My Hero (2000–2006), and DI Jack Mooney in Death in Paradise (2017–2020). His novel The Talk of the Town was published in 1998.
Kilkenny is a city in County Kilkenny, Ireland. It is located in the South-East Region and in the province of Leinster. It is built on both banks of the River Nore. The 2022 census gave the population of Kilkenny as 27,184, the thirteenth-largest urban center in Ireland.
Richard Travis Hall is an American comedian, writer, director, actor and musician, first coming to prominence as a sketch comedian in the 1980s. He wrote and performed for a range of American networks, in series such as Fridays, Not Necessarily the News, and Saturday Night Live.
Barry Murphy is an Irish comedian whose notable appearances include a starring role in Après Match. As a member of Mr Trellis he founded The Comedy Cellar in Dublin in 1989. He mostly appears as his German alter ego Gunther Grun and was recognised as one of The 10 Kings Of Irish Comedy over the last twenty years by Hot Press. Murphy hosted the 2002 Irish Film and Television Awards (IFTA) and was himself nominated for an IFTA for Script Television for Little White Lie in 2009 and Irish Pictorial Weekly in 2014. He is the only comedian to have played at every Kilkenny Cat Laughs festival since it started in 1994.
Edward Cathal Byrne is an Irish actor and comedian. He has presented the British television shows Just for Laughs and Uncut! Best Unseen Ads, has been a guest on numerous television panel games and has appeared on a number of television cooking shows.
Neil Delamere is an Irish comedian. He is a regular on the BBC Northern Ireland television show The Blame Game, and was the BBC Fighting Talk Champion of Champions in 2022.
Colin Murphy is a Northern Irish comedian from Downpatrick, County Down, Northern Ireland. He now lives in south Belfast. He is best known for his television work hosting and co-writing The Blizzard of Odd, The Unbelievable Truth, and as resident panellist on The Blame Game for BBC Northern Ireland and The Panel for RTÉ.
A comedy festival is a celebration of comedy with many shows, venues, comedy performers and is held over a specific block of time. Normally, each festival has a diverse range of comedy themes and genres.
Bernard O'Shea is an Irish comedian from Durrow, County Laois, Ireland. He co-hosted the 2FM Breakfast Republic with Jennifer Zamparelli and Keith Walsh. He made his name on the satirical sketch TV show Republic of Telly.
Karl Spain is an Irish comedian from Limerick. He is from the Corbally area of the city and was educated at CBS Sexton Street.
The Cat Laughs Comedy Festival is a comedy festival held over the first weekend in June each year in Kilkenny, County Kilkenny, Republic of Ireland. It was founded in 1994. It has been referred to as the "Best Little Comedy Festival in the world" by The Guardian and RTE.
Dermot Whelan is an Irish comedian, television and radio presenter and wellness expert, who has worked for both Raidió Telifís Éireann and in the commercial sector. He co-presented the Dermot and Dave show on Today FM, an on-air pairing which dates from 2002, until August 2023. He left the show in 2023 to pursue solo opportunities promoting his mindfulness podcast and shows.
Deirdre O'Kane is an Irish stand-up comedian and actress.
Jack Peter Benedict Whitehall is an English comedian, actor, writer, and television personality. He is known for his roles as JP in the Channel 4 comedy-drama series Fresh Meat (2011–2016) and as Alfie Wickers in the BBC Three sitcom Bad Education also co-writing the latter and its film adaptation, The Bad Education Movie (2015).
Gearoid Farrelly is an Irish comedian. He was a finalist in So You Think You're Funny and the winner of the Bulmers Nuthin' Butt Funny Comedy Award, which earned him supporting acts with Rich Hall and Michael Winslow as part of the Bulmer's Comedy festival. In October 2008 he performed at the Cologne Comedy Festival in Germany. He made his debut at the Carlsberg Comedy Festival in Iveagh Gardens in 2008 and at The Cat Laughs Festival, Kilkenny in 2010.
Dead Cat Bounce was an Irish comedy troupe made up of Demian Fox (drums), Shane O'Brien (bass) and James Walmsley. Based in Dublin, the group performed original comedy songs in various musical styles. They wrote and starred in the mockumentary Discoverdale (2012), and wrote Apocalypse Clown (2023).
The history of Kilkenny began with an early sixth-century ecclesiastical foundation, this relates to a church built in honour of St. Canice, now St. Canice's Cathedral and was a major monastic centre from at least the eighth century. The Annals of the Four Masters recorded the first reference Cill Chainnigh in 1085. Prehistoric activity has been recorded suggesting intermittent settlement activity in the area in the Mesolithic and Bronze Age. Information on the history of Kilkenny can be found from newspapers, photographs, letters, drawings, manuscripts and archaeology. Kilkenny is documented in manuscripts from the 13th century onwards and one of the most important of these is Liber Primus Kilkenniensis.
Jack Gleeson is an Irish actor who is best known for his role as Joffrey Baratheon on the HBO television series Game of Thrones (2011–2014). Following this role, Gleeson took a hiatus from acting, but has since taken part in independent theatre and the 2020 BBC miniseries Out of Her Mind. He appeared in the Irish thriller film In the Land of Saints and Sinners.
Andrew Stanley is an Irish comedian and TV personality best known for his appearances as host of hit RTÉ 2 TV show I Dare Ya. He has also featured on Neil Delameres Just For Laughs, RTÉ's The Cafe, Podge and Rodge, Liffey Laughs and Tubridy Tonight.
The Kilkenny cats are a fabled pair of cats from County Kilkenny in Ireland, who fought each other so ferociously that only their tails remained at the end of the battle. Often the absurd implication is that they have eaten each other. In the nineteenth century the Kilkenny cats were a common simile for any conflict likely to ruin both combatants. Kilkenny cat is also used more generally for a fierce fighter or quarrelsome person. These senses are now rather dated. In the later twentieth century the motif was reclaimed by Kilkenny people as a positive symbol of tenacity and fighting spirit, and "the Cats" is the county nickname for the Kilkenny hurling team. The original story is attested from 1807 as a simple joke or Irish bull; some early versions are set elsewhere than Kilkenny. Nevertheless, theories have been offered seeking a historical basis for the story's setting.
