Give My Head Peace is a satirical television comedy series on BBC Northern Ireland that pokes fun at political parties, paramilitary groups and the sectarian divide in Northern Ireland. The programme is written by Tim McGarry, Damon Quinn and Michael McDowell, also known as "The Hole in the Wall Gang", who also perform as the characters. Episodes are recorded in front of a live studio audience at the BBC Blackstaff Studio A in Belfast.
BBC Radio Ulster is a Northern Irish national radio station owned and operated by BBC Northern Ireland, a division of the BBC. It was established on New Year's Day 1975, replacing what had been an opt-out of BBC Radio 4.
Patrick Kielty is a comedian, presenter and actor from Northern Ireland. He is the host of The Late Late Show on RTÉ One and presents a Saturday morning programme on BBC Radio 5 Live. His television credits include the BBC's Patrick Kielty Almost Live and Channel 4's Last Chance Lottery. He has also presented ITV's Love Island and This Morning.
Stewart Holden is a competitive Scrabble player from the United Kingdom. Holden is originally from Oxford but has resided near Belfast, Northern Ireland since 2008. He represented England at the World Scrabble Championship 2003, where he finished in 62nd place, and represented Northern Ireland at the World Scrabble Championship 2011 where he finished in 28th place and achieved the highest game score of the tournament (694pts).
Eamonn Holmes is a Northern Irish broadcaster and journalist. He co-presented the breakfast television show GMTV (1993–2005) for ITV, before presenting Sunrise (2005–2016) for Sky News. Holmes co-presented ITV's This Morning (2006–2021) with his wife Ruth Holmes on Fridays and during the school holidays. In January 2022, he joined GB News to present its breakfast programme alongside Isabel Webster. He has also presented How the Other Half Lives (2015–2019) and It's Not Me, It's You (2016) for Channel 5.
The Blame Game is a Northern Irish comedy panel series that has been broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster and later jointly on BBC One Northern Ireland. Starting in 2005, it is hosted by Tim McGarry. Regular panellists include comedians Colin Murphy, Neil Delamere, and, until 2020, Jake O'Kane. Former guest panellist local comedian Diona Doherty, became a regular panellist since series 19. As well as the regular three panellists, they also have a regular guest panellist. The guest panellist is usually a comedian from outside Northern Ireland who is not always as familiar with the complexities of Northern Irish politics which leads to some hilarity.
The Hole in the Wall Gang is the name of a comedy group from Northern Ireland, who came to prominence in the mid-1990s with the extremely popular satirical comedy Give My Head Peace.
Neil Delamere is an Irish comedian. He is a regular on the BBC Northern Ireland television show The Blame Game, and the reigning BBC Fighting Talk Champion of Champions.
James Peter Maxwell Dornan is an actor, model, and musician from Northern Ireland. The recipient of two Irish Film and Television Awards, he has been nominated for a BAFTA Television Award and a Golden Globe Award. In 2020, he was named one of Ireland's greatest film actors by The Irish Times.
The Lyric Theatre, or simply The Lyric, is the principal, full-time producing theatre in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Siobhan McGarry born January 1966 is a television presenter and freelance journalist from Northern Ireland.
Dry Your Eyes is a Northern Irish sketch show which aired on BBC One NI in 2006, and was created by the Hole in the Wall Gang, the makers of one of Northern Ireland's most successful shows Give My Head Peace. The show was 'written' by Damon Quinn who also produced and appeared in the series.
John McGarry, OC is a political scientist from Northern Ireland. He was born in Belfast and grew up in Ballymena, County Antrim.
Conleth Seamus Eoin Croiston Hill is a Northern Irish actor. He has performed on stage in productions in the UK, Ireland, Canada and the US. He has won two Laurence Olivier Awards and received two Tony Award nominations. He is best known for his role as Varys in the HBO series Game of Thrones (2011–2019).
Jake O’Kane is a Belfast-based stand-up comedian, and a resident compère of the Northern Ireland comedy club, "The Empire Laughs Back" at The Empire Music Hall in Belfast.
Hearts and Minds is a British political and current affairs television programme presented by Noel Thompson that was broadcast on BBC Northern Ireland. The programme was normally broadcast on Thursday nights at 19:30 on BBC Two and 23:35 on BBC One, and on Sunday afternoons on BBC Parliament. The programme featured the main Northern Irish politicians discussing the biggest event in local politics of that week. The show was broadcast from 1996 to 2012.
John Kevin McGarry was a Northern Ireland international footballer who played with Cliftonville from 1949. He played Gaelic football before being convinced to sign amateur forms with Belfast Celtic. He played a few first-team games for Celtic before signing with Cliftonville. At Solitude he was also a prolific goalscorer. He was named as the inaugural Ulster Footballer of the Year for the 1950–51 season.
Diona Doherty is a Northern Irish actress, writer and comedian from Derry. She starred in BBC Northern Ireland's Soft Border Patrol. She played a Ukrainian student in an episode of Channel 4's Derry Girls. She has been a panellist on The Blame Game, since 2021.
Stephen J. Smartt is an astrophysicist from Northern Ireland who specialises in stellar evolution, supernovae and time domain sky surveys. He is credited with the discovery of stars that explode as supernovae, measuring their mass, luminosity and the chemical elements synthesized. Smartt is a Professor of Astrophysics at the School of Mathematics and Physics at Queen's University Belfast. He is a patron of Northern Ireland Humanists.
John D. Stewart (1917-1988) was a Northern Irish poet, playwright, journalist, civil engineer, and civil rights activist. Stewart was a founding member of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, as well as a prominent humanist.
