Comedian and actor Ardal O'Hanlon has said that he thought his invite to meet Pope Francis in Rome earlier this year was a joke and revenge for playing Father Dougal in Father Ted.
O’Hanlon joined Tommy Tiernan and Late Late Show host Patrick Kielty, along with US comedians Jimmy Fallon, Chris Rock and Whoopi Goldberg, in Vatican City last June at a reception to celebrate comedians and humour.
Making his first Late Late Show appearance in 12 years, O’Hanlon said, "That did happen, it wasn’t a dream. It still sounds utterly implausible to me.
"It was incredibly weird and the weirdest part was the actual invitation. I got this invitation - and they spelt my name wrong - that said `you are invited to an audience with His Holiness The Pope to celebrate humour and comedians’.
"Instantly you think someone is taking the piss here. This is revenge for Father Ted and all that stand-up I’ve done about the church and I’d just done a documentary last year about the rise and fall of the priesthood in Ireland so I just thought no, there’s no way his is real.
"I ignored it, thinking it was payback but then I got a WhatsApp from Tommy Tiernan saying it was real and it was much bigger than we suspected, I heard you were going, Patrick, and Tommy was going . . . Ireland’s chat show kings. I couldn’t miss out on this!
However, O’Hanlon said that he even after he realised that the invite was indeed genuine, he still had doubts about attending the event.
"I had serious reservations about accepting the invite," he said. "I respect individual priests and I respect the Pope as a man but it’s very hard to see beyond the crimes of the institution and the abuse scandals and the cover-ups and the way women and children were treated in certain homes.
"But at the same time, I was flattered to be invited."
O’Hanlon added that he brought his parents' rosary beads to be blessed by the Pope.
"It was an absolutely joyous occasion," he said. "He said things about comedians that nobody says. The Pope said all these beautiful words. I don’t know if he’s big comedy fan and I’m not sure why we were there but it was like the lepers or thieves or something, the lowest of the low.
"Say what you like about the Pope, no one has ever spoken so glowingly about comedians and the value of comedy. It was like we were the most important people alive."
Comedian and former Great British Bake-Off host Matt Lucas also appeared on Friday’s Late Late and spoke about his small role in Gladiator 2 and also hinted that he and his Little Britain co-star David Walliams are planning to work together again.
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