From Craggy Island to Bardic Theatre

Donaghmore will be laughing those January blues away as the Bardic Theatre prepares to welcome one of Ireland’s most beloved comedians, Ardal O’Hanlon, on January 20 for a night of laughter and craic as he asks himself three simple questions… ‘Why? Why? Why?’

In an age of raging populism, angry identity politics, the end of truth, the collapsing middle ground, and peak avocado, Ardal, an otherwise gentle voice of reason, is forced to rejoin the fray.

Terrified of being on the wrong side of history, and keen to prove his age, races, gender and class don’t necessarily define him as a person, he turns to comedy; comedy, as ever, being the best, most therapeutic emergency response to extreme events there is.

The Father Ted star, who famously portrayed the role of Father Dougal Maguire in the iconic nineties sitcom will also welcome special guests, Diona Doherty and Paddy Raff, on the night.

Diona Doherty is a regular on the long-running BBC panel show, ‘The Blame Game’.

Having announced her debut comedy tour in September 2023, extra dates and more tickets were released due to phenomenal demand.

Having also successfully written a toured numerous plays on the theatre stage as well as hosting radio programmes on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Scotland, Diona is well on her way to become a household name all over Ireland and the UK.

Special guest MC on the night will be Belfast-born Paddy Raff, a man who has went from doing open-mic gigs in 2018 to beginning a record breaking five night sell-out arena run in 2020.

Since then, the Belfast funny man has won two awards for his BBC1 NI comedy sketch show, ‘The Paddy Raff Show’.

Paddy’s stand-up tours have seen him become one of the biggest selling acts on the island of Ireland, so don’t miss your opportunity to see three of Ireland’s top comedy acts on the local stage this January.

l Tickets are available via www.bardictheatre. com and at Stewart’s Music Shop in Dungannon.